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A review by sstarke
Written in Fire by Marcus Sakey
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this entire series. This was perhaps the best book out of the three, though the first book comes close. I found myself rooting for a terrorist 3/4 of the way through after being furious that he wasn't killed earlier when there was an obvious chance. I think I that speaks to the storytelling ability of the author.
I also felt really satisfied with the ending. There was a big emotional moment, some good resolution of loose strings, then a quiet reminder that everything wasn't wrapped up as nicely as the main characters believed. There was a surprising amount of realism in the story, and I loved how there are fuzzy lines of morality around every single character. There are no absolute good guys or absolute evil ones (well, maybe one... unsurprisingly, a politician). Those shades of gray throughout are incredibly satisfying.
As far as frustration points, there were a few moments where the story went off the rails, at least in my mind. Some things are a little too perfectly chaotic with plans that save the day just in the nick of time. Other, smaller, characters don't seem to act in a way consistent with how someone like that would. But that's predictable with any story like this,and it didn't take away from things too much.
I'm not a huge fan of Luke Daniels as a narrator, but he did a good job on this book. The narration was definitely the strongest here compared to the other books in the series. Overall, this was a great, very entertaining read.
I also felt really satisfied with the ending. There was a big emotional moment, some good resolution of loose strings, then a quiet reminder that everything wasn't wrapped up as nicely as the main characters believed. There was a surprising amount of realism in the story, and I loved how there are fuzzy lines of morality around every single character. There are no absolute good guys or absolute evil ones (well, maybe one... unsurprisingly, a politician). Those shades of gray throughout are incredibly satisfying.
As far as frustration points, there were a few moments where the story went off the rails, at least in my mind. Some things are a little too perfectly chaotic with plans that save the day just in the nick of time. Other, smaller, characters don't seem to act in a way consistent with how someone like that would. But that's predictable with any story like this,and it didn't take away from things too much.
I'm not a huge fan of Luke Daniels as a narrator, but he did a good job on this book. The narration was definitely the strongest here compared to the other books in the series. Overall, this was a great, very entertaining read.