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A review by wingsofareader
Innocent Blood by Rebecca Cantrell, James Rollins
4.0
I ripped through this series quickly.
While there were times when I wanted to smack a couple of the key protagonists, particularly Father Korza, whose self-flagellation wore on me, overall I am drawn to books where I am drawn to the characters and to the relationships between the characters, and I generally find the characters in this series to be interesting. They and their relationships develop over the course of the series, although Rollins does have a strange habit of occasionally going back and forth between using foreshadowing of coming character evolutions with sudden revelations that can seem rather abrupt.
I really do like that Rollins always seems to have one or two really quirky secondary characters - they usually have the best lines in the books.
Like most Rollins fare, this book has action, history, some science, and character interaction. It's heavier on the history and mythology than on the science, particularly since this series touches far more on the supernatural and focuses particularly on the Roman Catholic church. (Note: If you are a devout Catholic, although characters in the book are also devout Catholics, you may find some of the premises difficult to stomach, even as fiction.)
Rollins keeps the action moving, from start, and doesn't really ever stop, letting the reader stay just a step or two ahead of the characters (just enough to make us feel smugly superior to the characters but not enough to prevent surprises).
To borrow a phrase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer here, this time we find out more about the "Big Bad", but nonetheless there remains the ability to connect to the antagonist on some level, which makes the conflict less .... not less predictable exactly, but leaves the reader at least somewhat in sympathy with the aims of the basic motivation of the antagonist.
Perhaps takes a bit more credulity than some of the Sigma Force novels because of the supernatural and religious angle, but if you can tolerate that (or if you're already ready a Rebecca Cantrell fan, and so you know what you're getting into that way), worth a read.
While there were times when I wanted to smack a couple of the key protagonists, particularly Father Korza, whose self-flagellation wore on me, overall I am drawn to books where I am drawn to the characters and to the relationships between the characters, and I generally find the characters in this series to be interesting. They and their relationships develop over the course of the series, although Rollins does have a strange habit of occasionally going back and forth between using foreshadowing of coming character evolutions with sudden revelations that can seem rather abrupt.
I really do like that Rollins always seems to have one or two really quirky secondary characters - they usually have the best lines in the books.
Like most Rollins fare, this book has action, history, some science, and character interaction. It's heavier on the history and mythology than on the science, particularly since this series touches far more on the supernatural and focuses particularly on the Roman Catholic church. (Note: If you are a devout Catholic, although characters in the book are also devout Catholics, you may find some of the premises difficult to stomach, even as fiction.)
Rollins keeps the action moving, from start, and doesn't really ever stop, letting the reader stay just a step or two ahead of the characters (just enough to make us feel smugly superior to the characters but not enough to prevent surprises).
To borrow a phrase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer here, this time we find out more about the "Big Bad", but nonetheless there remains the ability to connect to the antagonist on some level, which makes the conflict less .... not less predictable exactly, but leaves the reader at least somewhat in sympathy with the aims of the basic motivation of the antagonist.
Perhaps takes a bit more credulity than some of the Sigma Force novels because of the supernatural and religious angle, but if you can tolerate that (or if you're already ready a Rebecca Cantrell fan, and so you know what you're getting into that way), worth a read.