Temporary dnf. I've been struggling to decide if I wanted to continue at this time, flip-flopping daily. It's not horrible, and I think I will enjoy the series. But the formulaic start + melodramatic/purple prose + angsty teen beginning for the protagonist is sending me into a slump.

Attempt #2 - I wanted to like this so badly, but I truly, TRULY hated it. The writing was overwrought and riddled with nonsensical word choices (at one point Had stumbles upon someone crying in a shower stall and it's described, among other things, as a "scuffling, snuffling" sound. Snuffling makes perfect sense, but unless it was a fairly active crying fit, scuffling was a bizarre choice. It may seem nitpicky but this is just one example of many). The flow of the story was unbearable as well. Things would happen to Hadrian that seemed to be setting him up for something, but then peter out to nothing. Characters would be introduced, but then die or seemingly disappear, so that in the end their impact on the plot, or on Hadrian's character arc, or on me as a reader, were nil. It was disorienting, and because nothing seemed to matter much, it was boring. I enjoy a slow pace - Robin Hobb is one of my favourite writers. But there still has to be something going on to push the story forward during the slow moments, and I didn't feel that was the case here. 

The final kicker was Hadrian himself. He's obviously modeled on characters like Paul Atreides and Kvothe, but wasn't nearly as eerie/unsettling as Paul, or as charmingly mischievous (/impulsively dumb) as Kvothe. I couldn't connect with him at all. 

I can imagine enjoying the overall plot of this series, but if I'm not enjoying the writing style or the characters, plot isn't enough to get me through these 800 page tomes. 

Least favourite quote from the book:
"I may be a lot of things, but left handed isn't one of them". 
😑