I finished devouring the Wraeththu books yesterday but before I start in on the niggles let me just say that I did enjoy them and I did become deeply and personally involved with them but that didn't stop me feeling somehow unsatisfied.
Of the three books, the middle one was my favourite. Like most middle bits of a trilogy it built on the foundations established (info-dumping!) in the first part and the narrative flowed smoothly around the central characters. This was were I really started to enjoy myself and my empathy kicked in.
The third book, however well it started, felt indulgent. I wasn't surprised at the central figure there - it made sense to follow-up his story, he'd been the catalyst for so much in the first 2 books - but, damn, I just wanted to slap him. I had very little sympathy for him, and the internalized melodramas as he 'found his way back to the path' seemed to go on and on and on. Not sure what was in the author's mind while she was writing this but as our hero and his companions lumbered along the chain of barely plausible events I found myself thinking there was a lot that could've been left out. One section in particular made no sense at all; the hero didn't learn anything there that he couldn't have learnt somewhere else and I felt it was included either as padding, or as another example of the wondrousness of the world. As if I needed any more convincing, tch. And if it was there to make up the wordcount those words could've been better spent on the denouement. The central drama, the underlying thing that had been dogging everyone right from the very beginning, was sorted out within a page. Convincing? I don't think so.
The epilogue however - as it were - I loved and it went a long way towards leaving me favourably disposed to the story. Yes, I'm a sook, but I adore hopeful, happy endings even if it's intimated there's a hard road ahead.

I greatly admire Constantine's use of language, I have very clear mental images of people and places because of it, and there were even words I didn't know! Always a treat having to drag out the dictionary when I'm reading. <g>
It was interesting, too, recognising themes in these early stories of hers that she examines again in later books. Love - both sides, the beauty and the ugliness; acceptance; redemption; and transformation - physical and spiritual. There was a lot in the Wraeththu Chronicles that called to me; it's not often I become so deeply immersed in something I'm reading that it affects my subconscious. Would I want to be Wraeththu? Hell, no, I'd be happy just to serve... <g>

(And in other news: I finished chapter 21! The rewrite of SFSG is going to be a lot of fun...)