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A review by jonathan_von
Angel of Vengeance by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
3.0
3.5 Wow, book 22. Agent Pendergast and Constance finally kiss, it took 22 books! And they go back in time too!
Can you imagine? Relic was published in 1995! 22 books. I've spent so much time with a man who is simulationous the greatest cop of all time and a rich, pale, disturbed Louisana pervert. He's like a part of the family now. I think of Douglas Preston as an author who is "just ok" but also who I've read the most (more than 30). He's already one of the action-adventure writers of his generation, but throw Lincoln Child in there and you get smart well-plotted adventure PLUS weird gothic elements. Don't start here for God's sake, but you could probably start at Bloodless for this current arc of reinvigorated agent adventures.
Pendergast goes on a time-travel thriller romp with his classic crew; Constance, Vincent D'Gosta (from Relic!), and weirdly his evil genius brother Diogenes all find themselves in 1880 and have to outwit the evil Dr. Leng. This reaches way back into the Cabinet of Curiosities lore. And sets up a little more at the end. If you're a Constance fan, and I don't see why you wouldn't be, this is a treat.
I thought the first half of the book was better, however, because it had a lot of smart time-travel ideas and how incredibly well-educated evil geniuses and high-functioning sociopaths could take advantage of their situation in the past and use their environment strategically. This is some of the better writing from the team for a while for me as it was more like social engineering than the usual formula of FBI interrogations and melodrama. But then it goes into a series of gigantic thriller set pieces which, to be fair, is entirely what you expect from a Pendergast novel. But I had hoped their early time-travel schemes would factor more into the plot, so the change into adventure melodrama wasn't as fun for me. It's exciting and smartly written but turns a little corny in the last act. You know, I was secretly hoping the two leads would get together for these last 19 books. I'm glad it took irreversibly affecting the historical timeline to do it.
Can you imagine? Relic was published in 1995! 22 books. I've spent so much time with a man who is simulationous the greatest cop of all time and a rich, pale, disturbed Louisana pervert. He's like a part of the family now. I think of Douglas Preston as an author who is "just ok" but also who I've read the most (more than 30). He's already one of the action-adventure writers of his generation, but throw Lincoln Child in there and you get smart well-plotted adventure PLUS weird gothic elements. Don't start here for God's sake, but you could probably start at Bloodless for this current arc of reinvigorated agent adventures.
Pendergast goes on a time-travel thriller romp with his classic crew; Constance, Vincent D'Gosta (from Relic!), and weirdly his evil genius brother Diogenes all find themselves in 1880 and have to outwit the evil Dr. Leng. This reaches way back into the Cabinet of Curiosities lore. And sets up a little more at the end. If you're a Constance fan, and I don't see why you wouldn't be, this is a treat.
I thought the first half of the book was better, however, because it had a lot of smart time-travel ideas and how incredibly well-educated evil geniuses and high-functioning sociopaths could take advantage of their situation in the past and use their environment strategically. This is some of the better writing from the team for a while for me as it was more like social engineering than the usual formula of FBI interrogations and melodrama. But then it goes into a series of gigantic thriller set pieces which, to be fair, is entirely what you expect from a Pendergast novel. But I had hoped their early time-travel schemes would factor more into the plot, so the change into adventure melodrama wasn't as fun for me. It's exciting and smartly written but turns a little corny in the last act. You know, I was secretly hoping the two leads would get together for these last 19 books. I'm glad it took irreversibly affecting the historical timeline to do it.