I love the characters. I love the way the battle of light and dark is portrayed. It's a view not often seen. Well, the view earlier in the book is pretty common, but not the end. I'm sad to see some characters experiencing painful things, but that happens. We can't all come through hard times unscathed.
What don't I love? It got preachy. Not so awful I couldn't read it, but it was annoying. The flow of the earlier books, the beauty of the characters, got buried under words. Maybe this series needed to be longer to give the concepts the attention they deserved.
Story-wise, there were several cuts that felt like a chapter or two got deleted, especially the last fights. I'm glad it isn't a trilogy of times of nothing but light vs. dark battles, but it was so abrupt, 17 years summed up in a few pages. The bleakness of the situation came through, but it just felt jerky, like a wild mouse rollercoaster.
As far as proofing goes, it got sent out into the world with shoes untied, odd socks. and its shirt unbuttoned.
I'll read more books by this author. The other 2 series were way good enough to ensure that. And this series is pretty good, especially the first book. It's just not as good.