Too Long, Too Convoluted, Not Engaging Tad Williams is often compared to Tolkien, and George R. R. Martin has praised The Dragonbone Chair quite enthusiastically. I can see why the comparison is made – and as someone who genuinely loves fantasy, I went into this book with high expectations. Unfortunately, I just don’t understand the hype. My biggest problem is the sheer length. More than 900 pages, and yet it constantly feels as though the story is struggling to justify all of them. There are far too many characters, names and places to keep track of. And this doesn’t really stop at any point: whether you are on page 70 or page 700, Williams can still introduce yet another character, even if that character is nothing more than a minor servant who has little or no relevance to the actual story. Even more frustratingly, there are countless scenes that seem completely unnecessary to me. They don’t really add anything to the plot, develop the characters in a meaningful way, or lead anywhere particularly interesting. They simply seem to take up space – perhaps helping to explain how this book ended up being over 900 pages long. I keep wondering whether the problem is that there are too many storylines or too many different settings. But actually, I don’t think that’s it. There are plenty of potentially interesting elements here. Williams simply doesn’t manage to make most of them compelling enough for me to care about them. The characters are another weak point for me. Simon, the protagonist, is not inherently uninteresting, but I never felt particularly close to him or invested in his development. His journey is clearly meant to be the emotional centre of the story, yet much of it feels passive and drawn out rather than genuinely engaging. The supporting cast is large, but quantity does not translate into depth. Many characters remain difficult to distinguish from one another, while others appear briefly without leaving much of an impression. The pacing also suffers badly from this lack of focus. The book takes a long time to get moving, and even once the main conflict becomes clearer, the story repeatedly loses momentum. There are moments that hint at a much more exciting novel – ancient powers, political tensions, mysterious creatures and a world on the brink of change – but they are buried beneath so much exposition and wandering that the overall effect is surprisingly dull. What makes this particularly frustrating is that I actually love complex, sprawling fantasy. Tolkien created an incredibly rich and detailed world, filled it with history, languages, cultures and memorable characters, and still managed to tell a gripping story in a fraction of the page count. That, to me, is what great fantasy looks like: complexity without unnecessary bloat, a richly imagined world without losing sight of the story. The Dragonbone Chair has many of the ingredients, but for me, Williams simply doesn’t manage to turn all that detail into an equally compelling reading experience. Unfortunately, I already bought the rest of the series. So yes, I will be reading the other books. But I can’t say I’m looking forward to them with much enthusiasm.