elzbethmrgn's Reviews (667)

 If you were thinking "I'd like a novel with the same humour as The Witcher, but set in medieval Europe and throw in some Czech heretics, but also I like magic and demons and shit", then why are you in my head and also this is the book for you.

A very silly romp, in that our hero doesn't stop thinking with his dick and then has to extricate himself from increasingly tricky situations.

If you're not as familiar or as keen on the history of the European church and it's dissenters as I am, skip the background chapter at the start - you don't need it.

I also genuinely forgot this is the start of a trilogy until I was on the last page wondering how it would wrap up, so the prospect of more pleases me greatly. 

 For a first outing, this isn't so bad. If you're into the absolute fine details of flight, space flight, space agencies and 70s cold war political strategy, you'll enjoy it. The page-turning element you want from a thriller is there. The characterisation and POV is wobbly, however, and could throw you from the story easily.

It feels like a paint-by-numbers, in which all the elements and plot beats a book needs are there, but in an unrefined way. Hadfield could definitely make a great thriller writer with more practice at smoothing the edges, and I would read the next one.