While certainly containing more of Kay’s illustrious worldbuilding - this one definitely suffered from middle-book syndrome 

The stakes never seemed as high, and many threads were either cut very short or purposefully left hanging - which doesn’t leave a very satisfying feeling 

Also, while thankfully not graphic, the second half of the book was weirdly and needlessly sexual - it either came out of nowhere, which was jarring, or had it awkwardly built into the worldbuilding which was just super weird