zak_martell's Reviews (277)

Not as interesting as the first book for me.

Quite disappointing compared to the first.
I felt Francis really took a backseat in this one. The cast of characters around him weren’t as interesting and multifaceted as in the first, and there felt as though there were fewer fun politicking moments. It seemed to all be build up until the very end whereas in the first book it was fun to see numerous reveals and scheming.

Enjoyable and informative.

Really interesting, enjoyable, and well written.

Mostly day one writing advice with no specific relevance to writing in the mystery genre.
20-25% Half decent and less talked about advice, but again not specific to writing mysteries.
If I was generous I’d say about the same of specific mystery writing advice, but if you don’t know how to write a mystery before you read this book, I don’t think that’ll be any different afterwards.

Also a healthy sprinkling of “advice” like ‘write a diverse group of characters,' back to back with advice to 'only write about minorities if you’re from those cultures.’
So the advice is to… what? Aim to be born into as many minority groups as possible?

Super dry. It’s interesting, but the most interesting parts were things I already knew.

I felt a little let down by the ending, but let it sit with me.
Perhaps I’ve just not got it yet.
Other than that, a very enjoyable book. It gave me 1984 vibes in the best way.

The midpoint could have done with being a chapter or two earlier for me and the ending was an unforeshadowed disappointment.
The book has some interesting surface level writing techniques, but the story itself lacked for my taste.

Decided it wasn’t for me.
Some ideas are interesting and the art is great, but some of the stories can barely be considered “stories” at all by most definitions.

Some good moments and Bill Willingham is an excellent storyteller as always.
I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first volume, but I will be certainly reading the third.