[spoilers for book 1] 
 It took me 10 weeks to read this book. 
 I'm a slow reader and frankly, it's a slow book. These things combined to make my progress glacial. It's also really long. 
 A slow book is not a bad book. Because Hobb is building on characters whose lives have been shown to us across decades in both their existence and ours she has built a bedrock of goodwill that allows me to enjoy the story at the pace she chooses to take it. What it means though is that I am not compelled back to the page by an urgent desire to know what follows the last thrill or spill, rather I'm brought back to it by the return of my appetite for the nostalgia and melancholia that fills many of the chapters. 
 None of this is to say there isn't a strong story here. There is! Or that there isn't action. There is! Just that it is heavily leavened with the pasts and personalities of characters we know very well. And this is part of its charm. 
 As is so often the case for Fitz the story is often driven by misunderstandings that the reader can see through and missed opportunities that we yell at him to take. And of course he suffers! Always the suffering. Though it never leads him to the dark side whatever Yoda may have to say on the subject... 
 Much of the book is about waiting. We get the story from Bee's side of the equation as she is hauled off across the winter wonderland that is Buck. And her story is a lot about waiting to get where they are going. And we get the story from Fitz as he waits for news, waits for the Fool, waits to give chase, and waits to get match fit. All of this sounds dull, but Hobb has a great talent for filling "wasted" hours/days/weeks with meaningful character interaction. 
 There are very few authors who can get me to tolerate considerable detail spent on clothing, gifts, feasting and just plain organizing stuff. George RR Martin somehow manages it, and so does Robin Hobb. I guess that if you write well enough then anything goes. 
 The last section takes an odd twist and I think links into history/events from books I haven't read (the Rain Wild books?) which gave me a taste of what it might be like to read this book and its predecessor without having read the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies. Don't do that. 
 As usual Fitz puts us through the emotional wringer, and not with cheap writing tricks but in a mature way that people who have lived, loved, and seen children grow, will resonate with. There's a great power/opportunity that comes with having built characters over so many pages and so many years. Robin Hobb does not waste it! 
 Join my 3-emails-a-year newsletter #prizes 
 .