So I just recently tore through this book and I must say, it was good. I very much enjoyed the introduction to it and thought that it setup the real story very well. In my opinion it was very creative how Goldman used the literary device of being a narrator/writer in the story or however you would explain it. Though, I did feel that it made me a little disconnected from the actual story when he would start putting in his writer input. Overall I thought that the story was very good, but honestly, S. Morgnestern's original was way better. Have any of you actually been to Florin?! I think not. Jokes aside, or if you didn't get the joke, go read this book. Seriously. Here are my only problems with this book *Spoilers ahead, beware*: Ingio Montoya (The Spaniard) spent half of his life (Over 10 years.) devoted to learning how to fence. He became a friggin wizard! (Wizard being above the level of a Master, and there only being one other Wizard known in the history of the book.) And Westley had only been apprenticed by the Dread Pirate Roberts for only three years yet he bested Ingio in a duel. Inconceivable! Not sure how that makes much sense other than that Westley was being powered by love or that he's just a badass. My last problem is just that I didn't feel the ending of the book was acceptable. It just didn't seem fitting. To me, it felt as if the book ended, but it didn't. It was as if I ended this senten. <-- Like that. Enough of my rambling (gambling), what're your thoughts?
It took me until about halfway through to decide for certain that S Morgenstern wasn't a real person. I thought that element of it was particularly well done. The ending surprised me too, but seemed appropriate given the tone of the rest of the book. I think I would have found a standard fairytale ending much more disappointing.