It's all over. I can't believe it! This book went way too fast. So much happened in it, and i see that it's actually a smidge longer than the other two, but it felt much shorter somehow. It all just flew by. 
 There were so many interesting threads that wove together in this book. I absolutely love that in a story; the thing that's interesting but opaque in the beginning and becomes such a perfect piece of the puzzle in the end. There were a few threads left dangling too, actually, and some people who didn't make the moves i thought they would. I thought that was kind of an interesting choice on Grossman's part. A couple of them felt mildly unsatisfying (and Grossman even wrote a paragraph that recognizes that feeling), but others will serve to have me thinking about the world(s) of the Magicians for a long time to come. 
 I love Quentin now. It's amazing how i went from pretty much hating him in the first book to forgiving him in the second to loving him in the third. He's awesome, and he doesn't quite know how awesome he is, which is the best. I've heard Lev Grossman talk about being influenced by The Earthsea Trilogy, and it's interesting to me how Quentin is kind of a Ged figure, but these books zoom in on the early stages where he's slowly, painfully going from arrogant and difficult to sulking and fearful to calm and powerful and wise and patient. 
 Oh--and now that i think about it, Julia is very much like Therru/Tehanu. Very very much like her. But all this talk will only be interesting to Earthsea fans. 
 I still don't like Janet. She did a couple of kickass things in this book, but she's still a pretty shitty person. She can be funny sometimes but usually she's just too much. Plum was an interesting addition to the story, and i kind of wish she and Quentin could've had a moment where they acknowledged how good they were for each other (in a totally platonic sense, of course). But that stuff doesn't often happen in real life, so i'm okay with it. 
 I don't want to say too much else, because i don't want to spoil anything. 
 It felt like Grossman really cut loose with this book and just had fun with it. The characters say all manner of silly things because screw it, that's the kind of things that nerds say. And he made everything sparkle and dance; there was so much whimsy in this book, and that was simply wonderful. There was a lot of pain and destruction too, but that's a theme in this story. Whimsy and magic and pain and death. And it's all about regrowth, which is important and inspiring and great. 
 What a good series. I have no idea how to describe it to people, and it's hard to recommend it when i disliked giant parts of the first book so strongly, but it was absolutely worth coming back to. It's unlike any other books i've read. Even the very end still felt like just the beginning, and a story like that is so much fun.