A pleasant coda to the trilogy. This is in some ways the most successful book of the series. The scene switches back to Australica but picks up chronologically right where The Miocene Arrow left off. The novel is smaller in terms of the main events. There are no wars and there is only a drop of the humanity-is-doomed feeling. This smaller stage allows McMullen to focus on what is probably his best exploration of characters yet. A densely tangled web of new characters and new machinations is the focus but there are a few significant appearances by people you’ll remember from the pervious books (and one very surprising re-appearance). The story of the intertwined lives of Martyne, Velesti and Samondel is the most realistic yet of McMullen’s efforts. It is a very satisfying story of people interacting. There are a few points where I question his use of characters form the previous volume. McMullen is a literary nihilist. That is to say nothing from the previous novels is sacred. He throws previous characterizations of central characters out the window. Whether this is simply for the sake of convenience or is an effort to present the same people from another point of view is unclear. Mostly those few characters that receive this kind treatment read as different characters with the same names. I can accept all these changes though, because the progress of the central story is so well crafted. If you loved the heroes of Mounthaven more than cake, you might want to leave it at a duology, but if you are ready for more Libris and more Avids this book is pretty much a must. You can read set of very thorough reviews of the Greatwinter Trilogy (with a slightly different opinion) here.
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