Last Argument of Kings

by Joe Abercrombie
670 pgs  (First Law series #3)

Last Argument of Kings concludes Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. And although he has, and still is writing books that take place in the world of the First Law, the story arc he began with The Blade Itself has ended.

The Union is in a precarious position. The King is dead, along with both of his male heirs, and with no clear succession plan in place, and with an approaching war with the Empire of Gurkhul looming, the ultimate fate of the Union is unsure.

For years, Bayaz, the ancient First of the Magi, has been preparing for this exact moment, and has been laying the groundwork for a plan that will put a man on the throne whom he will have full control over. For years he's been grooming Jezal, the arrogant young swordsman, who turns out to be the bastard son of the old King, and as such, is the closest thing to a rightful heir alive.

Meanwhile, Logen Ninefingers, the barbarian warrior, has returned to the North to settle a score with King Bethod, and Glokta, the torturer, finds himself in Agriont in the middle of the Gurkish invasion.

Last Argument of Kings is a rewarding conclusion to Abercrombie's series. It's full of bloody battles and ruthless scenes of torture at Glokta's hands. But even better than those aspects of the story, is the extent of the political machinations rewardingly revealed by Abercrombie by the end.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Malta Exchange

by Steve Berry
401 pgs  (Cotton Malone series #14)

The Malta Exchange begins with Cotton Malone arriving in Italy, on a special assignment from MI6 to track down letters between Winston Churchill and Mussolini, rumored to have been exchanged during the early stages of World War II. These letters are believed to reveal embarrassing information outlining a deal Churchill tried to make with the Italian dictator, which would have kept Italy from entering the war. But this is a Steve Berry book, so things are never as easy for Cotton as they could be, and he soon finds himself being shot at and attacked by a bear.

The trail to the letters leads Malone to Cardinal Gallo, who has his sights set on becoming the next Pope. But Gallo, whose ascendancy to power within the Catholic Church has been the result of plots, blackmail, and murder, is a man driven by power and control, instead of faith and devotion to his religion.

Berry's love for history is fully displayed in The Malta Exchange, and it was those elements of the story that kept me interested and turning the pages. There are long passages focused on Constantine and the origins of the Catholic Church that I found to be the most entertaining parts of the story. Unfortunately, the plot itself was a little tiresome and the action wasn't up to what I've come to expect from Berry. Hopefully he returns to form with The Warsaw Protocol next year.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Crucible

by James Rollins
461 pgs  (Sigma series #14)

In Crucible, James Rollins's latest Sigma Force novel, Gray and Monk return to Monk's house late on Christmas Eve to find the house in disarray, Kat, Monk's wife, comatose from a blow to the head, and Monk's two daughters along with Gray's pregnant companion Seichan missing. With the help of Painter Crowe and their resources at DARPA, they quickly learn that the those responsible are also tied to the deaths of five women in Portugal the same night, women who were the leaders of a network of scientists funding groundbreaking advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) technology.

The Sigma team must simultaneously search for their team's loved ones, make heart-wrenching decisions as the extent of Kat's injury becomes clearer, and stop a group determined to use AI to send the world back to where it was hundreds of years ago.

Crucible is a fun and action-packed read. Rollins delivers what I've come to hope for and expect with his books. I turn off my sense of realism and just go along for the ride. There are definitely a few over-the-top elements to the story, but Rollins has become pretty adept at describing those and incorporating them int his stories in such a way that they almost seem plausible.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Call of Earth

by Orson Scott Card
304 pgs  (Homecoming series #2)

The Call of Earth, book two in Orson Scott Card's Homecoming series, picks up right where The Memory of Earth left off. Nafai and the rest of Volemak's family, having been directed by the Oversoul through dreams to flee the city of Basilica, have begun their journey through the desert. General Moozh, using forbidden technology, has begun the systematic conquering of the surrounding cities in preparation for taking control of Basilica soon. All while many have begun having unsettling dreams. But these aren't sent by the Oversoul, these are sent by the Keeper of Earth, millions of light years away.

