I've thought about this for a while and what was so disappointing about this book. The reviews are great, and the story if very intriguing. Honestly, Scott Lynch is an excellent writer when it comes to prose. He's not overly advanced and tedious, but definitely not juvenile. The problem comes with the way the story was constructed.

I liken the style to a speech by a great orator. Imaging you were listening to Martin Luther King, Jr. and his great speech went like this "I have a dream...but wait, I forgot to mention this happened a while back...the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners, oh yeah, there's this story about slaves and slave owners I want to mention...will be able to sit together..."

Flashbacks are hard to get right in books. Movies have the advantage of visual queuing, but in books it's hard to help the reader understand it is a flash back. And this book is full of flashback. Due to the heavy integration of characters, there is never a clear delineation of time save a chapter change. The first 2/3rd of this book is disorienting and difficult to follow. But does get much better after that.

The story it great, you have the appropriate level of empathy for those intended, excellent writing and prose, great characters, and fun twists. Just bad storytelling. And that aspect completely clouds the good in this book.