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A review by bookph1le
Written in Fire by Marcus Sakey
4.0
It was a satisfying end to the trilogy, but a couple things about it weren't my favorite. Complete review to come.
Full review:
I was hooked on the Brilliance trilogy pretty much from the first page of the first book. The concept isn't particularly innovative, but superhero-type narratives appeal to me as a means of amplifying certain aspects of our world in order to observe them more closely. The attitudes people have toward "Brilliants" in this series mirror pretty much any "ism" you can imagine, the bottom line being the very real, very flawed propensity of the human inclination to label some people as "other", to retreat to an "us versus them" mentality in times of upheaval. Though I don't think the trilogy is necessarily a deep, insightful look into this tendency, I think it resonates as it does because most people can identify with having experienced this kind of world view. Some spoilers to follow.
Much as I liked this book, there were a couple of aspects that didn't sit all that well with me. One was that I thought Shannon was very underutilized. She doesn't play a huge role in previous books, as far as I can recall, but I would have liked to see more of her in this one. Instead, she's more like a tool for Nick to use whenever he has need of her. I don't mean that to be as severe a critique as it sounds, it's just that I was disappointed not to see more of her. For as much as I like Nick, I also liked having the chance to see how other Brilliants operated, and there didn't seem to me to be quite as much of that in this book as in the previous books.
The situation with Ethan's former mentor was also resolved somewhat unsatisfactorily for me. He felt more like a plot twist than like a character who really needed to be in the book, which was kind of a letdown. It also allows the author to leave some threads hanging, as he very obviously does at the end of the book. This won't be a bad thing if he does decide to revisit the world he's created here and address that very important question, but if that doesn't happen, I think it's a mark against this trilogy. I'm not sure leaving such a big question so open-ended is for the best.
I also didn't much care for the love triangle between Nick, Shannon, and his ex-wife. I saw it coming from a mile off and was impatient with it. I get it--throughout the series Nick feels a tension between the old world and the new world. He more or less symbolizes the whole thing, this attempt to mesh the "threat" of the new with the discomfort of the old, but the device didn't work for me in this case. It felt obvious to me which choice Nick would make in the end, and I was okay with that, I just wished the book hadn't bothered devoting page time to it. I'd have preferred to see that space devoted to something else--say Millie, who gets some very intriguing consideration in this book of which I would have liked to see more. To me she's one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in the series, and her plight is interesting enough I think she'd make for a great subject for another novel.
That aside, I did like this book, and I'm a big fan of the series. I understand it's been optioned for film, and if a movie version is made I will be standing in line to buy my tickets. This book is packed full of action, so it's easily one of those books where you'll turn pages, turn pages, and be disappointed when you reach the last one because it's so engrossing. Sakey's command of pacing is excellent, and when he does slow down the action a bit in favor of introspection, it never strikes me as draggy.
Nick is also an all-around great character. Aside from his powers, he isn't particularly unique as he's a fairly stock dude sticking up for justice, but he does react in ways that are surprising and sometimes unsavory. There's one action in particular that Nick takes in his book where I felt like he was very much splitting hairs, and it made for some interesting speculation as to how far is too far. I like this because it keeps Nick from being *too* perfect while also not pushing him so far outside of the box that I could no longer identify with him.
I did like that Nick's ex-wife was given more page space in this book, and particularly the author's method for giving her that space. Throughout the series she's been rather passive in that she stays home and holds down the fort while Nick rides off to be the hero. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but I like that this book acknowledges that she knows what's at stake and that she's willing to do whatever it takes to protect what's important to her.
I guess my biggest disappointment with this series is that it's over. While I am glad that it was kept within a reasonable scope--few things are worse to me than when an author gets stuck in a rut and keeps releasing books in a successful series, only to end up watering down the series and disappointing--it's a bummer to me that I won't have more of these books to look forward to in the future.
Full review:
I was hooked on the Brilliance trilogy pretty much from the first page of the first book. The concept isn't particularly innovative, but superhero-type narratives appeal to me as a means of amplifying certain aspects of our world in order to observe them more closely. The attitudes people have toward "Brilliants" in this series mirror pretty much any "ism" you can imagine, the bottom line being the very real, very flawed propensity of the human inclination to label some people as "other", to retreat to an "us versus them" mentality in times of upheaval. Though I don't think the trilogy is necessarily a deep, insightful look into this tendency, I think it resonates as it does because most people can identify with having experienced this kind of world view. Some spoilers to follow.
Much as I liked this book, there were a couple of aspects that didn't sit all that well with me. One was that I thought Shannon was very underutilized. She doesn't play a huge role in previous books, as far as I can recall, but I would have liked to see more of her in this one. Instead, she's more like a tool for Nick to use whenever he has need of her. I don't mean that to be as severe a critique as it sounds, it's just that I was disappointed not to see more of her. For as much as I like Nick, I also liked having the chance to see how other Brilliants operated, and there didn't seem to me to be quite as much of that in this book as in the previous books.
The situation with Ethan's former mentor was also resolved somewhat unsatisfactorily for me. He felt more like a plot twist than like a character who really needed to be in the book, which was kind of a letdown. It also allows the author to leave some threads hanging, as he very obviously does at the end of the book. This won't be a bad thing if he does decide to revisit the world he's created here and address that very important question, but if that doesn't happen, I think it's a mark against this trilogy. I'm not sure leaving such a big question so open-ended is for the best.
I also didn't much care for the love triangle between Nick, Shannon, and his ex-wife. I saw it coming from a mile off and was impatient with it. I get it--throughout the series Nick feels a tension between the old world and the new world. He more or less symbolizes the whole thing, this attempt to mesh the "threat" of the new with the discomfort of the old, but the device didn't work for me in this case. It felt obvious to me which choice Nick would make in the end, and I was okay with that, I just wished the book hadn't bothered devoting page time to it. I'd have preferred to see that space devoted to something else--say Millie, who gets some very intriguing consideration in this book of which I would have liked to see more. To me she's one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in the series, and her plight is interesting enough I think she'd make for a great subject for another novel.
That aside, I did like this book, and I'm a big fan of the series. I understand it's been optioned for film, and if a movie version is made I will be standing in line to buy my tickets. This book is packed full of action, so it's easily one of those books where you'll turn pages, turn pages, and be disappointed when you reach the last one because it's so engrossing. Sakey's command of pacing is excellent, and when he does slow down the action a bit in favor of introspection, it never strikes me as draggy.
Nick is also an all-around great character. Aside from his powers, he isn't particularly unique as he's a fairly stock dude sticking up for justice, but he does react in ways that are surprising and sometimes unsavory. There's one action in particular that Nick takes in his book where I felt like he was very much splitting hairs, and it made for some interesting speculation as to how far is too far. I like this because it keeps Nick from being *too* perfect while also not pushing him so far outside of the box that I could no longer identify with him.
I did like that Nick's ex-wife was given more page space in this book, and particularly the author's method for giving her that space. Throughout the series she's been rather passive in that she stays home and holds down the fort while Nick rides off to be the hero. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but I like that this book acknowledges that she knows what's at stake and that she's willing to do whatever it takes to protect what's important to her.
I guess my biggest disappointment with this series is that it's over. While I am glad that it was kept within a reasonable scope--few things are worse to me than when an author gets stuck in a rut and keeps releasing books in a successful series, only to end up watering down the series and disappointing--it's a bummer to me that I won't have more of these books to look forward to in the future.