Review: Tiamat's Wrath

Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This volume of the series almost seems deliberately written to challenge its own constructs. Holden isn't the throughline and barely does much of anything beyond his best impression of Princess Peach. And, knowing it's the penultimate volume, there's an air of doing both of wrapping certain things up while setting up what will happen in the final book. Clearing up things that aren't needed to make room for the bigger plot points. This causes some balance issues, but I'll get to that in a minute.

First off, I liked Teresa. She's a fleshed-out character that is different enough from previous characters to feel fresh and interesting. That's always the goal with new characters in long-running series, especially towards the end. I welcome her and was always excited to read a chapter from her perspective.

Second, some legacy characters felt dated. This is very true of Bobbie. Since Persepolis Rising, she just didn't feel like her old badass self. She has plenty to do in both the last book and this one, but her actions felt more like she was merely doing her part to push forward the plot. The Corey team also has a certain way of doing things and it creates telltale signs. What I mean is that a similar event happens to another legacy character and I knew it was a fake-out because they didn't handle it the same way. Anyone who has or is reading the book can probably understand my meaning.

The uneven nature of this book was perhaps more noticeable than in other volumes. When something exciting is happening, I couldn't put it down. But, when it was waiting for the next shoe to drop or balloon to go up, reading felt like a painful slog. Nothing about the book felt unnecessary but also felt like it was pushing for a word count quota.

I've made it this far and have one book left to go. While this volume has its issues, I'm honestly excited. It's been a long ass road and we're almost at the end. I suppose if this book got me excited for the next one than i suppose it has done its job.

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