Unfortunately not as great as the preceding books. The magic felt...forced, or faked. The ending felt almost stolen from us as readers.

And on top of that, I've decided that I don't buy the shamer's universe, as a profoundly Catholic morality. People are good, in this universe, because they feel shame. Whereas I'm fairly certain that people can be good for a number of reasons, all of them in order to do soemthing-- love others, better the world, etc -- not in order to avoid shame. Shame avoidance is a last-resort sort of morality, certainly nothing to strive for.

I would still recommend this quartet to avid fantasy readers, because the magic is really quite different from other worlds and that can be very fun, but it won't be my go-to.