I'm not quite sure where to go with this. The previous rating (4 stars) was accurate as to my having read it many years ago. I still would continue to rate it as that. But maybe a slightly "different" 4 stars. This was when I set it at 4 stars, to be a "not quite 5 stars" and this now is a "more than 3 stars"... 
 I had started reading this a while ago. I had been having a lot of trouble reading it. I got about 1/3 of the way through over a period of about 3 weeks of trying to read it. I wasn't feeling up to re-reading that part after having picked it up again a couple of months after having put it down (taken it back to the library). So I tried to remember where I had read to. 
 This time I started reading about chapter 10 of the book, which as best I can tell was where I had read to. And I immediately felt that I was reading a good book, that was going places that I really was hoping it was going. 
 Having read it a long time ago, I had remembered good parts of the plot. And even good parts of how the characters developed. The thing about this is... I read it now, being able to remember those things, but still enjoying it. 
 Other books I have tried to re-read only to find I just couldn't stand re-reading them. Pretty much all the "redeeming" characteristics of those books were really basic elements. The "basic" story. And on re-reading, even *that* really made me wonder how I managed to get through the series the first time. 
 Maybe when I was reading months ago, I was feeling a little bit of that. I think like many books, it had flaws, which *largely* fell around the beginning and end of the book. The "let's introduce what's going on" and the "let's make sure we wrap this up nice and neat" that I find often end up being very difficult for me to get through. 
 The *end* tends to be a little less difficult, because I am more into "let's actually just finish this". I may not feel compelled to read it on the basis of the writing, or the plot or really anything about what is going on with the book itself, but having got to the point where they are "wrapping it all up" I just feel... "might as well get this done as quickly as I can even though I'm finding this kind of boring". 
 Ah, it was indeed a good book, and indeed worth reading again. Still, it is interesting how books change over readings.