I was thinking about what I wrote about The Moon and the Sun yesterday, and the fairness of writing anything about a book that I haven't finished yet. In fact, this is exactly why I almost always finish a book I start, even if I can't stand it.
Some books are pretty consistent from start to finish.
Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates , for instance. Okay, it dragged just a little in the middle, but overall it was a page-turner all the way through. On the other hand, his novel Last Call started kind of slow, was excellent in the middle, but a bit disappointing at the end. On the other hand, the first of the six books in Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings is very slow, and I was unable to get through it until I became an adult. The story doesn't really get moving until after the Fellowship leaves Rivendell in book two.