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traciemasek's review against another edition
2.0
Two stars is maybe a little harsh, considering this is a genre book, but I just wanted it to be better than it is. There are parts where it really picks up speed, especially when Tarrow first meets the CSUs, but I dunno, for whatever reason, I just didn't love this. Tarrow starts to feel almost like a real character by the end, but nearly everyone else is a caricature. The history lessons peppered throughout it are so, so forced and painfully expositional. And I also just completely do NOT buy that the killer had gotten away with over 200 murders without anyone noticing a connection.
But really I think the reason I didn't like this book much is the little parts where Tallow listens to the police scanner and it relays horrific crime after horrific crime, all supposedly just happening all the time in NYC, nbd. I guess I get that it's supposed to be indicative of the dark, almost comic book world of the book, but it just pissed me off and took me right out of the story because if any one of the crimes on the police scanner happened in this city, it would be a tragedy of epic scale. But then again, this is a work of fiction. And I can admit it was a fun, quick read.
But really I think the reason I didn't like this book much is the little parts where Tallow listens to the police scanner and it relays horrific crime after horrific crime, all supposedly just happening all the time in NYC, nbd. I guess I get that it's supposed to be indicative of the dark, almost comic book world of the book, but it just pissed me off and took me right out of the story because if any one of the crimes on the police scanner happened in this city, it would be a tragedy of epic scale. But then again, this is a work of fiction. And I can admit it was a fun, quick read.
fouroffivewits's review against another edition
4.0
I bought this novel without reading anything about it, simply because it was written by Warren Ellis. I was not disappointed.
bryce_is_a_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
Kind of like a Lawerence Block novel if Lawerence Block huffed paint.
wyldkyss's review against another edition
4.0
Warren Ellis came back with a second book, tighter and leaner than the first. There was a moment around a quarter of the way through that let me set it down sure to disinterest. Happily I was able to devour the rest when I picked it back up. A detective story written like it's meant to be visual one day, and still might.
bbabyok's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a solid book, fast paced, clever and full of Warren Ellis characters. Recommended.
wyrmdog's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not sure what it is about Ellis' writing I love so much, but it draws me in and keeps me there like a cephalopod with co-dependency issues. I find the casual weirdness compelling I suppose, as if it's what I've been looking for in my fiction all along.
Planetary is the greatest piece of storytelling ever done (if you argue this, you are simply wrong in ways the universe hasn't yet devised ways of punishing), and while this and everything else he's done pales next to that, it is still a riot of a ride.
Where Crooked Little Vein was just bizarro for its own sake, this story is more coherent, if almost bland by Ellis standards. But it takes a horridly tired genre (police procedural/thriller) and breathes fresh life into it, waking it from a slumber its purveyors stroked it into while milking it for its pure stream of cash.
The characters are extreme and some of the dialogue reads like NextWave: Agents of HATE. This is a good thing, but could also be a little much if you're sensitive to such things (or if you are averse to prolific expletives). It nearly has its own vernacular lexicon, though it's keen to let you in on it, making what could be a barrier into a wink and a nudge. It was fun to see Bat channeling the Captain.
So yeah. I loved it.
Planetary is the greatest piece of storytelling ever done (if you argue this, you are simply wrong in ways the universe hasn't yet devised ways of punishing), and while this and everything else he's done pales next to that, it is still a riot of a ride.
Where Crooked Little Vein was just bizarro for its own sake, this story is more coherent, if almost bland by Ellis standards. But it takes a horridly tired genre (police procedural/thriller) and breathes fresh life into it, waking it from a slumber its purveyors stroked it into while milking it for its pure stream of cash.
The characters are extreme and some of the dialogue reads like NextWave: Agents of HATE. This is a good thing, but could also be a little much if you're sensitive to such things (or if you are averse to prolific expletives). It nearly has its own vernacular lexicon, though it's keen to let you in on it, making what could be a barrier into a wink and a nudge. It was fun to see Bat channeling the Captain.
So yeah. I loved it.
tumblehawk's review against another edition
2.0
Warren Ellis is overflowing with insanely cool, and just plain insane, ideas. I love his Twitter feed and his newsletters and his graphic novel Transmetropolitan, and more than anything his podcast SPEKTRMODULE, but this was my first foray into prose fiction of his and I was pretty disappointed. It's a fairly clumsy novel, with awkward dialogue and a spic-n-span clean ending that ties up a messy story much too quickly. I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it, but I also definitely didn't take my time with it. But one thing I should mention is that I generally don't gravitate towards crime as a genre, so the deck was stacked against this one going into it.
sillypunk's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this was really good, still pretty crazy but not as crazy as Crooked Little Vein!
ichirofakename's review against another edition
4.0
Definitely readable. Definitely doesn't need to be re-read.
Gotta catch a guy who has killed 200 in Manhattan over 20 years.
Gotta catch a guy who has killed 200 in Manhattan over 20 years.