As I say, I preferred Book 1 to the other two. I think if you find the plot overwritten and the characters uninteresting, Book 2 will exacerbate that. Book 1 served as a decent exposition for a plot -- a foundation -- but as I said in my original post, the plot winds up assuming a very bland focus in the sequels. For me it was less an issue of a slow pace and more that it was completely meandering. It went from scene to scene and event to event but there was no implication that it had any real destination in mind. By Book 3 I was skipping entire passages of filler. Can't really comment on Murakami's other work and I too stopped ASOIAF after the first book. I've had that enormous series taunting me from my shelves for maybe two years now and it's still not over.