Books like Sarum: The Novel of England

Quantity not quality. I have to admit, I was more than a little surprised when I came to this book on Goodreads to leave a review and saw all the glowing reviews. I expected maybe a couple 4 stars and mostly 3 stars, but that is not what I found. I found all 4 stars and 5 stars. How can this be?I enjoyed the first chapter of this book so much that I was excited that there would be 1400 pages more of it. By Chapter 2 however, my excitement was blown out of the water. Rutherfurd's writing style has neither finesse nor elegance, both of which I had expected from a book and author that sells so many copies. This book was written in such a simplistic manner that I only got halfway through before I had to give the book away. The characters were one dimensional and without substance, and their stories were uninspiring. For a book that started so awesome it sure did flatline. I cannot remember the last time I didn't read a book all the way through. Even if I don't like a book I usually still force myself to read to the end. But I just couldn't have done that with Sarum. It was so poorly written and the short stories were becoming so boring that I found myself choosing to not pick the book up before going to sleep at night and that is just unheard of for me. I generally NEED to read for a while before I can get to sleep. I will try and finish it, 'one day', but I cannot imagine how far away 'that day' will be. Far, far, FAR away I'd say. Maybe Rutherfurd should have concentrated more on the quality of his writing and his stories instead of trying to simply write big books. This was my first Rutherfurd, and definitely my last.For those who are fussy, like me (I admit it) I don't think this book is for you.