It reminds me of the truism that worldbuilding will never seem as interesting to the reader as it does to the writer who's invested too much into it. By the time the story has essentially resumed in the final third, the book is nearly over. And the cliffhanger—essentially a misunderstanding to be resolved early in the next—amounts to jangling keys. There is only so far good sentences can take a book. There's got to be a better theme on the other side.