OK, I'm sorry this has taken so long. I've worked more hours of overtime in the past few weeks than I know what to do with, plus (one of the) pagan New Year(s), and I owe you all an apology. And it doesn't help that it was this book.
I am not so much for the shoot-'em-ups, and a large portion of this book involved that kind of thing. I'm a veteran RPG player, but the fights were never my thing. I would have enjoyed Deceit a lot more if more of it had focused on the society of Arcadia.
But no. Instead, we're back to Not-In-Character Doctor, Military Ace, and Naughty S&M Action from the bad guys. Benny at least comes off well, and I liked Francis. The most affecting scene in the entire book took place inside Elaine's head. But while this wasn't on the level of The Pit, it sure wasn't good. It scares me that this is what the line editor felt he was capable of doing. I have seen few books that so much needed an editor themselves. And I'll be candid: I skipped the afterword. The last few pages of the book so irritated me that I didn't feel like reading his justification for plopping his own book in the middle of the line.
If you like military, tactical books, this might work better for you than for me. Honestly, though, it was hard to motivate myself through this. Two real stinkers in a row... I hope better is coming down the pike, because the holidays are also coming up...
You're unfortunately in one of the real weak spots in the New Adventures. The next half-dozen have at least two more stinkers in them, although they also have two that are unambiguously great and two more that I'm really interested in where you'll fall on.
ReplyDeleteMore broadly, the books have some systemic problems over the next dozen or so as they wait desperately for Paul Cornell to come along and fix Ace, who, while she gets some good moments in a couple of books, is seriously flawed for a while now.
All of which said, the next book you get to do is in fact quite good.