This book had it's moments... and that's about it. I was really hoping to like this far more than I did. It took sooooo long to get any traction going with the character's personalities. Pretty much, they were all super boring. 
 The premise is basically the three wise men are more like three "wise guys." They're criminals. They're scoundrels who are charged by God with the task of being Mary and Joseph's and their baby's bodyguards. 
 I suppose I was hoping for more of a "O Brother, Where Art Thou" buddy adventure vibe. However, there really wasn't any of that. It took a loooong time to get to actually like Balthazar. I just felt like SGS held back in the writing in developing his personality. And personally, I like my anti-heroes to have a sense of humor and Balthazar wasn't all that entertaining. 
 King Herod made for a really good villain. He was such a disgusting, horrible creature and probably had the most personality. Pilate had a fair amount of character development. I was able to picture him and understand how he sees the world. 
 (view spoiler)[ I did enjoy the locust swarm scene and when Balthazar escaped the torture dungeon. The ending really wrapped up all the individual story lines and showed the characters fates were all intertwined. It was a nice detail to add that Balthazar was the one who burned Rome down. Gaspar and Melchoir were the other men crucified with Jesus. I liked the recurring theme of the Ibex on the hill just seeing these people walk through it's life. (hide spoiler)]