The true climax of the novel came within the first few pages of the story. That isn't to say that other smaller climaxes and developments did move the story along nicely, but there wasn't a traditional big EVENT to end the novel. I was okay with that because the true meat of the novel was less of the physical confrontations, but more of a character development, cultural shifts, and setting the stage of the larger story at play.

The entire last sequence mixed a few plot threads. The primary two where that of Rudolfo's household, and the rebuilding of the library, and the final disenfranchisement of the Androfranchine Order. The underlying threads, that of the Li Tam manipulations and planned direction for culture and knowledge, lead to the greater reveal... there is some other factor at play with an unknown motive. What was thought to be a new weaving is really just the beginning of an unraveling.

I have called the book a table setter, and I think that best describes how the book will fit into the series. It was interesting, compelling, and rather well told story. Having read CANTICLE, the first novel really opens up what Scholes had in mind for the following novels. All in all, I think that while LAMENTATION stands on its own rather well, it will work much better as a book that is followed immediately by CANTICLE. That is how I had the fortune of reading it.