By this point, I am invested in the series and I'll keep reading but, in this book I really felt like Uhtred has become a grumpy old guy. His men are tired of following a leader who isn't really repaid for his military power- a good 20 years of it, so that really makes one think why they would continue doing so.
His women all stay the same age, though he ages (he is always with some teenage, thin girl, who is beautiful). I guess I feel like the description of women is a little derivative. The battle scenes are epic and well done as usual. It's nicely written, I just feel this volume lacked the depth of storyline in the previous books.
I hold out hope that it will improve.