2.5/5.
Very slow in the first 100pp compared to the other installments - feels like a second first book in the series, but without the worldbuilding depth or payoff of other fully-orbed second first books, like 'Memories of Ice' (Malazan 5). By the halfway mark, after the defeat of Moravec, the book takes on a more traditionally Goodkindian character of quality.
Downgraded a star because it's fiction. I normally read and review nonfiction, and in nonfiction, a strong ending can make up for weakness throughout the main text. In fiction, the journey is supposed to be enthralling, which is the entire point of nondidactic fiction. This one was not. However, I just gave a flat 2 stars to the equally-boring but more nonsensical and completely politically abhorrent 'Freeze-Frame Revolution', and this one isn't quite as bad - but it's not as imaginative or evocative, either.
Hopefully the longeurs are edited out of the final Children of D'Hara novel.