The moment I saw that Neil Gaiman had given this a high rating, I put it on my reading list. But once I got several days into it, I knew there were problems. I was reading it at bedtime and it was putting me to sleep too quickly.

Maybe I'm one of those lazy readers that Neil mentions in his review, but I never quite "got" this book, other than it's written as a series of letters to and from an ex-con who starts out as a squatter and becomes the owner of a house with odd properties and odd characters hanging about.

The writing is clear, if oddly flat for such a fantastic situation (a naked woman shows up and he simply accepts the situation and takes advantage of it? real people don't do that, do they? well, maybe someone who's been in prison for three years). This may be consistent with typical letter-voice, but made the reading uninteresting. In addition, many of the the letters felt less like letters than simply first-person storytelling, which was a disappointment (unlike World War Z, which always felt like edited interviews).

Sorry to say that because I found the writing so flat and, dare I say, boring, I skipped through the book. That means I probably missed some interesting parts and clues to the puzzles to which other reviewers have referred. I suppose I was never really interested enough in the outcome to care about the puzzles as they were simply and straightforwardly described and dispatched.

Gene Wolfe has such a huge reputation that I will have to read something else he's written. I am presuming it will be better than this. ( )

Lighter than other Gene Wolfe I've read, it suffers from a somewhat dreary narrative tone. However, a few "letters" in, I found myself getting quite caught up in the story. It turned out to be a fine read. ( )

It was an interesting books with lots of things to think about. I really did not like how he wrote all the female characters and how there were some characters or events that popped up and then were never mentioned again. It is one that would probably be better on a reread, but the female characters just made it feel dated. ( )

This is an odd read - both because it's an epistolary novel, and because it's telling a very odd story. I strongly suspect it's a love it or hate it novel. I quite liked it! ( )

I was very interested to read this book as Neil Gaiman had mentioned he was reading it. As I enjoy what Mr. Gaiman writes, I hoped I would enjoy something he was reading. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

The narrative was through letters between the characters describing what had happened and the views of those not involved directly. The twists and turns the storyline took upon itself didn't add false directions but rather seemed to make the story drag on longer than it needed to. ( )