See, I'm still in the first third, and I'm already hooked. I thought the first chapter of each character strand was enough to grab me, as all the characters were drawn in an interesting way wanting me to keep reading. If anything, Archeth is the one I'm least interested in at the moment - Egar's first couple of chapters were great, and I almost don't want him to leave the mountains and meet the other characters, although I know he obviously will.