I'll be honest. I only read 300 pages of this book. When, after 300 pages, I was still completely uninvested in the characters or story, I walked away. It takes a whole lot for me to give up on a book. If I start it, I generally intend to finish it. This book is one of only three I have ever begun and stopped halfway through (that I haven't eventually gone back to finish). The other two are Great Expectations and Moby Dick. 
 I started this book because my fiance, the ultimate epic fantasy lover, demanded that I do so if I enjoyed Brooks's The Word & The Void trilogy. I did enjoy all three of those books immensely. The characters were full and lovable, the prose was compelling and action-packed. So when I started this book, I expected more of the same. 
 NO. This is the same formula as most epic fantasy: Regular guy discovers he has epic destiny. Mysterious man who knows everything comes to help him. Guy takes a stocky sidekick on a quest to save the world, and he's the ONLY ONE who can do it. *yawn* I was so bored I literally would read three pages and fall asleep. This is why I never read epic fantasy. 
 So, I broke down and read a synopsis just to know how it ends. I was not surprised at all. It ended exactly how I expected it to from the first page. Exactly the same way every other epic fantasy ends. Oh, sorry, was that a spoiler?! 
 I know that the book is classic among fantasy fans. To each his own, I always say. The main reason for this is the major redeeming feature of the story: it actually takes place in the future of the real world, not in the past or in an alternate world like most fantasy. After some horrible event causes modern man to fall into wars and disarray, men evolve into different races: Men, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Trolls. Elves have been here all along in hiding, but came out after the apocalypse. This tiny unique aspect is the ONLY reason it got a 1 and not a 0. 
 As for the writing, I literally stopped to count on one page to see how bad it was. I counted 12 adverbs and 10 verbs. 3 of those verbs were used passively. I wanted to pull my hair out. It was downright painful. 
 I'm not sure if the body snatchers got Terry Brooks before he wrote his other books or if he just improved that drastically, but this book was a far, far cry from the quality I have seen in his later work. I would not recommend it. 
 I still love Brooks, though, because today he is one of the greatest fantasy writers of all time!