This is more of a 3.5 than a 3. I don't really like books in this genre, to begin with, so I have nothing to compare this to. But it's actually pretty good. It hooked me up from the very first chapter. Jaime's arc was my favorite. My only reservation is that all the perfect characters have tragic endings. They either end up dead *cough*Jaime*cough*David*cough*Banda or insane *cough*Tony*cough*. I suppose that's an unfair ridicule since Sheldon was showing us the brutal price of wealth and power. But all in all, it was surprisingly good. I'd like to read more of his novels.