The cover is beautiful, the story is a bit of a slow start. We spend a lot of time in tangents, which I think are meant to establish the character of Ded. The story does a passable job at this, though I'm not able to see the immediate points of some of the tangents, and it doesn't feel super effective (I feel I only know Ded's personality in the most general terms). Based on the synopsis and how the book starts, I'm anticipating this to be more literary, meandering, perhaps meditative, which I'd be perfectly happy to read, but I think the first few chapters needed a stronger hook into either the characters or the plot.