I quite enjoyed this book. It is a pacey little adventure thriller with twists and turns, good characters and exciting chases and intriguing puzzles. All very good. Mind you, the plot had a number of holes in it and a few non-sequiters. In part this might be because I have not read the previous books in the series, so what seemed to me to be an odd plot dead end might actually make total sense if you've read the series.
Anyway, the writer did a good job of making me care about the main characters. Even the villain was a great creation. In fact I felt quite sorry when he got his comeuppance, as I was rather wishing that he would escape and get away with his dastardly plotting. He should have been kept available to make a come back in a later novel in the series. Oh well.
My main complaint was about the Rasputin element. Every now and then we slipped off for a chapter or two taking place in the early 20th century. These were supposed to be giving us helpful background information on the mysterious MacGuffin, but in fact is rather unnecessary as the fugitive scientist does a pretty good job of describing it towards the end of the book. I wonder if this book began as a straightforward thriller, but at some point somebody decided that it needed a mysterious historical element chucked in - and they hit upon the idea of Rasputin having used the MacGuffin a century before the current villain does so.
Never mind. Ignore the Rasputin stuff and this is a cracking adventure novel.
Anyway, the writer did a good job of making me care about the main characters. Even the villain was a great creation. In fact I felt quite sorry when he got his comeuppance, as I was rather wishing that he would escape and get away with his dastardly plotting. He should have been kept available to make a come back in a later novel in the series. Oh well.
My main complaint was about the Rasputin element. Every now and then we slipped off for a chapter or two taking place in the early 20th century. These were supposed to be giving us helpful background information on the mysterious MacGuffin, but in fact is rather unnecessary as the fugitive scientist does a pretty good job of describing it towards the end of the book. I wonder if this book began as a straightforward thriller, but at some point somebody decided that it needed a mysterious historical element chucked in - and they hit upon the idea of Rasputin having used the MacGuffin a century before the current villain does so.
Never mind. Ignore the Rasputin stuff and this is a cracking adventure novel.
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