I like Bast, too! The inn sequences definitely got better once the story started and Bast actually got screentime. :) And I can see where the pre-story inn sequences were necessary to set up anything he might be going to do with the "present" of the story; but I felt he set up an expectation with only a very small payoff, so I'm really hoping there's a bigger payoff down the road. Yay better sequences in the second book!

Lol, the third one is probably going to be super humongous, instead of just humongous.

Aw, thank you! Mine's a Nook, though. I thiiiink I can get my computer to read Kindle -- I have Calibre -- but I already have it on order from the library, and it won't kill me to wait another day or two. It should be in early this week -- there's five copies free in the system, it's just that none of them were at my library, and I only just ordered it, since I finished Name of the Wind on like Wednesday or Thursday last week. Honestly it could be in as early as sometime this afternoon -- it never actually takes as long as they say to wait.