I always feel bad about not finishing an undersung and much beloved title, and I feel worse here because it came recommended to me as part of a 12 Friends, 12 Books reading challenge. However, I would feel worse about leaving a lackluster rating that affected the overall average in even a marginal way.

I *need* SFF authors, even the ones given less editing and marketing help, to work on this issue of dumping us into story with little or no world-building. I get this flies in the face of conventional writing wisdom, but SFF is a unique genre that needs that work done desperately if you want your reader to understand stakes, which I really didn’t here. Too much was happening, and I wasn’t sure why or why I should care.