I really look at book 3 as seperate from the first two. While the first two were fun reads, and took a shot at trying to backfill things we knew about the Eugenics War with our own 'real' history that's 40 years ahead of what the writers had available at the time, the third book is the part that REALLY shines, IMO. That was an excellent book, despite (or maybe because of) the depressing nature of it. Just a well-written and interesting slide into darkness...