I'm glad this is the last of the series. I liked the first two volumes but this one, like the third, was getting a bit silly and a lot tedious. The conclusion is one long infodump. 17 years of isolation has no mental or emotional consequences for the king. Daystar - who has the personality and interest of wet cardboard - develops sudden and instantaneous magical powers just when needed. And the constant refusal of everyone around him to give him any information whatsoever was just infuriating. I get the book excused this by having a spell that only works through ignorance, but I've a particular loathing for fantasy mentors who refuse to be plain with their charges. It drives me batty. Not to mention that I am beyond sick of this series' ongoing wizard problem. I wish the humans would leave it to the dragons to solve, because then there'd be less temporary dissolving and more eating and the difficulty would be over sooner. List of complaints aside, however, it's not utterly dire. I mean, it's basically readable, and there are a few good parts - I continue to like Morwen and her cats, for instance. But overall, this series has been pushed about as far as it can go, I reckon.