I took a few days to properly let my thoughts coalesce after finishing Antiphony, otherwise this post would have simply been a lot of screaming.
I think the main thing I found jarring was the choice for so much stuff to happen in a year or two about ten years after the war. Just, the concentration.
Chantala dies, Macael murders Andri, Enaeran and Sles Adran become Enaeran Adrani again, Liere has a baby with Macael, she trains in a few weeks to become a full fledged dyranarya, she has sudden clarity about her being in love with Senrid, she confesses and they get married, within a few months she's pregnant again. Meanwhile Senrid has to protect Malcolin Elsarion in Choreid Dhelerei, he is confessed to by Marend and has to turn her down, has to deal with Perideth threatening to invade and with Fox dying. And this is just in two kingdoms, without going anywhere near the whole Lyren drama, or Carl, or Chwahirsland, or anyone else. This is a pretty wild amount of thing to happen all at once after 8 or so years of reconstruction and stability.
Counting up just the weddings, we see six in one book, and Adam and Leander discussing the possibility of getting married (very, very disappointed by the matter being settled with a "we don't need it", but of course at that point writing another wedding would have proven tedious even for the most). And 5 of these include royals, 4 of these are preceded by a lot of drama both personal and political, so much so that they could spark wars. So. Bit much no?
Especially because, for several of these couples, we don't get to see how they grow together. For at least two, SS chooses to bypass that completely and tell us they just see each other again, after some time, and it's game over, like that. Senrid and Liere apparently go on a 48h sex-and-talking-with-dyra spree, Siamis and Clair just move in together immediately and get Old-Sartor-married at a waterfall. 0 to 100 in 6 seconds. And I feel the disconnect very strongly with these two couples, because the way they act after having their revelation is very different from how they were before, in particular Liere and Clair. Not just with respect to how they act within the couple, but they seem to have grown up all of a sudden compared to before.
Aside from the couples, the thing I missed was time with some of the characters: we miss so so much of what makes the character who they are when we meet them again in this "ten years after" timeline. What has Jilo been doing, been feeling, how did his relationship with Seshe grow. How did Shontande deal with the aftermath of war, with being cooped up again, with his increasing loneliness. How are Rel and Atan, aside from being parents, how is the reconstruction of Eidervaen. Aside from having a baby, MV and Mildred? How's Crow? How are the mage guilds, how are Arthur and Roy, did they get married? At least give one (1) same sex marriage, SS, you coward.
And I'm not even go near the vicinity of Erenlara Sofar Queen of the Venn aka Eren Magic-Bringer, apparently. Nope, not touching that with a 20ft pole.
The good part of all of these threads being tied together in this ten-year-after timeline is that the story really feels complete, I got a true sense of closure, even after so many books. Of course there's so much else that one could explore, but the main threads are all brought to a satisfactory ending point. And there are still my favorite things, the small details that reference past books and Inda's time. Fox at 80+, being a marvel as usual. Inda's wedding shirt, so lovingly embroidered by Tdor Marth Davan, for all that her family name seems to be completely erased as well as most of her story except being Inda's wife. The Cassadas. The Deis. A princess being kidnapped in Colend by foreign operatives and the Chwahir being involved (Seshe). And Lyren's kidnapping on horseback! Honestly, Lasva Lirendi wishes her kidnapping would have been handled with as much grace. Alarcansa in general, Caid Mathias Lassiter and his parallels with Caidas. Carola Delfinian would have disdained Talian, and Talian would have followed Carola around like a puppy trying to learn and imitate her.
Despite some flaws, I think this is going to remain one of my favorite fantasy series for a long long time.