While I didn't care so much for the violence, I thoroughly enjoyed the novels. I thought they had a comparatively unusual plot and unusual characters. They are definitely much better written than, say, Dan Brown novels.<p>Funny to see the the NYT complain about 12 page long boring descriptions. Surely any regular reader of the NYT should have no problems to cope with those.<p>Also that article just quotes things out of context to make them sound silly.