A much more enjoyable read than the first two. Having said that, I'm beginning to understand what an ex-colleague told me about this series years ago. I'd recently finished all The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, when I spotted him reading one of these, it was a well thumbed copy, so I doubt it was the first time he'd read it. He remarked that Donaldson must hate the characters, for all the demeaning and horrific things he puts them through. While there's not any rape in this book, which is nice, there is still a lot of rampant misogyny and abhorrent behaviour between the main characters. I'm expecting that to not let up much in the next two books...