A very strong finish to this series. I didn't love some elements of the world (specifically using characters from Arthurian legend in another context) but I think they were fully justified by the way this story was told.

The connections between this series and Lord of the Rings are clear, but Guy Gavriel Kay has different goals and methods of achieving them than Tolkien did. His characters often solve problems in unexpected ways, and they grow perceptibly with every conflict and challenge. I loved the way that the end of the story was set up in the first book and built towards consistently in both the plot and the themes of the story.

I think I still preferred "Tigana", a book this author wrote much later, but this series was great. I look forward to the upcoming TV adaptation.