Upon finishing the trilogy, I'm caught between a rock and a hard place, because I'd grown to really enjoy Gretel's company, and she's been relegated to a fate worse than death. Humanity, that is. Am I so wrong to want a demi-god to remain a demi-god? 
 On the other hand, Raybold has been a pleasure to follow, in all of his incarnations, despite the pudgy and worthless husband incarnation from the second book. He's learned to redeem himself several times over. 
 The main question is: did I like the complicated plot? I had no problems following it, and it gets very interesting because of the bleedthrough of alternate time-lines. 
 The darkness of the books remains fairly steady, but it drops slightly for the third one. Perhaps it's because the author is wrapping up the series and allowing just a little bit of a happy ending to occur, and perhaps he just felt that it was the right time to kill-off some of the more interesting characters. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. 
 I'm forced to consider these books along the current trend in fiction to go for the deep dark feel that never likes to let up, a-la Game of Thrones style. Enjoyable, for all of that, and there's not such a huge build-up of characters to see die, but the feel of omnipresent danger is quite good. 
 I think I'll be recommending these books to anyone who enjoys alternate history, magic, and the SS.