Steve McHugh

Nate Garrett has dealt with Pandora before and is even fond of her. Pandora is a weapon for chaos and turmoil that was created by forcing a demon (Pandora) into a human body (Hope). After the war between the Olympians and the Titans, she was imprisoned but she escaped once in the late 1930's can she do it again? Or did she inspire others in Tartarus to try and escape? Nate is the one that was sent to capture her in 1939 but maybe she set her plan in motion then and it is just now coming to show more fruition.

This is a fast paced novel and has nice twists and turns. The reason I gave it three stars is because it wasn't as rich a story as the three before. While it is filled with witches, Olympians & Titans it just seems like Nate is just running from fight to fight. The twist toward the end is good but not enough to make it a richer story. I do believe it is a good read and will continue with the series but it is not up to the level that I have come to expect from the series. show less

Disappointing

I pre-ordered this when it was first announced and had been looking forward to reading it, but I was actually tempted to give up and not bother finishing the book.

Why? Firstly the tediously repetitive swearing by virtually every character. I am coming to really detest such lazy writing. If the author wants to portray most of his characters as foul-mouthed, at least he could introduce some variety, rather than using one word to death and beyond.

Secondly, there was too much show more information and plot building conveyed by lengthy conversations which lacked distinctive character voices and styles or the use of some descriptive prose to help the reader keep track of who was saying what.

Thirdly, I found the splitting of the narrative between Nate in the earth realm and Layla and her team in the various realms they visited acted the reduce tension rather than building it.

Fourthly, the power (or “powers”, so comic-book has the writing become) of the protagonists has now grown to such an extent that any tactical thinking seems to have been dropped in favour of exchanging huge blows that fling an opponent through walls or break them to pieces, only to have them immediately healed and entering the battle again. What works in a two hour movie or an image-based comic does not work so well in a full length novel.

What has happened to the character development of the earlier books - the very thing that makes you want to keep reading about them? If this had been the first McHugh novel I had read I would not have been hooked on the series. Sadly, I think this is going to be the last. show less

Fast-paced and engrossing. Pity about the profanity

Fast-paced and engrossing as always. Pity about the incessant, monotonous and anachronous profanity. In the first Hellequin book McHugh avoided carrying modern swear-words into the chapters which took place in medieval France - in this one, which falls entirely in the reign of Richard III, he seems to have forgotten that sensitivity to period. He is so inventive in his characters and situations that it is surprising that he can't come up show more with more than one word to use as an intensifier.

That said, he has come up with an intriguing take on the mysterious disappearance of "the princes in the tower". show less

This was sweet but rather short ride.

In essence this is revenge story. Main character, Celine Moro, is member of elite law enforcing agency on planet Euria. Because of her investigations into the corruption and spreading of highly addictive drug she gets targeted by the ruling criminal boss and this unfortunately costs lives of every person Celine knows or has worked with.

So when opportunity comes forward for Celine to take her revenge she takes it and oh boy does she take it with so much show more gusto.

All in all pretty good story. It feels like author's foray outside the other book series he authored and that shows because entire feel of the story is like a pilot episode. It is very visual and action dominates from the very start. I truly hope author continues with the series.

If story was set in current day and time it would be treated in a same way as say Terminal List - revenge porn as critics like to say for the latter. For me they are both about revenge, would not call it revenge porn because in both books protagonists are people with some very "special set of skills" and are capable of hard hitting people and organizations that cause them harm. Is this different from say Man on Fire or similar works? No, but people like to draw parallels to their worlds if story is set in contemporary times and not amongst the stars. Because, you know stories set in our times need to be "politically enlightened". Ha!

Only thing that slightly annoyed me is that man-woman relations seem to be so pre-21st century (like same sex relations never existed before) so similar to Inscape we have the oh-be-contemporary approach here. If it weren't for all the social upheaval about this I would not even notice but unfortunately it is very hard to not notice it nowadays and it seems like one of those boxes to check to be considered modern! Ha!

All in all interesting story, well paced and with interesting universe and characters. Hopefully there will be continuation in some form or other soon.

Recommended to all fans of SF action. show less