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A review by aceinit
The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon
3.0
Longer review to follow, as time permits.
Mild Spoilers for plot elements, but no big reveals.
The short version:
Paige’s return to London does its best to not fall victim to middle-book-in-a-series-syndrome, but it is definitely slow to get the ball rolling. We get to see quite a bit of Paige’s daily life as she becomes Scion London’s most wanted, but unfortunately slices of life aren’t particularly interesting. The characterizations of The Seven Seals fall flat, and the more time you spend with them, you realize how largely interchangeable the members of Jaxon’s gang are. Though almost everyone is harboring their own little secrets, the characters are never sufficiently fleshed out enough for them to be interested.
Even as a larger conspiracy begins to unfold involving the Syndicate, the book had a hard time holding my interest. Even as the Rephaim slowly begin to resurface in London, the book had a hard time holding my interest. The mysteries remain a little too vague, for the sake of a big reveal towards the end, but even if you are only halfway paying attention, they aren’t that hard to figure out.
And when we get down to the Hunger-Games style battle royale that is the
The book ends on a whallop of a cliffhanger that will leave you wanting the third installment ASAP. And the ending does pack a whallop even though I’d figured it out the last big reveal before the halfway point.
I am hoping that the pace will increase a bit in book 3, and that we will get to see the Syndicate as something more than a gathering of thugs, and really delve into their powers. After being so pleasantly surprised by the first book, I can’t help but feel let down upon completing the second.
Mild Spoilers for plot elements, but no big reveals.
The short version:
Paige’s return to London does its best to not fall victim to middle-book-in-a-series-syndrome, but it is definitely slow to get the ball rolling. We get to see quite a bit of Paige’s daily life as she becomes Scion London’s most wanted, but unfortunately slices of life aren’t particularly interesting. The characterizations of The Seven Seals fall flat, and the more time you spend with them, you realize how largely interchangeable the members of Jaxon’s gang are. Though almost everyone is harboring their own little secrets, the characters are never sufficiently fleshed out enough for them to be interested.
Even as a larger conspiracy begins to unfold involving the Syndicate, the book had a hard time holding my interest. Even as the Rephaim slowly begin to resurface in London, the book had a hard time holding my interest. The mysteries remain a little too vague, for the sake of a big reveal towards the end, but even if you are only halfway paying attention, they aren’t that hard to figure out.
And when we get down to the Hunger-Games style battle royale that is the
Spoiler
Scrimmage...well, come on, we’re dealing with all kinds of interesting and powerful clairvoyants here. Couldn’t Shannon come up with something more inventive than a giant death-match brawl to choose the next Underlord? I mean really? That's all we get, the go-to dystopian YA horror plot device of the moment? Just stick them all in a ring and let them quite literally fight it out? Forgo all the cool types of voyants and what they can do, blame a lack of numa, and just let everyone beat the crap out of each other with the occasional dash of voyance thrown in, usually from Paige, whose gifts we are most familiar with? Really? The only thing that saves it is the trick used by the victor to eventually become the victor, because it was lovely to see that particular loser so brutally humbled.The book ends on a whallop of a cliffhanger that will leave you wanting the third installment ASAP. And the ending does pack a whallop even though I’d figured it out the last big reveal before the halfway point.
I am hoping that the pace will increase a bit in book 3, and that we will get to see the Syndicate as something more than a gathering of thugs, and really delve into their powers. After being so pleasantly surprised by the first book, I can’t help but feel let down upon completing the second.