Tuesday 1 February 2011

Book Report #8 of 26

by

Book 2 of the Netherworld trilogy.

Another fast-paced read. We follow agent Rook and Plesur into the wilds of the uninsured territories of New Jersey still being chased by unknown forces who are trying to kill Plesur and the knowledge that is locked in her brain.  Along the way we pick up two new characters and we get to learn more about the past of this near-future.

The text and art still work well together although I found the story dragged on a bit.  Part of the reason was just the nature of a book 2 of 3.  The second book tends to delve into the background a bit more and the plot usually slows down until book 3.  Learning about the Emergency and how pleasure models came to be was interesting but where the story nearly lost me was in the endless chases and escapes. They felt like they were there just to fill pages.  Because the author had the benefit of an artist he did not have to spend too much time describing the settings which made wading through this second book manageable.

The new characters, the military robots and the use of "ear backs", chips that can be inserted behind the ear to add intelligence, skills and new personalities, were fresh ideas that I liked.  Alas, the situations our four characters find themselves in seemed all too familiar which made for a book that was a bit of a let-down from the first.

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