The Wheel of Darkness (Special Agent Pendergast) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Wheel of Darkness (Special Agent Pendergast)
Book Review: It took me 2 years to complete
Summary: 2 Stars
I have read all the Pendergast books and usually eargerly await the new ones. However when this one came out back in '07 I started reading it and found it a little too out there so I put it down for a while. I kept picking it up and putting it down because I love the Pendergast character, but I hated what they did to him in this novel. If you're willing to reach and maybe have not read say Cabinet of Curiosities you may like this novel. However, if you have read the rest of the Pendergast novels be prepared to charge through this one... Hopefully their new one is better. Had Preston and Child not written a new Pendergast novel I doubt I would have ever finished this one.Book Review: Pendergast is awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
He is one of the best fictional heroes I've come across. cold, calculating and brutally brilliant!!
The story moves beautifully from the east to the west with a good mix of fantasy, religion, supernatural, and down to earth rotten villains. You'll love it if you are into the bizarre.
Book Review: Pendergast Interlude
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed the book, but was also disappointed. I'm a fan of Special Agent Pendergast so I'm pretty happy to tune in just to watch his usual antics. (P.S. Thanks for the shirtless scene, guys. Yum!) But Pendergast and his ward, Constance, seem locked in a stasis for this book when it comes to character development or meaningful conflict. Though Pendergast is theoretically concerned with his ward's mental health, and his efforts in that direction set up the plot, the book drops the ball, and if Pendergast is feeling any fallout himself from his harrowing and excruciatingly personal battle with Diogenes, we don't see it effect the course of events in any meaningful way.
I get that the authors want each book to stand alone, but that's no excuse for zero character arc. Of course it's nice that Agent P. saves the world, but it's just a mental exercise if we can't connect to the characters. Also missing was any acknowledgment the consequences of the Special Agent's single-minded and conscienceless manipulation of others in pursuit of the greater good. While I'm making up a wish list, another thing that would be nice is if he could be thwarted once in a while by his obvious flaws.
SPOILER! A missed opportunity was a point in the book where Pendergast becomes EVIL (!!!) Given how super human the authors have made this character, this could have, and I would argue, should have, been extremely terrifying. Instead, we learn that his big plan, now that he is a being of pure evil, is to hole up in his mansion with a few thousand good books. Which, I find kind of charming actually (see my fangirl confessions above) but still... Also disappointing was that he apparently has no romantic notions whatsoever towards Constance since he displays no sexual interest in her even when freed of all moral and cultural inhibitions. (So sue me! I like a bit of romance, and some sexual menace doesn't go amiss either.) I was so sure that Constance had a crush on her guardian, and that she would be made to painfully confront it.
I'm thinking of this as an entertaining interlude, and hoping that the next book will hit the ground running.
Book Review: Best of Preston
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fact-filled thriller. I can imagine the amount of research that Preston must have done before getting the plot together.
To anyone who thinks the Agozyen or the Tantra is anything funny, you need to learn a lot more about whats happening in the rest of the world.
Loved the book.
Waiting for more on the same lines..
Book Review: Enjoyable, if a little overly "exotic"
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed this book, I usually enjoy anything this writing team churns out. I read mostly as a leisure pursuit and this book is definately for those kind of moments. There were some interesting plot twists and it moved at a good pace. Some slight (nitpicking) issues with the UK setting for part of the plot, I have never seen a london cab at 110 miles per hour, and I don't think anyone has asked for a taxi from "your pool" of hotel taxis for about, er, forty years.
But thumbs up, enjoyed it and have passed it on to friends.