content: I've been reading S.K. since 1980: I'm pretty well acquainted with his writing. Sooo. . .This book is really, really bad. The story is SO absurd (WHERE the creatures came from had to be the lowest and most perverse idea S.K. had ever had); I hated every character (wanted them ALL to die after the first few chapters)and the story itself was plodding (it took the characters about a thousand pages to travel from Point A to Point B).This was a book written just to get something new on the shelves.I was very disappointed. I can see the book on my shelf with the bookmark about fifty pages from the end; can't bring myself to finish it.I'm warning everyone away from this one.