I had heard such wonderful things about Robin Hobb so at the bookstore I picked this up on a whim. After three chapters, I exchanged it for The Dragon Keeper.
It seemed horribly repetetive and unnecessarily verbose for the simplicity of the story. I was very disappointed.
It did have some clever points and a few bits that made me laugh, and I was a bit intrigued about the story, but it wasn't very captivating.
In the end, I rarely put down a book permanently once I pick it up, but the bad quality of the prose coupled with the slow story was enough to put me off permanently.
