Agreed. For me, it seems that on a page by page basis, the writing was phenomenal - he can verbally paint a picture in a way that no one else can. But the whole

Agreed. For me, it seems that on a page by page basis, the writing was phenomenal - he can verbally paint a picture in a way that no one else can. But the whole Baroque Cycle seemed to lack any actual plot, as far as I could tell. I mean, stuff happened, but it wasn't stuff in the course of resolving some central tension to the story, so you had no idea what direction you were traveling in. And I just couldn't go another thousand or two pages aimlessly.