In this book, finally a lot of threads came together, but I still share some of the complaints that I had about the first book: It's too damn long. Too many drawn-out conversations especially. If this was streamlined into a book of 200-400 pages less, it would have been a riveting page turner. I still read it considerably fast for a 900 page book though. 

The conclusion though, was yet again mostly a setup for book 3. Now, on to book 3, and what I hope will be the convergence of all these plotlines.