An outstanding book - better than both City and War - and the end to one of the most imaginative, refreshing and gripping series I've ever read. As someone who advocates for brevity, it's not lightly that I say I'd happily read hundreds of pages more set in this world, or another novel entirely (Fonda Lee please).

The way its many, many plot threads are handled and intertwine with one another is masterful, filling in the world and its characters and leaving no stone unturned across its expansive timeline while avoiding becoming a hard-to-follow salad of disparate threads.

It doesn't hold back on the emotional punches like its predecessors either, I had to look up from the page at several chapters' end just to contemplate the impact of what had just happened.

It's smart in many ways. When the characters' interiorities are explored they're fully justified within the novel and materialized through their actions, action scenes are described with dynamism, the complexity of the characters' actions ambitiously choreographed yet crystal clear on the page like I'm watching a great Wuxia film, the world-building is immaculate with not one location feeling like I couldn't visit it if I wanted, the references to actual history (I'm a fan of the "Three Crowns" period references throughout the book) and geopolitics are deployed to both color the world and directly influence it throughout the novel in a way that feels like the Kaul family are truly attempting to wield power in a world that's much bigger than them...

I'll miss Janloon and the Kaul family and everything about these books. Absolute gold, this novel can have all the Goodreads stars it wants.