A great end to a mostly enjoyable, if somewhat meandering and confusing series. Issues #42-45 are excellent, and have some of my favorite scenes and writing, and a particular scene that just tore my heart, involving a character I definitely hated a couple books ago. I'm not sure what lesson the story is trying to impart, other than that the secret is for you to live and not try to get shortcuts and fame is usually pretty overrated. Life is worth it, I guess. That's not a bad lesson.

The art's great, as usual. The finale was pretty great. I think this series took its finale bow at a good time. ( )

I'm never prepared for the emotions and weight of this series. And this ending. FML this ending. It's incredible. A beautiful end to an incredible story. I can't recommend the whole run enough. Read it and join me in tears on the other side. ( )

Hugo 2020 Nominations (Best Graphic);

Stars: 3.5
(but I feel like it's cheating it to round down on this one)

Another 'so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye' homage. I wasn't expecting two of these, or to end up reading the two Hugo ending-of-a-story pieces back to back. There's definitely a different kind of feeling to the arc that wraps up an epic, and beyond that, the issues which wraps up the ending, the whole story, and the future.

I don't feel like this was the best ending, and I still have a lot more questions about this universe and the ish it spins around than I do truly having answers. I felt the Minerva wrap up went incredibly too fast, and that the result of that storyline wrapped up too neatly the sins of both of 'the fallen' who passed directly out of the story with the fall.

I still love the idea of this universe so much, even if I feel like the age and drag of the length taken to tel the story shows in the work needed to pull this volume together, and in how it still feels unfinished. There was too much in this about the series needing to save itself from it's earlier failures, but I still appreciate the glorious show it put on the stage trying. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/R0UQdqPf1Uk

Enjoy! ( )

I did not expect to tear up, but I did. This is my favourite volume of this series, and that's why it's sad for me to realise that it's the last one. I'm going to miss this characters, they mean so much to me. I really can't stress enough how much this series means to me. ( )