War Master's Gate

But these are good things: Adrian Tchaikovsky has excelled himself here -- which is pretty hard to do, given the level at which he is able to create worlds and people -- with one of the most bleak descriptions of an all-out war, and its effects on people and places. And he killed some old friends, and introduced a horrific new adversary, that we will doubtless meet in the next book.

This series has been quite a ride: exquisitely created, impeccably crafted into interweaving threads of narrative, with real-seeming characters. That it is a wrench to lose, Adrian!!