I’m going to go relisten to book 1. There’s no way it was this bad. Massive diatribes. Deep character development on characters seen once. Painful story progression. Preachiness and apologetic book tone. It’s like the author tried to stretch a 5 minute plot into a 10 hour book with insanely detailed, irrelevant observations. “The apple was red. Not red red, but a natural red flecked with a multitude of other colors that, to the casual observer would be dismissed as being red, but to a trained and artistic eye, bestowed the apple with a score of hues and pigments, blending together organically into a single, coherent, magnificent piece of art. Chet took a bite out of the apple and continued to work on carving the wall. The stone was difficult to work with, its attributes making it exceedingly difficult not only on the craftsman, but also on his tools. His chisel, normally easily able to assist him for hours on end without resharpening, blunted in just under an hour to the point of unusability. Suddenly, there was shouting in the distance…” Jfc dude. I tried. I really, REALLY tried, but I just can’t.