On the one hand, it covers a broader stretch of time—from slightly before to slightly after the rest of the series—but on the other hand it’s more human-centric, with less exploration of new non-human intelligences (although there’s still some). And like book 3, it focuses more on a single planet (but also more of Earth than we’ve seen in the rest of the series).

I’d put in on par with 3, but I liked 3 more than a lot of other readers did.