" I agree with many of the above reviews, both positive and negative. On the positive side, the characters are very well written. Robin Hobb's writing is vivid and engaging. But the story is, as others have said here, depressing, emotionally draining and 90% of it consists of a great and extremely slow and relentless building up of angst. I'm currently on the third-last chapter (Ch 31) and it is a real slog to get through. I'm going to need to see a shrink after this one - it is that depressing. There are very few triumphs in the story so far, and each one comes at a greater price. There is always some disaster following a victory that sinks the reader into a deeper state of despair. Every time I feel like this is it - this is as low and depressing as it can get - something worse happens. I think it will be a VERY long time before I try to take up the third book to complete the story. And then, only because I'm a bit obsessive about finishing what I've started.
To be honest, the reason I came searching for reviews was to see if there were others that shared my opinion. I can't understand why so many of the reviews are positive. "
— PK, 7/20/2016