The Priory of the Orange Tree

My first DNF.

What an utter disappointment this book's been. I cannot for the love of me understand how could anyone compare this to Lord of the Rings. The Priory of the Orange Tree just vomits names and characters and POVs at the you and expects you to remember everything. There is no main character, there are dozen and a half plot-lines without any distinction as what is important and what's secondary.

Labeling chapters as a cardinal direction was the stupidest choice I've ever seen. The approach of “Chapter 1” or named chapters is fine. A Song of Ice and Fire's approach of naming chapters after the POV character would be fantastic here as the sheer amount of characters you go through is staggering at times.

I've had easier time reading DUNE, the Silmarillion, or any literary classic. Joyce's Ulysses would probably keep me entertained better than this. Not that I hate it but it's presented terribly. The writing is weird, the characters are not memorable what so ever besides a few of them but by virtue of the multiple scattered POVs it's impossible to root for any of them (Except Sulyard who is killed "off-screen" WHAT THE HELL?

I've gone through some 400 pages of this and I can't stomach another 400. Nope! I'm sorry but not only this is nowhere near Lord of the Rings, this is plain sub-par run of the mill fantasy.