The characters I found wooden, and looking through another book of his his style of writing is very much the same – he writes as if he has a pole stuck up his rear end to put it bluntly.

The ‘mystery’ I found was pathetic. I do not know how it received an award for fantasy/sci-fi because it barely featured! The end wasn’t clever, it was a cop out and completely predictable. Not interesting at all.

Maybe it will make a better movie, I have yet to see it. The book however, was not as clever as people make it out to be. It is just a little story about two wooden magicians who hate each other and then as the story starts to drag the author injects some fantasy into it, as if he’s run out of real ideas.

I recommend this rather than the excreble film made from it. But, if you’ve already seen the movie, don’t bother. Half of the fun of the book is figuring out the secret, which is truly kept in this nice little novel. Unlike the film. Grr.

My husband read this first, and then wanted me to read it because it was being made into a film. My husband loved it. I thought it was ok. I thought that the characters did not have distinct voices and in general I found the writing to be average. The story in general was slow-paced. I can see how this could (and hopefully will) make a much better movie than book