I've never had a problem with long books, nor with detailed books. I absolutely love to read, and the size of this book did not deter me from wanting to read it. As soon as I actually started, however, my opinion started dropping pretty quickly. I like William's description and character development; Briony, for example, is very easy to sympathize with, as is Barrick. But there is just too much going on with the plot; there are too many subplots and characters and it is quite hard to follow what is going on. The detail would have been fine if not for this flaw; but the addition of so many new characters every chapter made it tedious. I felt bogged down with so much detail and so much new information coming in at once; it felt more like an assignment than a book one would read for pleasure. I fought through the book for a few more chapters, but I was unable to read on when the combination of an overly-detailed plot, uncomfortably ornate descriptions and unbelievably tiny font gave me such a big headache that I was forced to stop reading. The thought of picking this book back up is extremely unappealing. Again, the detail would have been a huge plus in a book that was around 300 pages, but for a 625-page book, it was way too much. I don't think the author achieved his purpose because the book was extremely boring to me and the writing would have been a lot more effective if there was just less of it. I'd recommend this book to hard-core fantasy fans or to people with lots of time on their hands and a magnifying glass handy, as well as a character web ready to fill out in order to keep all of these characters straight. All in all, definitely not the next Harry Potter or LOTR.