I loved and at the same time was somewhat annoyed by this book. Palmer obviously knows how to write. Parts of this book are brilliant, poetic, full of insight into human psyche. Other parts were oddly... unpleasant. I am not sure why. Actually, I think the first half of it is pretty good, the second half is somewhat lacking. Also, writers need to stop using The Tempest as the basis/inspiration for their works for a while. It just seems like it's just been done too many times.