Well, i finally finished the series. I enjoyed it all the way through but this last book went places I didn’t fully understand. So much so that I actually read a spoiler laden interview with the authors where they talked about the ending. I won’t give spoilers but basically the ending is mystical and incomprehensible on purpose. They hinted at it though out the whole book, with the ring builders and their enemies gaining a little (but not a lot) of structure. They are wholly non-human and non material-based it seems. In the end it doesn’t really matter what the alien engineers are or were, but we know that they developed the protomolecule to try to expand their exploration of the universe but were wiped out by something stronger. And that something is still out there, but it isn’t really clear if we are able to access it or not.
things I liked about the series: the multi POV chapters and the long slow arcs. The realism of space travel and space battles; this isn’t Star Wars or BSG, it is very real. The complexity of the characters. There aren’t (very many) characters who seem like caricatures or 2-dimensional. And we meet so many characters through the series that return and grow and change.
Things I don’t like about the series: well, the characters. We met some characters in the 2nd trilogy that returned in the 3rd, decades later, but I had a hard time keeping track of them all. I read the book relatively closely (I think I read 8 of the 9 in the last year and a half) so it isn’t because I forgot who they were. But it is hard to keep track of this voluminous cast when you aren’t always sure who is important and who is coming back. This is a minor criticism, because the richly textured world is clear with the diverse cast. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the ending, as alluded to above, but it does end the series and close the book.
I am excited to start watching the series now. We started watching season one several years ago before I had read any of the books, and then I decided I wanted to read first and watch. So, we have 5 seasons to go through now I think and I am looking forward to watching that very much.