Reviews and Comments

I really don't like saying this but if this was the first book in the trilogy, I would have read a hundred pages, put it down, and then never read another word by Robin Hobb. But the first book in the trilogy was good almost great, the second started the real downward spiral, and this third made getting ever worse into an art form. Boring fluff and endless repetition made me frustrated that I felt I needed to finish it. You could easily skip three out of four chapters of this book, and never feel you've missed anything. I wanted to give it 2 stars but that would have been a judgment on the series as a whole, as a single book this barely deserves 1 star.

This book tells you why you should, unless you want to end up like Billy Liar. Then again fictional liars are always entertaining, and so is this one. So, the lesson I guess is don't lie in real life, but it takes an excellent liar to make good fiction.

I've always claimed you shouldn't let a little thing like the truth ruin a good story. This book tells you why you should, unless you want to end up like Billy Liar. Then again fictional liars are always entertaining, and so is this one. So, the lesson I guess is don't lie in real life, but it takes an excellent liar to make good fiction.

I wish this book only made a lot of good points, but it also makes a lot of bad points. However the so called advice, like any self-help book, is mostly useless. Something anyone with some sense can figure out for themselves. A more apt title could have been "Why should you be free?" But even then it doesn't clearly make the argument for why... 3/5 stars.

I wish this book would only makes a lot of good points like, but it also makes a lot of bad points. However the so called advice, like any self-help book, is mostly useless. Something anyone with some sense can figure out for themselves. A more apt title could have been "Why should you be free?" But even then it doesn't clearly make the argument for why... 3/5 stars

A while ago I found the frist of this duology in a local thrift store and liked it, so when I found the second in the same store I grabbed it before anyone else could get their grubby hands on it ;P It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that over a century ago Jerome K. Jerome hated going places and doing things enough to satirize in not one but two books!

I said of the first book, I do think it could be 10% better if it was 10% shorter. Unfortunately this one take that even furhter. Now at least every third paragraph feels like it's just repetition that adds nothing. So it could easily be 40% shorter and might be 50% better for it, I'll still give it 3 stars but it's close to a 2.

Near the end at the part with the priest, I wonder if the point is to illustrate that choosing religion is to choose death over life? As in choosing to say that the end of your life is more important than how you live your life?