A surprisingly good book. After the first couple of chapters, I kept grimly on because this was research and I was going to learn why people thought this was one of the best fantasy series ever, dammit. However, in the humor, the insightful asides, the rejection of false prettiness, there was real weight. 
 (view spoiler)[In the end, the reason I gave this 4 stars and not 5 was the character arc. I wanted the sum up to show something learned and something lost, and I didn't really feel that it did. I didn't see a changed sense of purpose - why it was important to win the Game. I didn't see any reflection on how Jorg had become worse than the man who destroyed his mother and William, or what that meant to him. I genuinely liked that he stayed true to the knowledge he'd gained in the face of meeting Katherine, but ... the last chapter didn't do much for me. (hide spoiler)]