3.99 AVERAGE

rudi_schrausch's review

5.0
dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

kuroshine's review

4.25
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
willofthewisp's profile picture

willofthewisp's review

4.0
dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cereus7's review

3.75
adventurous dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark medium-paced
ratgrrrl's profile picture

ratgrrrl's review

3.0

I enjoyed this a lot more than The Carrion Throne, but nowhere near as much as The Interrogation of Salvor Lermentov.

More of the Terran details, particularly the eponymous Hollow Mountan and nature of the Astronomicon were really interesting.

I think it's such a shame how all plot, no character this series is because I love the idea and concepts and Wraight and all the elements of it, but without an emotional hook and characters to latch on to my brain just slides off.

Only one more to go.

mcsheehan222's review

4.0

VOT #1 did not sell me but this book really brought me round. Dark, depressing with great characters and high stakes. Cannot wait to see what happens in the next instalment!!!!

strangematter's review

4.5
adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jakewalters's review

4.0
adventurous dark medium-paced

Book two in the Vaults of Terra series featuring Inquisitor Crowl and Interrogator Spinoza, The Hollow Mountain picks up pretty much straight away after the end of The Carrion Throne. Though disaster was averted on the throneworld, Crowl believes that the powerful people behind the conspiracy to bring a xenos creature to Terra are still at large and need to be brought to justice for their crimes. Despite Spinoza’s misgivings, they continue to investigate – albeit in secret, fully aware of the dangers involved in doing so – even while Terra seethes in a worrying atmosphere of unusual friction and unease.

As with The Carrion Throne, Terra itself is a powerful presence upon this story, offering a clear metaphor for the Imperium as a whole – vast, bafflingly complex and locked into ever-degrading patterns and rhythms yet still somehow thriving. It makes for an appropriately brooding and oppressive setting as Wraight explores more of its varied locations, this time concentrating more on focused, low-key infiltrations of larger institutions than trawling the slums. There’s a gradually-increasing sense of pace as the plot develops, building up momentum as the darkness rises, and while this relies even less than last time on large-scale action scenes, when the bullets start flying there’s a real intensity to events. Overall it’s a gripping, character-led story which feels like a natural extension of the series, providing a satisfying and suitably dramatic tale in its own right while clearly setting things up for the next instalment.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/06/10/vaults-of-terra-the-hollow-mountain-by-chris-wraight/