Ash: A Secret History

I gave up, I failed to read this. I did try, I managed about 200 pages or 1/4 of the 4 book bundle. Just didn't work for me. Surprised, the concept seems brilliant. Alternate history Joan of Arc, mercenary adventures and North Africans wielding golem magic and all.. But something didn't grab me. I think mostly I didn't like the characters, again a surprise because abstractly I should. Gender bending, strong women, wacky wry mercenaries, what's not to like? But they seemed shallow to me. And the plotting was this very linear "our hero does A and then B and then C happens to her and then she does D". I couldn't take another 600 pages of it. As always with something I didn't read, I feel like I probably failed the book somehow. But it was a relief to stop reading.