I don't know what it is about this series, but the second and third books have really been just travelling, travelling, travelling, with no real advancement of the plot. The first book was spectacular but now it seems that Williams is content with showing the reader how cool each simulated world is rather than injecting any kind of mystery, intrigue, or hey - an actual story. Really disappointing as Tad Williams is one of my favorite fantasy authors. At this point I'm not even sure that I want to read the final volume.