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A review by thekarpuk
The Russia Shift by Antony Johnston
3.0
This book falls short just as I was really ready to add the series to my Comixology subscriptions. For all but the last issue of the first book, it's an interesting sci fi mystery with less than conventional characters, a world that felt well thought out and reasonably complicated. I enjoyed watching these prickly space cops try to solve a politically charged crime on a space station.
And then the last issue went and Scooby-Dooed the whole damn thing. The killer goes on a long ramble about their motive and reasons, running through the entire series of events, as though trying to pitch a book deal.
This story didn't need easy answers. We could have had the detectives figure out most of this on their own, and just infer the rest. Subtlety would have saved the day on this one. A gritty world doesn't need characters spelling out their motives like a one man show.
It's like if The Wire had ended a season with Avon Barksdale explaining his criminal empire to McNulty at gunpoint on the edge of a rooftop. Just silly.
And then the last issue went and Scooby-Dooed the whole damn thing. The killer goes on a long ramble about their motive and reasons, running through the entire series of events, as though trying to pitch a book deal.
This story didn't need easy answers. We could have had the detectives figure out most of this on their own, and just infer the rest. Subtlety would have saved the day on this one. A gritty world doesn't need characters spelling out their motives like a one man show.
It's like if The Wire had ended a season with Avon Barksdale explaining his criminal empire to McNulty at gunpoint on the edge of a rooftop. Just silly.