2.5 stars. This book is a really hard slog. I'm not one to shy away from complex and richly-realized fantasy worlds - in fact, I love them, those 500+ page doorstoppers - give me more! With this book, the complexity feels forced - you constantly feel like you're watching a movie midway. As soon as you've begun to grasp the plot and things start to get interesting, the author jumps to another storyline and adds even more characters. 
 I have real issues with the 'Dark' characters. One moment, we're introduced to Lord XYZ, heralded as the Destroyer of Worlds etc etc - BUT WAIT - who/what's that on the horizon - another Evil character or creature, this one more eeeevil than the last one, until you get Evil Overlord / Creature fatigue and none of them end up being remotely frightening or foreboding. 2.5 stars, because underneath all the confusion, I could sense a good story trying to get out.