To be sure there are many good moments in them, but on the whole I found these climactic chapters a let-down, at least this time around (can't remember what I thought last time). The Spider, who has never really gotten much of a chance to display her acumen to the reader, comes across as utterly incompetent and helpless in both the Grey King's and Locke's hands. And Locke playing it straight about the sculptures and somehow convincing anyone just in the nick of time... meh. The sculptures were a boring enough plot device by themselves, but the resolution of that plotline was even more so.

Besides that, I had been expecting something much more exciting to explain the link between the Grey King and the Falconer, a much more intriguing explanation than "oh yeah, the Grey King is an awfully wealthy buccaneer, and also he plotted to steal your fortune to pay me my boring wages in gold with". The final showdown with the Falconer isn't that great, either, honestly - doesn't anybody know the good old rules of the evil overlord anymore? Yes, I called the Falconer the evil overlord - the Grey King's claim was never that impressive, nor is his own showdown, although I do appreciate Lynch's attempt at depicting a Locke who is finally out of ideas and just tries to settle things the simple way which he's eminently not cut out for, although I get the feeling he should have stood much less of a chance and never even gotten so close as to end it as he did.

I think part of my problem with these chapters and the climax as a whole is that they're too serious and too straight for the most part, while the strength of the first half of the novel is precisely the humour, the penchant for the exaggeratedly flamboyant and the inclination not to take itself too seriously. But some things that aren't really necessary if you're going for that style do become necessary when you try to take things more seriously.

I figure I should continue on to Red Seas over Red Skies now - Nate's comment about how in hindsight it might be the better novel after all is promising. I can see how it easily could be.