It's been a while since I finished this one, but back then it was the first novel in a long time that angered me so much I gave it away immediately after the first read. My love for the TV series is the only reason I made it through this and the second one - the difference in quality is jarring, to say the least. The novel (the first two novels, really) has nothing of import to say about its time, presents characters that are little more than two-dimensional amalgams of cheap stereotypes and clunky writing further marred by sexism, racism and a mean-spirited undercurrent of fatphobia, of all things. How the TV series managed to turn its base material into something as profound, I shall never understand.