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Brimstone (Pendergast, #5; Diogenes, #1)
by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Unforgivable. This is the fifth Preston/Child book I've read (reviews are pending), and the cracks that existed in the others are now too big to ignore. The constant references to Pendergast's gentility and appearance. His apparent knowledge of, well, everything. Excessive instances of a character 'shuddering'.
What else? There's a subplot here that is gruesomely unnecessary. It literally adds nothing to the story at all. As for the main story, the villains here are simply nowhere near as thought-provoking as in the previous books. Some of these issues undoubtedly happen when you have two authors, but still, where is the editing? In paperback Brimstone weighs in at 700 pages. Ideally, it's a 350-page story.
If you ask me what really puts the nail in the coffin this time, it's the ending. There are SPOILERS here. Once the identity of the villain is known, Pendergast and D'Agosta confront him in his lair. He defeats them, trapping Pendergast. D'Agosta escapes with proof. He brings the police back, but is unable to use the proof in such a way as to satisfy the local police. He is forced to walk away. What happens after this? He gets the device working, but instead of going back to the police to show them, or perhaps use it to torture the location of Pendergast out of the villain, what does he do? He goes back to the lair (through a hole the villain should have sealed), kills the villain without a word (totally out of character) and flies back to the States! Lazy, lazy, lazy. After that sequence of events, I'm now somewhat reluctant to give Dance of Death a chance. There are too many well-argued one-star reviews of it.
It's a shame. A Relic/Reliquary/Cabinet trilogy that ended with Pendergast hooking up with Hayward would have been good enough for me. Instead, the authors are up to number eleven (!), and although I'm sure they've come up with some original ideas involving Pendergast's backstory that make him even more of a badass from every possible angle, for me it's not enough when everything else has become so stale. Sorry boys. Was fun while it lasted.
What else? There's a subplot here that is gruesomely unnecessary. It literally adds nothing to the story at all. As for the main story, the villains here are simply nowhere near as thought-provoking as in the previous books. Some of these issues undoubtedly happen when you have two authors, but still, where is the editing? In paperback Brimstone weighs in at 700 pages. Ideally, it's a 350-page story.
If you ask me what really puts the nail in the coffin this time, it's the ending. There are SPOILERS here. Once the identity of the villain is known, Pendergast and D'Agosta confront him in his lair. He defeats them, trapping Pendergast. D'Agosta escapes with proof. He brings the police back, but is unable to use the proof in such a way as to satisfy the local police. He is forced to walk away. What happens after this? He gets the device working, but instead of going back to the police to show them, or perhaps use it to torture the location of Pendergast out of the villain, what does he do? He goes back to the lair (through a hole the villain should have sealed), kills the villain without a word (totally out of character) and flies back to the States! Lazy, lazy, lazy. After that sequence of events, I'm now somewhat reluctant to give Dance of Death a chance. There are too many well-argued one-star reviews of it.
It's a shame. A Relic/Reliquary/Cabinet trilogy that ended with Pendergast hooking up with Hayward would have been good enough for me. Instead, the authors are up to number eleven (!), and although I'm sure they've come up with some original ideas involving Pendergast's backstory that make him even more of a badass from every possible angle, for me it's not enough when everything else has become so stale. Sorry boys. Was fun while it lasted.
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