Scan barcode
A review by yevolem
Hell Hath No Fury by David Weber, Linda Evans
5.0
This a direct continuation of the first book. It would seem it's to be considered a single long book rather than separate books as the first book just ends and this one immediately picks up where it left off. Since this one ends on a complete cliffhanger, I have no doubt that the third book will do the same. This isn't something that bothers me, but apparently it bothers a lot of others.
While there still is a lot of political intrigue and maneuvering of all sorts, this second book has significantly more battle scenes, though many of them aren't much of a battle as it were. Information warfare is also a key part of what happens, as many of the characters act based on the propaganda they've been told, almost every event is rife with misunderstandings, and many mistakes are made due to insufficient information.
There's a scene where a guy, dressed only in his underwear because it's a a night raid, uses a shotgun to shoot down several griffins in one shot one kill style. Another scene that I particularly enjoyed was the usage of artillery cannons against an oncoming dragon strike. In a last ditch effort, one guy takes a grenade launcher and launches a grenade into a dragon's mouth to predictable effect.
The cast of characters is huge, but most of them are killed rather quickly. I'm almost entirely certain this has far and away the most viewpoint characters that have been killed of anything I've read. There are many characters that are introduced and die in a single chapter. Indeed, there are those who only last for a few paragraphs before meeting their end. While there are a few important characters who continue to survive, they are the exception. Several times a viewpoint character will be in mid-thought or action and their perspective abruptly ends because they died.
Overall this is much more about the war effort from both sides rather than any individual characters. If you need a lot of character development or emotional connection to the characters through their progression, then you'll probably be disappointed, because that isn't really what's going on here for almost any of the characters.
While the problems mentioned about the previous book are there still there, most of them have been lessened. They aren't anything more to me than quibbles. I enjoyed this book more than the first and I continue to be surprised by how much I'm enjoying reading it. It's just a lot of fun and not much else, though that's working more than well enough for me.
Rating: 4.5/5
While there still is a lot of political intrigue and maneuvering of all sorts, this second book has significantly more battle scenes, though many of them aren't much of a battle as it were. Information warfare is also a key part of what happens, as many of the characters act based on the propaganda they've been told, almost every event is rife with misunderstandings, and many mistakes are made due to insufficient information.
There's a scene where a guy, dressed only in his underwear because it's a a night raid, uses a shotgun to shoot down several griffins in one shot one kill style. Another scene that I particularly enjoyed was the usage of artillery cannons against an oncoming dragon strike. In a last ditch effort, one guy takes a grenade launcher and launches a grenade into a dragon's mouth to predictable effect.
The cast of characters is huge, but most of them are killed rather quickly. I'm almost entirely certain this has far and away the most viewpoint characters that have been killed of anything I've read. There are many characters that are introduced and die in a single chapter. Indeed, there are those who only last for a few paragraphs before meeting their end. While there are a few important characters who continue to survive, they are the exception. Several times a viewpoint character will be in mid-thought or action and their perspective abruptly ends because they died.
Overall this is much more about the war effort from both sides rather than any individual characters. If you need a lot of character development or emotional connection to the characters through their progression, then you'll probably be disappointed, because that isn't really what's going on here for almost any of the characters.
While the problems mentioned about the previous book are there still there, most of them have been lessened. They aren't anything more to me than quibbles. I enjoyed this book more than the first and I continue to be surprised by how much I'm enjoying reading it. It's just a lot of fun and not much else, though that's working more than well enough for me.
Rating: 4.5/5