CoS: Stone Motherless Last?

[blibbering_humdinger]

Ron:
Hi, everyone. I'm new to the group and was thus a little behind 
the times before I decided to do some "background reading" regarding 
past threads (don't want to rehash ideas long ago consigned to the 
murky depths of T-Bay).
I got the impression that many people consider, unequivocally, 
CoS to be the worst, or least good, of the HP installments. Why is 
that so, exactly? For me, personally, I'd put it up there with PoA 
as the *best* book in the series. (Wooden spoon goes to GoF)

Just a query.
 
Ronald.