I enjoyed The Memory of Earth, but didn't think it was anything special, at least, not in comparison to Card's Ender series. I was pleased to find that The Call of Earth offered more promise than it did. It reinforced my decision to continue reading the series, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Midnight Sun

by Jo Nesbø
273 pgs

I get excited when an author, who writes a series I follow, comes out with a stand-alone book. It's ice to be introduced to a new character, with the understanding that everything the author is ever going to tell you about him or her is contained in this one single book. Nesbø, who has his fantastic series featuring Norwegian police detective Harry Hole, has done this a few times now.

Midnight Sun begins when Jon Hansen, who goes by "Ulf," gets off a bus in a small town near the Arctic Ocean in Norway. He's a small-time hashish dealer, who only began dealing in order to feed his own use of the drug, and he's living on the run, hiding from killers hired by a powerful drug lord known as the Fisherman he double crossed. Ulf is hoping this small town, where the sun doesn't set for six months of the year, will provide an ideal place for him to disappear.

But Ulf isn't there long before he begins to become infatuated with Lea, the daughter of the town's minister, and fond of her ten-year-old son Knut. They're devout members of the fundamentalist Lutheran sect in town, which makes for an interesting dynamic between them as their relationship grows, and it's their relationship that Nesbø places at the center of his story. Even as the action picks up and the Fisherman's men begin to close in on Ulf, his relationship with Lea and Knut remain the biggest part of Nesbø's story.

Midnight Sun is a quick, enjoyable book. Like Blood on Snow, Nesbø's last stand-alone book, it's shorter than any of the Harry Hole books, and focuses more on the relationships between characters than on the mysteries surrounding a crime. But it still showcases Nesbø's ability to tell a great story.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington

by Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch
358 pgs

As a writer, Brad Meltzer has his strengths and his weaknesses. I'll start with the latter: his dialogue. I've never been impressed with it. In fact, I was so put off by it in The Inner Circle, that I didn't read another one of his books for seven years. If The Escape Artist hadn't been about Harry Houdini, whom I find fascinating, I probably wouldn't have picked that one up either. Where Meltzer shines, however, is in his ability to dig up interesting, and usually obscure, mysteries and conspiracies from our country's past and build an entertaining plot out of them.

So, when I heard about his latest book, a non-fiction story about a conspiracy to assassinate George Washington, I was pretty confident I was going to like it. It had what I was looking for in a Meltzer book, but, since it was non-fiction, it likely wouldn't have much dialogue written by him. Win-win.

Meltzer tells the story of the conspiracy, which was put into motion during the early months of the Revolutionary War, to kill General Washington. It involved the Governor of New York, who was one of many loyalists to Great Britain living among the colonies at the time, a group of counterfeiters, and an iron mill forman who recruited loyalists to the cause.

My initial assumptions about the book proved true. It showcases what Meltzer is bast at, with little need for what he's weak at. His account of this little-known piece of history is fascinating, and it left me wondering why I'd never heard anything about it before.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Hunger

by Alma Katsu
373 pgs

In The Hunger, Alma Katsu takes the story of the Donner Party, and adds an element of the supernatural to it. The result is an eerie, captivating story that will likely alter the way you think about that ill-fated group of pioneers going forward.

The book starts at the end of their story, when the small group of survivors is found, emaciated and near death, and then it jumps back to the start of their journey from Independence, Missouri in the late spring of 1846. It's clear Katsu tried to stay as true to the actual people in the Donner Party, and to the myriad of misfortunes they encountered, as she could, while simultaneously injecting the supernatural elements she devised into the narration. And it's the combination of both the fiction and the non-fiction that had me so entertained.

Everyone knows what the story of the Donner Party is all about, and to say anything specific about what Katsu added to it would only ruin it for others. So, I think it's best to leave it at that. It's definitely worth the read.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