I was quite satisfied with the ending. But getting to it was a lot of work. This book and its predecessor seem to just start so incredibly slowly, I find it incredibly difficult to motivate myself to get going. Kay details background for so many minor characters that only appear once in the story, and never again. I would have greatly preferred to simply see more of characters like Kasia, Carullus, Vargos and Shirin. I also always enjoyed reading about the Emperor and Alixana. And I found Styliane fascinating and tragic. Scortius, also, was rather entertaining. Another tendency of this author is to not tell the reader what's going on, even though the character we're reading about knows about it. This tactic of creating suspense is tiresome. It feels like cheating to me.
I was unsure how I felt about Rustem, who was a major character introduced in this book. It bothered me, reading about a character with multiple wives, even though I understood it was his culture, but such patriarchal systems bother me a great deal. It was when he was in Sarantium and instructed a servant to stay and warm his bed that I almost threw up, and from then on, felt revulsion every time I had to read about him. I hate reading about rapists whom I'm supposed to like. Offputting doesn't begin to cover it.
As I said, I was still satisfied with the ending for Crispin. I wish I could've seen more of Shirin and Scortius at the end.
