Well, after wrapping up this last tale of the Fallen, I must say that I have mixed feelings.

For the most part, R. Nicholson (previous reviewer) took the words right out of my mouth.

I have yet to discover another fantasy author who quite captured me so thoroughly and kept me so enthralled for so many years. Such a beautifully powerful tale, inspiring so many moments of deep thought and reflection... I'm grateful to have happened upon the Gardens of the Moon by random chance.

However, I must say that the series - especially this last book - had its flaws.

I am certainly, by no means, a novice with difficult reads. I've thoroughly consumed Neal Stephenson, and countless other great writers. Nonetheless, There were many moments that I simply felt lost in the countless spaghetti stranded plot strings, desperately trying to recall what had happened to lead to this, or that. I'd often find myself struggling to pull the meaning of a characters brief interior dialogue, or trying to discern the end result of it. There were many moments of frustration that I simply plowed along through, driven by my history with and overall love for the series.

I was rather disappointed to find that, unlike any previous edition of the series, there were far too many moments within that I simply found myself unable to empathize with the sentiments of the characters. I felt that there was an overabundance of "breaking into a sob" or "lines of tears running down bleak faces" which simply felt hollow. I simply couldn't feel the moments of near weeping that the characters experienced when dealing with the Adjunct. This, and primarily this, was a major anchor to the tale for me. While in other books of the series, there was ample bleakness and a sense of despair, it never felt forced upon the reader, or contrived. In this book, I felt like Erikson was trying too hard to evoke a sense of bleary hopelessness, and the end result was the "law of diminishing returns" rearing its ugly head.

Alas, I digress.

I wish that Erikson could have woven the narrative in a slightly more coherent manner, one that at times did not feel like intruding on a personal stirring of memories that I couldn't hope to fully grasp. However, all things considered, the majority of the series was simply blissful to take in, and for that I am grateful.

This was certainly not my favorite book of the series. It is against the series that I apply my rating of 3 stars. Overall, I was glad to see the series to an end... but looking forward, in earnest, to future works by this brilliant writer.