This is me giving up. I just can't seem to get into this story at all. To quote the wonderful Red Dwarf, the story is not gripping me. I'm in a state of non-grippedness. I'm completely smegging un-gripped!

It's not very often that I put a book away before finishing it, and if this had not been the first book of the series, I'd most likely have forced myself through it. As it IS the first of the series, however, I see no reason to pressure myself further when there are other books that I would much rather be reading.

I'm giving it a single star because I couldn't finish it, reserving the one star ratings for books I can't finish. In the future I might give it another go and start over, but not for a while I don't think.