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A review by pranavroh
Revelation by C.J. Sansom
2.0
And so my love affair with the Shardlake series ends.
In this 4th Book Shardlake is back, sadder, a lot more self pitying and incapable of getting himself a girlfriend. When his close friend is killed in a rather gruesome manner he is pushed to seek vengeance on the killer only to find that this killer seems to kill for the pleasure of it rather than out of any political motivation - he is the Tudor version of a serial killer and is closely following the book of revelation.
The book of revelation is what you get if you combine extreme christianity with a healthy dose of amphetamines and ketamine. It's not the most pleasant or sensible read - full of God's wrath and whores and blood. I'm surprised religious books don't inspire people to commit gruesome acts of violence more often...
Barak is back, surlier than ever and his marriage with Tamasin is on the rocks after the death of their child. Barak is a true tudor gentleman - incapable of coming to terms with his finer feelings while Tamasin is a women far ahead of her time , and rather miffed with her surly husband. We also get a sneak peek at what Bealknap has been upto and the return of Guy.
The thing I really liked about Sovereign was that though Barak and Shardlake do a lot of travelling and it was overall an extremely slowwwww book, I ended up rooting for the villain and Shardlake's relationship with him. The ending was rather harrowing and I expected it to have lasting repercussions on Shardlake's guilty psyche.
But. No.
The events of Soveriegn are not referenced, Shardlake seems to be absolutely unaffected by them and in fact mentions them in passing without even a twinge of any feeling. I assume Sansom wants to keep the plot of Sovereign under wraps but he does this at the cost of true character development making everything that happened in Sovereign mean nothing. Shardlake doesnt seem to look at King Henry any differently.
I am not elaborating on this more - just to avoid spoilers but I felt this book lost a lot of character as a result. I also figured out who the killer was quite early on - the reveal was utterly idiotic. There are large boring stretches where nothing really happens.
I'm going with 2 stars
In this 4th Book Shardlake is back, sadder, a lot more self pitying and incapable of getting himself a girlfriend. When his close friend is killed in a rather gruesome manner he is pushed to seek vengeance on the killer only to find that this killer seems to kill for the pleasure of it rather than out of any political motivation - he is the Tudor version of a serial killer and is closely following the book of revelation.
The book of revelation is what you get if you combine extreme christianity with a healthy dose of amphetamines and ketamine. It's not the most pleasant or sensible read - full of God's wrath and whores and blood. I'm surprised religious books don't inspire people to commit gruesome acts of violence more often...
Barak is back, surlier than ever and his marriage with Tamasin is on the rocks after the death of their child. Barak is a true tudor gentleman - incapable of coming to terms with his finer feelings while Tamasin is a women far ahead of her time , and rather miffed with her surly husband. We also get a sneak peek at what Bealknap has been upto and the return of Guy.
The thing I really liked about Sovereign was that though Barak and Shardlake do a lot of travelling and it was overall an extremely slowwwww book, I ended up rooting for the villain and Shardlake's relationship with him. The ending was rather harrowing and I expected it to have lasting repercussions on Shardlake's guilty psyche.
But. No.
The events of Soveriegn are not referenced, Shardlake seems to be absolutely unaffected by them and in fact mentions them in passing without even a twinge of any feeling. I assume Sansom wants to keep the plot of Sovereign under wraps but he does this at the cost of true character development making everything that happened in Sovereign mean nothing. Shardlake doesnt seem to look at King Henry any differently.
I am not elaborating on this more - just to avoid spoilers but I felt this book lost a lot of character as a result. I also figured out who the killer was quite early on - the reveal was utterly idiotic. There are large boring stretches where nothing really happens.
I'm going with 2 stars