lilyn_g's review
4.0
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author free for review consideration.
T. Eric Bakutis stepped from fantasy to science fiction as easily as someone taking a casual stroll down the block. The skills that enabled him to world-build so well without going overboard in his Tales of the Five Provinces series serve him equally well here. Supremacy’s Shadow is the first in a planned Dueling Planets series, and I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.
The main character, Hayden, is a very John McClane style smart aleck. He’s good at what he does, wants to protect people, and can’t keep his mouth shut. When he introduces himself as “Bucky Wonderballs” at one point in Supremacy’s Shadow, I about died laughing. I can see why some of the advance praise throws in some Deadpool references. There are characters in this book that leap right off the page. Some of the bad guys are truly bad. Others not so much. (I was actually a bit sad when one of them died!)The good guys don’t always make the right decisions. Sometimes the right decisions they do make are not easy ones. It’s nice. (Although I did get a bit tired of one character’s mental self-torture. I get it, I get it, you’re a good person who has to do bad things.)
Supremacy’s Shadow would be a fantastic book to adapt to film. It’s well-visualized with snappy dialogue and has the type of plot that movie-goers love to see. There are several good action scenes, with nicely timed lulls between them. Hayden’s background is explained smoothly without depending on a bunch of annoying flashbacks. There are enough twists to keep things interesting, and the adaptation might cut out the mental recriminations.
Overall, I enjoyed Supremacy’s Shadow. It was a bit of Die Hard (in the Future) fun. I can’t wait to read more from this series, and if Mr. Bakutis would just kindly keep his rear in the sci-fi genre for a while to keep giving me the books I need, I would greatly appreciate it.
T. Eric Bakutis stepped from fantasy to science fiction as easily as someone taking a casual stroll down the block. The skills that enabled him to world-build so well without going overboard in his Tales of the Five Provinces series serve him equally well here. Supremacy’s Shadow is the first in a planned Dueling Planets series, and I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.
The main character, Hayden, is a very John McClane style smart aleck. He’s good at what he does, wants to protect people, and can’t keep his mouth shut. When he introduces himself as “Bucky Wonderballs” at one point in Supremacy’s Shadow, I about died laughing. I can see why some of the advance praise throws in some Deadpool references. There are characters in this book that leap right off the page. Some of the bad guys are truly bad. Others not so much. (I was actually a bit sad when one of them died!)The good guys don’t always make the right decisions. Sometimes the right decisions they do make are not easy ones. It’s nice. (Although I did get a bit tired of one character’s mental self-torture. I get it, I get it, you’re a good person who has to do bad things.)
Supremacy’s Shadow would be a fantastic book to adapt to film. It’s well-visualized with snappy dialogue and has the type of plot that movie-goers love to see. There are several good action scenes, with nicely timed lulls between them. Hayden’s background is explained smoothly without depending on a bunch of annoying flashbacks. There are enough twists to keep things interesting, and the adaptation might cut out the mental recriminations.
Overall, I enjoyed Supremacy’s Shadow. It was a bit of Die Hard (in the Future) fun. I can’t wait to read more from this series, and if Mr. Bakutis would just kindly keep his rear in the sci-fi genre for a while to keep giving me the books I need, I would greatly appreciate it.
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