Just getting ahold of a copy of The Killing of Worlds (by Scott Westerfeld) (it's the sequel/second-half-of-the-book to The Risen Empire) proved to be such a saga -- multiple trips to local bookstores and getting to the library just after it closed and then I ordered it from Amazon and signed up a free trial of their thingy that was supposed to get me free two-day shipping, but in three days it had made it to Addison, IL and then I did make it to the library, and then the book came from Amazon the next day. Whew. Anyway, it was a fine end to the story -- it ended in an "open to a sequel" manner, but nothing so abrupt as The Risen Empire.