Matriarch, I suspect, marks the beginning of my dislike of the Wess'har Wars series. I was mostly ambivalent about it before, somewhat leaning towards "Eh, not all that bad", but this book is large, top heavy, and is really beginning to bog itself down in little things that I just don't care about anymore.

I liked the progression of the first three books in that you slowly go from so-and-so species are good/bad to something a lot more complex with a lot of different moralities being flung around, but it's getting to be a little ridiculous at this stage. It's like every five steps there is a new moral conundrum that can't be solved and only serves to shove hardship on the characters, and I found myself flipping through pages more quickly just to barrel through the book.

And the distribution of the C'naatat is also getting ridiculous by now. I won't go into specifics, but I am rather tired with how it's sort of flung around like a large hammer that just really bores me.

I feel like the book is just getting more complex rather needlessly. I am aware that complexity is a part of life, and I actually liked how things were heading in the first three books, but now it just makes me sigh. The plot is either stagnating or circular, and nothing much ever seems to happen but the same old crises that never really get resolved. It's getting old. I want actual progression in my books, not this wheeling around that never gets anywhere. 2 stars.