hoatzin 's review for:

The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

4.0

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It’s quite interesting to go back in time and read an earlier book by a now-beloved author and see how some things changed and some things didn’t. You can see the basis of her modern style but some things are different. The snappy dialogue and intricate characters are there already. On the other hand, I felt that it could’ve been trimmed in spots. Entire scenes where her modern books would explain it away in a sentence and you’d get the same impact. The characters are slightly slower to fall in love with than say Murderbot or Moon who I loved from page 1. But by the time they got to the (first) ruined mansion I was ready to go to bat for Nicholas and Madeline and Arisilde and Nicholas’ favorite enemy the Inspector and his doctor companion. The constant push-and-pull cat-and-mouse of their relationship delighted me and the set up of it made me cackle at the final chapter’s payoff.

I know they’re making a murderbot show but I honestly think this would make a better one. Or a movie! This would be a great movie