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roguebelle's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Disappointing. I’ve been a fan of the Pendergast novels for a long time, but the quality of the last several has really dropped off. They feel, on the whole, thinner than the early installments. The characters are recycled, predictable NPCs. The setting is a sketch, a pastiche of stereotypes, rather than a luxuriously rendered landscape. The details are less vivid, the main characters’ interiority less explored (save Pendergast and Constance, who have generally been enigmas even when POV characters; in them, I don’t mind it, because that’s par for the course. Coldmoon, sadly, remains a poor substitute for D’Agosta, and no reporter is ever as charming as poor Bill). The writing still has admirable turns if phrase, but its density is so much flimsier that it just sort of feels like the authors’ hearts weren’t in it — and that’s been true for several books now, including the Nora & Corrie spinoffs.
This book also jumps not just the shark but the megalodon where the technothriller aspects of the series are concerned. Part of what I loved about the early Pendergast books was the balance between the mystery and speculative elements. Nothing was ever *too* outre — even if it involved genetic manipulation or teratogenic drugs, there were still human actors behind everything, and nothing was wildly outside the realm of plausibility. The tech was generally just another step or two down the line of conjecture from what we can actually do in current reality. P&C used to not strain credulity *too* far. Constance might have unnaturally long life, but she isn’t Wolverine, y’know? And it’s so much more fun if the answer isn’t “the devil did it” or “ancient Egyptian curse”, but a diabolical human. Then the delight for the reader (this reader, anyway) is in the unfolding revelation of how that human made something *look* paranormal or supernatural — with radioactive material or panic-inducing tech or what have you. That was what made the closer-to-reality explanation *more* interesting than the paranormal/supernatural option.
In Bloodless… Well, to be frank, aliens might as well have landed. That’s how far into straight-up scifi P&C stray, but without even a bare attempt at explaining *how* the key plot mechanism works. Just “oh yeah a guy did a thing and it functions, somehow”. Deeply dissatisfying on multiple levels, for me.
As for the ending, Constance can STAY in 1880 as far as I'm concerned, and I hope the ambiguity around Pendergast doesn't indicate he's figured out some way to go after her. I am so bored of her. D&P should just go write her a totally separate series that I can blissfully avoid reading.
This book also jumps not just the shark but the megalodon where the technothriller aspects of the series are concerned. Part of what I loved about the early Pendergast books was the balance between the mystery and speculative elements. Nothing was ever *too* outre — even if it involved genetic manipulation or teratogenic drugs, there were still human actors behind everything, and nothing was wildly outside the realm of plausibility. The tech was generally just another step or two down the line of conjecture from what we can actually do in current reality. P&C used to not strain credulity *too* far. Constance might have unnaturally long life, but she isn’t Wolverine, y’know? And it’s so much more fun if the answer isn’t “the devil did it” or “ancient Egyptian curse”, but a diabolical human. Then the delight for the reader (this reader, anyway) is in the unfolding revelation of how that human made something *look* paranormal or supernatural — with radioactive material or panic-inducing tech or what have you. That was what made the closer-to-reality explanation *more* interesting than the paranormal/supernatural option.
In Bloodless… Well, to be frank, aliens might as well have landed. That’s how far into straight-up scifi P&C stray, but without even a bare attempt at explaining *how* the key plot mechanism works. Just “oh yeah a guy did a thing and it functions, somehow”. Deeply dissatisfying on multiple levels, for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Murder, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia
If you've read P&C before, you probably know to start wincing whenever there's a dog on the page, particularly if that dog is a scent-tracker. The incident in this book is really gory and highly detailed.
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