Better than I remember it being. The writing, the characters, it's all so consistently amazing. 
 But now I'm really, really sad. Not because the series is ending (though I'm sad about that, too), but because this book is just really, tragically sad. The ending primarily, but the histories, the back stories... 
 I was erring pretty close to 5 stars on this one (say four and three-quarters), but then I remembered the totally useless first chapter, where the Minister of Magic goes to talk to the Prime Minister for no particular reason, except to say "bad things afoot! You're getting hammered; our bad!" And we never, ever get back to that. So it loses a half-star, and at four and a quarter I round down.