Was really glad this 2nd book didn't start off with 8 hours of boring infodumps and mundane activities around the castle, but Mr. Williams still managed to write a story with twice the words needed. Luckily when the story was actually moving it was great. For me this could have gotten 5 stars from me if it did either of these things. 1) Cut the book length by 30-40% by leaving out the repetitive infodumps, cutting really long scenes in half, especially the long conversations, and dropping at least half of the parts where Simon is beating himself up for being a loser. OR 2) Replaced those parts mentioned above with things actually happening. Seriously I think if I was reading these books in dead tree format, I would have given up somewhere around 150 pages in. I don't regret spending the time reading it because I was doing other things like driving or gardening, but I'm much more stingy with my actual sit-down-and-do-only-one-thing time.

Book #11 (2026)

Review in pic and alt-text

#StoneOfFarwell #TadWilliams #fantasy #bookskyfantasy