Even with fewer rapes per page, the story has not been improved. One of my concerns is how nothing happens at all during the first half of the book. It could be cut or shrank by a lot and still retain significance.

The dozen different threads are joined masterfully by Week near the end (very, very near by the end). With the exception of the Solon story arch, who goes some place where he has not been for 10 years, is crowned, and gets back with a giant ruby with the sole reason of "I don't know why but I have to carry this big ruby around".

We all knew that Kylar was the main character, and the series hero, but I didn't like how his development as a character was halted in the third book. Azoth was this weak, but smart and determined boy, who through sacrifice and hard work becomes something. Then he gets a mission, learns about himself, but nothing grows from there. I wish the 3rd volume had more Kylar, and less Dorian.

Dorian... I totally bought why he became evil. Each part was compounded and made sense. But he listens to his name a few times and changes sides completely. From the evilest badass around to the only person who could save the world.

I knew the previous books were setting up the trap, but I still didn't like the simplistic view of "love saves us all". Love is a complicated thing, it has many shapes, but in this series is just something that spurts when Weeks describes as something that is happening (other reviewers have mentioned how Weeks tels us how we should feel and see, instead of showing through character's actions).

The problem is that it is actually love that saves everything. It's not Elene hosting Khali and asking Kylar to kill her, it's LOVE that kills Khali. It's LOVE that makes Vi work with Kylar, instead of Kylar's own moral alignment. Love is not in the background, it's what actually DO stuff.

Oh, and picture this: There are 5 women at some point in the story. Three of them are discarded, one of them is raped (while explicitly forbidden), and the other one is Elene. Again, for no good reason other than "It's Elene", she survives and is not raped while every other female character suffers.