Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates

Fun. Jade is in need of a holiday after yet another bruising encounter as a bouncer in Riz's bar. Fortunetly Megan is still around three years after the first book, to take up Jade's invitiation to the Snow Festival.

Chaos and politics occasion, but as long as jade can find someone to hit she'll be fine. On the otherhand when Megan's old friend Louis turns up Jades finsds herself surprisingly annoyed at how close they are - but then he must be the reason for all the local problems.

It's fun, doesnt' take itself at all seriously, manages to get in some wry commentry on religions and politics, and Jade gets into some good scraps too. If you can cope iwth the 4dimensional Greest transfer stations, it's at least as much fun as the 1st in the show more series was.

If only there were more. show less

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first. Jade seemed to act out-of-character, one minutes worried about being found out, the next making a huge scene in front of the very people she wanted to hide from. And her relationship with Megan was odd - friends or lovers or something in between - it was all very vague. And the end felt rushed. The whole mystery of who killed the victims dragged on, and then bam! Mystery solved in a paragraph, with minimal effort or detail. The world-building had depth and detail, which I liked, and I felt the premise of the entire story was strong. And it was clear that Goldin meant for there to be more books, but never wrote them. At least two of storylines - one started in the previous book - where not show more resolved. In the end, I'm glad I read this, I like where Goldin was going and his universe has some interesting twists (The Greest, for example), but this isn't a strong story because he has the characters act outside of the personality he already established for them. show less