PopeStig
3/4/2014
A very uneven book.
The good:
The second half of the book managed to create a bit of interesting intrigue and set-up for subsequent books.
Some of the dialogue is quite good, and a few of Riordans deductions quite well done.
The bad:
Some of the language is a bit *ahem* rough. Undulating torsos and sinous women. Tsk tsk.
The women are tough as nails as long as there's not a man around to save them. Then they simper, refuse to go through doors or have irrational breakdowns. *ALL* the women with significant speaking parts fall for the main character and defer to him in his manliness.
The main character is flawless. His deductive powers make Sherlock seem a bit of an amateur. He's a bit like Superman sans kryptonite.
The pacing is very uneven. In the beginning there's a bit of set-up and then the plot jumps and skips ahead for a quarter of the book before suddenly slowing down to where the second (and best) half of the book is mainly dialogue. The planet-bound plot just stopped half-way through.
The baddies are Exxon, vegetarians, appeasement and space nazis. And not space nazis in a good way.
Irrelevant details are randomly given. In the middle of a bullet-fight, one of the protagonists stops to be grateful for the fact that Mars has a significantly lower gravity than Earth, because it enables him to lift something easier.