Smashbomb

* I received an advance copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *

The sequel to the highly praised Blackwing sees Ryhalt Galharrow trying to move on from losing the love of his life and investigating the theft of a magical artefact from a heavily protected vault.

For the first few chapters this book felt like a Captain Vimes Discworld novel (in a good way) with the humour toned down a little. We were exploring the pre-industrial city and investigating a crime that could have dire consequences for the safety of the city.

The book spends significantly more time in the city than in the Misery (the strange, twisting wasteland) than was the case for the first book, which gives it a very different feel. Plotting and intrigue abound as an evil sorcerer's plot to achieve ultimate power starts to unfold.

The book felt slightly less dark than the first, and has quite a different feel to it than Blackwing, but is still absolutely superb. The flowing prose and cracking dialogue make this a true page-turner and one of the best fantasy books I have read in quite some time.

Kudos

Sarah (7800 KP) rated The Outsider in Books

Jul 13, 2018

The Outsider

Stephen King | 2018 | Thriller

8.7

(31 Ratings)

Book Rating

King does it again

My main worry about this book was that it didn't sound enough like King - on paper it almost sounded like a bog standard crime thriller. Fortunately though that wasn't the case!

This is yet another brilliantly written King novel, filled with intrigue, suspense and a lot of fairly gruesome horror. The characters are, as always, well written and the story centres mainly around the lovable detective Ralph Anderson (although chapters centred around other characters offer some nice variety). The central supernatural plot is one that I've seen/read before in other works of fiction, but it definitely doesn't get boring seeing it from King's point of view. There are some unexpected links to some other of King's stories - one obvious and direct, but another link for me was more of a similarity to a previous character - neither of which is a bad thing.

My only criticisms of this book are fairly minor. The first is that the ending seems fairly rushed in comparison with the slow build of the rest of the book. And the second is that although it is a very good and enthralling read, it doesn't quite have the impact of some of his older epic novels (The Dark Tower series, The Stand, Needful Things etc).

Kudos

David McK (3770 KP) rated Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls in Books

Jan 28, 2019

Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls

Scott Snyder | 2020 | Comics & Graphic Novels

8.1

(7 Ratings)

Book Rating

Unlike some of the more famous Batman stories ([b:the Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327892039s/59960.jpg|1104159], say, or {book: The Killing Joke], The Court of Owls is not one that I was previously familiar with - or, for that matter, had even heard of - prior to this graphic novel.

Unlike those previously two mentioned, this is a more contemporary tale, with Batman at the height of his crime-fighting powers, unlike the aging Batman of [b:The Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327892039s/59960.jpg|1104159], or the still-relatively-green of the majority of [b:The Killing Joke|96358|Batman The Killing Joke|Alan Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346331835s/96358.jpg|551787], and also has the wider Bat-family (that sounds awful, doesn't it?) of Nightwing, Robin and Red Robin all in it.

The Court of Owls itself is an urban legend from Gotham of a secret society that lives in the shadows and watches/judges all: like Batman, an urban legend that soon proves not to be such after all.

While I may read volume 2 in the future, it's also not one that I'd be hunting out for.