Tough to rate. This book frustrated me enough that I took a full day off from it. I loved the first two books but this one threw me off the ride partway through and I never managed to re-engage fully. Unfortunately it retroactively made the whole trilogy less enjoyable for me.

The good: the world and events are as imaginative and creative as before. The characters remain engaging on the surface. The story generally wraps up.

What I didn’t like: there’s a level of internal consistency for both plot and characters that got broken. I started to notice how plot twists would occur that would be glossed over quickly, that very competent and consistent characters would seemingly break character to move past while handling other situations much more directly. I understand suspension of disbelief and creating tension, but once I started seeing the cracks I couldn’t stop feeling that characters got railroaded for sake of moving the plot forward. This would not have been as much of a problem if I didn’t feel like the first two books were so much more consistent; though in retrospect I think the same problems did exist to some extent. The addition of some really big scifi trope contrivances on top served to jumped the shark fully, and I found myself finishing just to finish and not enjoying things very much. 

I kinda wish I had stopped after book two and moved on. My disappointment is probably much stronger for how much I loved Naira and Tarq in the previous books.