I really enjoyed Fortune's Pawn. I mostly enjoyed Honor's Knight. Sadly, I only somewhat enjoyed Heaven's Queen. 
 In this final installment, all of the loose ends and mysteries of Maat and her daughters, Devi's virus, Caldswell, the lelgis and various other contenders finally come together. One thing I adored about the previous novels was the speedy pace, the constant action and the absolute chaos of having so many players in this game fighting each other, mostly while being confused and uncertain. While this sometimes led to annoyances - in Honor's Knight I complained that there were often whole sections that, had Devi had a little more insight, could have been cut completely with no detraction from the plot - the pace kept me turning pages up into the early hours. 
 Unfortunately, the first half of Heaven's Queen does not live up to the standard I had come to expect from Bach. First Devi and Rupert end up jumping out of hyperspace after a scuffle to land on a crop farming planet. After a scuffle they end up on a criminal planet. After a scuffle they end up... do you see where I'm going with this? By now the constant daring escapes have become a little predictable, especially when these escapades do not help to drive the plot along. The crop farming planet, for example, does little else than tell us that Devi and Rupert have been in hyperspace for 8 months and briefly reunite Devi with a character from Fortune's Pawn, which does not in any way affect the plot later. Whole chapters seem to be wasted here. And even in more exciting, plot driven chapters too, there are often paragraphs that serve zero purpose which I am surprised were not cut from the final edit. For example: 
 I climbed over my bunk and grabbed my armor case. It was in the middle of its cleaning cycle, but I popped it open anyway, reaching through the foamy pink clouds of reparative nanite gel to pluck out my helmet. I wiped it clean on my blanket and put it on my head just long enough to send the ticket info the lady had given me to the ship's computer, which I would have done before if I'd been thinking. As soon as it was sent, I packed my suit back in and started the cleaning cycle over from the top. 
 WHY. Why an entire paragraph of nothing when it could just be: "I sent the ticket info to the ship." I do not need to know these tiny, insignificant details when there is ass-kicking to be done and answers to be found. 
 Another reason for the initially slow pace is the romance. It's been there since the start of Fortune's Pawn, of course, but now it starts to take center stage. There are no memory wipes or secrets to stand in Rupert and Devi's way now, so we are treated to a lot of Rupert promising Devi he will never leave her and a lot of Devi's internal monologue about why she is "the most selfish, awful, empty-headed idiot of a merc girl", who tells herself he's not to be trusted as she stares fondly at his muscled back until the inevitable happens. I am not against romance, but I am against romance that sends heroines loopy and gooey despite the life-threatening situations they are in. 
 Character-wise, Devi remains a badass and I love her for it. In my review for Honor's Knight I complained that she'd got stupider since the first novel and honestly, I am going to stand by that statement here, too. But, she's grown a lot as a character since Fortune's Pawn, which is always great to see. Rupert gets a little more background and becomes a much more fleshed out character, which is great. Caldswell, too, gets a tragic backstory, though it seems a little contrived. Other secondary characters such as Hyrek, Nova and Mabel get fuck all, as per usual. 
 However, while I had to force myself to wade through the first half, the pace picks up well in the second half and becomes much tighter with less dallying around. Though it remains a little predictable - Devi at this point has gotten herself out of so many death traps she may as well be God - it's still enjoyable and exciting. The final act was fun and dealt with all of the questions that had been built up over the course of the series well. And the post-battle-tying-of-loose-end-scenes are always a guilty pleasure of mine, and I mostly loved them here. (view spoiler)[(I say mostly, because there are an astonishing lack of consequences for Caldswell, Mabel, and the Eyes. Mabel especially is a character Bach made sure we despised, and gets no comeuppance. In fact, she has the gall to give Devi a friendly thumbs up and a grin after destroying her suit, nearly killing her, and grinding her knee against Devi's shrapnel wounds to make sure she stayed down. The Daughters are finally released and are powerful and yet seem content to be civil with their captors and murderers of the last 70 years). (hide spoiler)] 
 So overall, it's a 2.5 for me. I'm rounding up because despite my gripes, I read it quickly and I enjoyed the ride. It's a series that kept me on my toes and asking questions, and while it sometimes lost some steam or annoyed me, I finished the entire series one after the other, which is rare for me.