Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Skillfully written and ultimately pointless

SPOILER WARNING. I was very disappointed by this book. Not because of how it does or doesn't relate to Tolkien (I don't care), but on its own merits. It's skillfully written, but the emotion foremost in my heart at the end was: so what? There is almost no evolution of the main characters, which is a capital sin of storytelling, and what evolution does happen matters little, as Carey kills almost everyone off at the end. I love (and most highly recommend) Carey's other works, but I found this book (and its predecessor) a well-wrought, colossal waste of time.