Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought the first three of this Donaldson series because I was looking for some good fiction and like high fantasy. I read the first few reviews of this book on Amazon and was sold. I wish I'd seriously considered the later negative reviews. It's been my experience that when a reviewer leaves a negative summary about a book other Amazon members like, then those other Amazon members tend to attribute an "unhelpful" vote for the review. Even if the review is spot on with flawless arguments and a well-opinioned summary. I should have remembered that when I read the reviews for this book. I gave the more positive reviews more weight because they had more "helpful" votes. Or maybe I just like to believe the best about a book before reading it. Shame on me. Learn from my mistake. I admit I didn't read the entire thing. I was slogging through it against my better intuition. I even made it past the rape scene, which really made me despise the main character as well as cement my distaste for the book. I get that the author was trying to draw out the anti-hero theme, really. But it was just too much for me. If there isn't anything to relate to in a character, then why follow what he/she is working toward? Overall, I found the book just, well, tedious. It was annoying to hear the main character constantly wail about his predicament and his sniveling "oh poor me" take on the rest of the world. The poison in his thoughts and deeds was over-the-top annoying. There was no joy in reading this book for me at all and isn't that one of the aims of reading fiction? Since I couldn't end the damned thing fast enough, I simply put it down mid-way through. It was a sorry waste of money for me. Unless you enjoy gratuitous self-pity and a misogynistic read, avoid this one.