[Tobytwo]

I enjoyed this series very much - even though I took about 10 years to read it. I liked the way Williams took established fantasy stereotypes (elves, wizards, druids, dwarves etc) and did new things with them and made them his. The book had a sense of solidity that I feel a lot of fantasy lacks. The writing was consistently good, I felt.

However, I think there are a few flaws. I agree with earlier posts that when the characters get lost somewhere - Simon especially - they seem to spend pages just wandering, without purpose. I also felt that Camaris, the knight, was something of a cardboard cutout.

However my main problem was the twist at the end, which I turned Simon into the hero of a much more cliched kind of fantasy novel. I won't give anything away, but I felt that it resolved far too many interesting plot issues in one fell swoop.

That said, they are great novels, and well worth the time you can spend reading them. Very good stuff overall!