Over the hump, past the half-way mark, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, it's all downhill from here ... but not yet into the home stretch, eh?
Ebb and flow, peaks and valleys, crests and troughs, highs and lows ... such is the nature of many a long-running serials.
This round wasn't one of my favorites, although, to be fair, the pages turned quickly because the momentum was pretty good and I remained curious how each of the successive crises would be resolved. But, as the level of complexity increases, and the conspiracy merges with the ever-broadening elements of fantasy, I find myself less emotionally engaged. (Then again, I'm pretty deep into at this point....) At the same time, some of the backstories resonate (with me) more than others, as everyone (and I mean everyone) continues to evolve.
I expect different readers value different aspects of the enterprise, and ... in terms of variety ... it's hard to be critical here. But, knowing myself, I'm far more attached to the primary characters, the protagonist's inner-circle, the extended family-of-necessity, and slow to embrace the ever-expanding, wildly vacillating community of supporting cast, villains, allies, foils, friends, etc., regardless of how intriguing they may be.
Still, nothing I experienced in this volume convinced me not to buy and delve into the next.