Although the plot looked interesting, the prose is dreadful. Florid sentences with as many clauses packed in as possible: "He listened and ran his encryptions and words began to leap out at him, in that formal, antique tongue of a vanished age of wonder and plenty, and an appalling capacity for destruction".

Presumably, "ran his encryptions" is an odd way of spelling decrypted.

To be honest "finished" doesn't mean I read it all, it meant I lost patience and couldn't read any more. Fortunately, it was a used book, so cheap.