I know beggars can't be choosers, but I can't help it...
This book has a lot of my 5 star tags but Kinsale just didn't seem to know what to do with them. I liked the deaf-mountain-man-hermit thing and the emotionally-unstable thing but these were so inconsistent that it wasn't even entertaining. The leading man would go from a gimpy puss to Zoro in a split second; I would have rathered he stay the gimpy puss, he was likable then.
Also, just as a PS, this is one of those travel books where the whole time is spent trying to get to 'that place' or to find 'that person.' I have no patients for that theme. I think every book, no matter the era it's set in, should have Star Trek technology where everyone just beams to where they want to be.