Sometimes authors give writing a great story everything they got. Sometimes that takes a backseat to an agenda. I think the writer is talented and I think the story had potential but I can’t get through it. I’m just not interested in the characters. I think the author was probably guided to force diversity into the story and it just did not work. I don’t mean racial diversity BTW, I mean cultural diversity. We’re talking ghettos, gangsters, and Carthians here. The characters don’t hold my interest and half way through the book, I just give up. I make no apologies for not being genuinely interested in the story. That’s not a choice, it’s a reality. The first book in the series was great. Rather than take the first book further, this story tries to take the setting in a new direction … without me.