The Riddle of the Sands
Book
One of the first great spy novels, The Riddle of the Sands is set during the long, suspicious years...
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Book
The Penguin English Library Edition of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne 'I am got, I know not how,...
The Great Influenza
Book
Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us...
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East
Book
A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th...
Maps: Their Untold Stories
Rose Mitchell and Andrew Janes
Book
A map is a snapshot of a place, a city, a nation or even the world at a given point in time -...
Glider Infrantryman: Behind Enemy Lines in World War II
Donald J. Rich and Kevin Brooks
Book
A member of the famed Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, Donald J. Rich went ashore on...
Valour
Book
The second in The Faithful and the Fallen series, Valour by John Gwynne carries all of the...
God's Rough Drafts
Book
What if nothing changes?What if government and industry plow, unchecked, through the twenty-first...
T2: The Future War (Gollancz)
Book
The future war is now. Hiding out in Alaska, Sarah and John Connor, along with ex-counterterrorist...
Ross (3284 KP) rated Emperor of Thorns in Books
Sep 13, 2017
Again, the pace at which events of the past are revealed and their implications for the present timeline emerge is just right, allowing enough to be worked out in advance by the eager reader.
I didn't much like the present timeline story, it really was just a long dragged out roadtrip and didn't add much to the overall plot. Luckily enough focus was given to Jorg's adventures through the radioactive fallout zones and Afrique that this didn't detract from enjoyment too much.
Once more, the introduction of elements of the distant past (our future) was a risk worth taking for the author, as it helps explain so much of the mysterious yet familiar world we are travelling through.
The ending felt slightly rushed for me and the final encounter should really have been given much more attention, but I was happy enough with the conclusion and intend to revisit this world for the Red Queen's War trilogy in due course.
