So, this was it, the end of the Shadowmarch books. While I still love Tad Williams dearly and find he is a tremendous writer, I ultimately find the series of four books contains flaws that diminish the pleasure.

Above all, it is a story on an epic scale with a fantastic theme. It's an interesting look at world religions, really, and it's probably easy to see similarities between some of our modern religions. The story of the world's Godwars is almost the same for Trigon believers, Xixians and Qar, and yet the details differ. It's a story about terrifying gods and the wrongs they have done each other. That part I loved and really enjoyed how this story built in books 2 and 3.

Shadowheart is a satisfying conclusion. In fact, it has over 100 pages of after the big event closure for every single storyline, and there were a lot of those. I just wish that to get to this conclusion, we did not have to suffer through so much redundancy.

A weakness I felt keenly was that the underground battles with Ferras Vansen were just happening too often. They left me with no impact by the end. I wasn't even able to shed a tear when Calomel and Jesper Sledge died. Too many battle scenes left me numb and bored with it.

The more I read Shadowheart, the more I was annoyed that some parts of Shadowrise were absolutely unnecessary. What was the point of Briony staying at Syan's court? I love me some court intrigue and politics, and I loved this part, but ultimately, when you look at the overall series, it didn't do anything for it at all. Sure, I guess you have to explain Briony's character growth, but this part and many others of the series could have done with more editing. I love that Tad Williams is such a verbose author, but this was a bit too much.

In retrospect, I have the same issue with the Greatdeeps parts from book 2. What was the ultimate point, other than character growth for Barrick? It could have been much shorter and would still have been good.

I realize I sound unhappy, and yet I am still saying that this is a four stars book. It is, because Tad Williams writes beautifully, and the overall story is fantastic and moving. It could just have been 500 pages or more shorter and would have been a more satisfying experience.

For now I will say that Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and Otherlands both are better series. And yet, I will continue buying everything he'll ever write.