2.5 rounded to 3I enjoyed it, but I also really struggled with it. For some reason I kept picturing Stryver as one of the Fellowship of the Ring, which had the disconcerting effect of making me surprised to find myself in this story rather than that one. And the "smaller man" description was used for Blue so much, coupled with the refrain about his innocence and naivte, I started picturing him as a child...which was unfortunate when they then had sex! And the wonderful villagers who took them in reminded me of the villagers the Brady Bunch encountered when they went to Hawaii, so I was suddenly in yet another story (and my own childhood). And yet, despite these and other niggles, I kept reading it and mostly enjoyed the experience.