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A review by moreadsbooks
Written in Fire by Marcus Sakey
3.0
Immediate spoiler for A Better World!
It is juxtaposition that weighs heavy on my heart – how I like Nick Cooper a lot because he’s That Cop and I enjoy rooting for That Cop, but how I also wish he was dead. Like a bummer of a record stuck in the same skip, I just can’t review this book without getting this out of the way – I wish the dude was dead. I am still bitter about it.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s got the requisite ex-wife and kids, he originally believed in the rightness of his mission, then had his his faith shaken, then started to see the world differently and now he doesn't know What Side He's On. When Millicent, the little girl who can read people too well for her age and is thus jaded & monstrous calls him “pure” – well, of course she does, because that’s who he is. He’s the one who does the bad things only because he has to. He doesn’t like to be a meanie and torture people and all that, but sometimes the world demands it, and when the killing’s done, he can go home and have a wry yet tender relationship with his ex and play with his kids.
Ok, now that that's out of the way, this was a swell book until the end. It’s not often that books make me talk out loud to the room at large and this one had me say, “Oh, that’s bad,” not once but twice, so it’s got that going for it. I was thinking that it was practically a four-star book because I’m mad for a good vector of infection, but on the other hand, the end is a little too pat for me.In the midst of the fighting in the Holdfast, I would’ve liked maybe a little of the cavalry charge from, say, Natalie’s perspective? To go from her believing that it was basically all over and that she was going to have to fight to the death but then it’s a little while later & everything is A-OK because Nick saved the day with his broadcast was a bit much for me. Wouldn’t the time when everyone was transfixed by their d-pads watching Nick be the best time for the NSOL (ugh) to finish their so-far-triumphant charge? It’s too pat to say, well the military showed up just in time & bluffed & everyone who’d been thus far prepared to messily slaughter everyone in Tesla just stood down like NBD.
This gave me a lot of the same feeling that Abbadon’s Gate did, which was the reason I wanted to take a bit of a break from that series. The impotent rage I feel over dudes with guns that put everyone else in dangerthe death of Sam, the use here of children as human shields after killing most of the adults who were taking care of them & the justification of war & horror because someone else struck first & you need to get revenge – it’s probably monstrous of me, but I was totally unable to relate to Luke's actions or the actions of any of the other militia guys no matter whom they’d lost on December 1st even as I found the deaths of Luke's sons and "The thousands of times you told them you loved them provided no shelter" to be completely heartbreaking. I hate the concept of the New Sons of Liberty and militia bullshit with every fiber of my being, so I’m a total hypocrite and I was never going to be the person rooting for the “patriots.”
But the epilogue had me swooning because it’s PERFECTalthough I was thinking that John had told Hawk that it was Tabitha who was supposed to intercept Soren when he was freed so the reader knows that she’s been killed but Hawk doesn’t. Any thoughts on that? Was that Tabitha or not? so the high end of three stars on this one. On the whole, a fine series that ended well if you look past the forced ease of the end of the entire catalyst that drove the series in the first place.
It is juxtaposition that weighs heavy on my heart – how I like Nick Cooper a lot because he’s That Cop and I enjoy rooting for That Cop, but how I also wish he was dead. Like a bummer of a record stuck in the same skip, I just can’t review this book without getting this out of the way – I wish the dude was dead. I am still bitter about it.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s got the requisite ex-wife and kids, he originally believed in the rightness of his mission, then had his his faith shaken, then started to see the world differently and now he doesn't know What Side He's On. When Millicent, the little girl who can read people too well for her age and is thus jaded & monstrous calls him “pure” – well, of course she does, because that’s who he is. He’s the one who does the bad things only because he has to. He doesn’t like to be a meanie and torture people and all that, but sometimes the world demands it, and when the killing’s done, he can go home and have a wry yet tender relationship with his ex and play with his kids.
Ok, now that that's out of the way, this was a swell book until the end. It’s not often that books make me talk out loud to the room at large and this one had me say, “Oh, that’s bad,” not once but twice, so it’s got that going for it. I was thinking that it was practically a four-star book because I’m mad for a good vector of infection, but on the other hand, the end is a little too pat for me.
This gave me a lot of the same feeling that Abbadon’s Gate did, which was the reason I wanted to take a bit of a break from that series. The impotent rage I feel over dudes with guns that put everyone else in danger
But the epilogue had me swooning because it’s PERFECT