Even on rereading, this book is a really satisfying conclusion to the duology. I feel like the strongest theme of these books is really the question of "what is a legacy" (art? children? conquest? etc).

Even though the larger historical picture of this duology is the arc of one particular emperor and empress, it manages to give plenty of side characters enough time on page to each have their own arc, intersect with each other, and get their own development and resolution in a satisfying way.

One thing that I liked in this series (that I also think Tigana is a great example of as well) is that this book's plot is a small number of very dense events. For example, there's a wedding at some point, but there's multiple points of views leading up to it for why people are there, how they ended up there at all, how they're feeling during it, politics, posturing, a confrontation both during and then after it with lots of repercussions. I think it works really well as a narrative technique.

I read this a long while ago, but I really liked Jo Walton's review of these books if you want even more thoughts on this series: www.tor.com/2009/11/02/mosaics-and-charioteers-guy-gavriel-kays-sarantine-mosaic/