In every book the author must set a balance between hero victory and villian victory moments. The previous book in this series I think was leaning a little too far towards villian victory moments, but when it was over, I was like "well, maybe there will be some good, satisfying moments in the next book". 
 Nope. The hero victories seem strangely hollow and unsatisfying, and even if there is a glimmer of hope that things might work out eventually, it is rather depressing to read two books in a row like this. 
 So I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a well written, well characterized, clever, interesting, depressing pile of shit.