This book was among my earliest fantasy reads as a kid, and I remember really enjoying it when I was something like 12 or 13. I can't remember what exactly made it enjoyable; most likely it was because at that point, the very idea felt novel and not too predictable.

By this point, though... Well. Sometimes re-reads help us recapture that feeling of being a kid discovering something new and amazing. Other times, they're meh. This was an example of the latter for me. The story felt slow to start, many of the characters were pretty two-dimensional, and the central idea of applying lawyer skills and zeal to running a fantasy kingdom got a pretty shallow treatment. The plot was predictable, and I kept needing to remind myself that back when the book was written, Dungeons & Dragons had only existed for like 12 years and there had probably been fewer adventures with the exact same twists played around the tables world-wide. :D (Although, of course, then I remember some of the published D&D adventures from the 80s that I've looked through or even played at a later note with later additions, and I'm becoming less certain of my earlier statement.) 

Oh, and the weirdest part: even though the character was I believe forty years old, huge parts of the book read like middle grade.

I think I'll avoid going deeper down the nostalgia hole with the rest of this series.