It's been ages since I last read any of this series of books, which made a return a bit rough. The previous 3 books had introduced a myriad of characters and locations, and they all made an appearance in this 4th book that felt like the end of the first plot arc of the 10-book series. In a world where humans of various different races with insect abilities live, the aggressive wasps have set out to conquer the Lowlands. After the setup of the first three books, we now have large-scale war and rebellion against the yoke of the wasps, plus plots in the capital of the wasp empire as well.

War is harsh, and so many characters we met in previous books find their end in Salute the Dark, as the conquest of the wasps ends for now.

I was a bit overwhelmed at times with the frequent PoV changes and very likely would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I had been fresh off book 3. But I wasn't, and so I struggled with feeling sympathy for some characters or actually remembering them. The end was interesting though, because now I am trying to figure out what this means for the series, and which character that was in the end there. Intrigued.

World-building is still top-notch, but I could do with a lesser scale for the rest of the series, and maybe less war. We shall see!