I liked it enough, but I wouldn't consider it a return to form either.
To summarize, it feels small - both in overall page count (like 80% of the already short-feeling No Life Forsaken), and scope: this is clearly simultaneous events and cut from No Life Forsaken, with Va'Shaik mentioned repeatedly when we already know how that ends up. (I will unfortunately have to re-read that book to figure out how/if the Mael* timelines line up.)
It also doesn't help that the book summary is "Someone wants their own Apocalypse (this time in Y'Ghatan), and also another opposition High Priest is also romantically not-quite-linked with their number two, but are delayed by Malazans until God-stuff happens again".
The bigger issue is, 3/4ths into the 'Karsa Trilogy', it's unclear what - if anything - this is wrapping up to. _Maybe_ it's Ascended Leoman and Ascended Karsa arguing over the fate of civilization? You got me!
Honestly, at this point I don't know what the goal of 'the trilogy' is. Is it the audience paying $60 for a very long epilogue to The Crippled God? Or is it just Erikson doing an alternate version of history, where instead of getting bogged down with Letheras / the Tiste / K'Chain / Forkrul, he just kept the storyline focused on the material covered through House of Chains?
*Edit: Yeah, this isn't lining up for my limited memory of the details. NLF and LOB's climaxes happen roughly simultaneously, only for the epilogue of LOB to reveal the surviving Malazans crossed the ocean and are present at GNW's climax. So where's Mael getting his power boost from if the glaciers haven't melted yet in NLF / LOB?
