It also reminds me of Jordan’s Wheel of time series. I loved the first books, but then his books split into so many points of view, after a while it felt like each book only advanced each point of view a small amount (if at all) and then the book was over! Even though I had just read 700+ pages, I felt the plot had barely advanced.

I remember scanning through the book to find the next sequence with the characters I liked the most.

A couple of other points that I thought you got right.

1) the level of politics. If the politics and the scheming dominate too much, I personally lose interest. I thought
STRAIGHTS hit a good balance for my taste.

2) Who lives and who dies in the story. As you said, it’s a world in flux so it makes sense not everyone
survives, but which ones? Sometimes, if the wrong character perishes, it can seriously harm the story. I also thought STRAIGHTS hit a good balance for this as well.

This was a big reason why I stuck to 3 POVs in the first two books. I did jump to 4 POVs in Book 3, but that felt necessary to tell another aspect of the story. But several dozen POVs? I was actually ok with like twelve or so POVs, but somewhere between the first and second dozen, I lost interest. That isn’t to say that I don’t care about the Starks and Tyrion. I do. I just want more of them without all of the noise.

Personally, I enjoyed STRAITS a lot more than I enjoyed G. R.r. Martin’s “Game of thrones.”

As Pat said: “Two thumbs way, way up! Do yourself a favor and give Beaulieu’s series a shot. You’ll thank me. . .”

Cheers,

Ryan

now I am *really* worried about character R. , LOL.

Glad to hear people are liking Straits. My copy Straits just arrived in the mail so I started it last night.
A nice way to start the second novel.