A review by recursivehaiku
Caine Black Knife by Matthew Woodring Stover
4.0
How i rate books:
5- Blew me away
4- Loved it
3- Liked it
2- Disliked it
1- Hated it
Rating: 3.75 / 5
Before we begin, here are some reasons NOT to read this book if you are not into these things:
- Lots and lots of swearing. Very creative swearing, granted. But probably three times more swearing than in other books nonetheless.
- Violence is the solution to everything (due to the attitude of our main PoV).
- Graphic torture scenes.
My two cents:
This book is a lot shorter than the previous installment. It also dispenses with the metaphysical themes. We get a fairly straight forward tale of action, intrigue and betrayal. But, the story is told from two perspectives. One is the 25-year-old Hari Michaelson during his breakthrough mission. The other perspective is the 50-something-year-old Caine (no, not Hari; Caine) being pulled into a hairy situation by one of his acquaintances.
The timeline from the past is well put together and gets resolved satisfyingly. The timeline from the present however feels a bit rushed. We get presented lots and lots of information, which explains the situation that Caine finds himself in. But sadly, the present timeline is somewhat rushed. It could probably have benefitted from around 100 or so more pages. Lots of characters, some of them supposed to be central to the narrative, are briefly introduced only to be never mentioned again or not play a role at all. Maybe this is due to set up for the last book. But still, not elegantly handled here.
Besides the issues of the present timeline, this book is somewhat of a return to form, like in the first installment. However, in terms of the feeling, the first novel was a standalone movie and this book is the third episode of an ongoing show. Much of what happens here is exposition, topped off with a giant cliffhanger. Would this series have ended after this book, it would have left a sour taste in my mouth.
The last point worth mentioning is that this is very much a Caine novel. The distinctive narrative voice is back, and it is great as always. Caine disrespects people, kills people, betrays people, just makes life miserable for people. All while doing it in a highly entertaining way (he is, after all, an actor). Action is always only a few pages away, and it is superbly written, as should be expected from a Caine book.
I hope that the last book is a step up from this novel. All in all this thing could have been longer, but after the last book i can't blame MWS for cutting down on the page numbers. A solid and enjoyable read, but not as good as the first two novels.
5- Blew me away
4- Loved it
3- Liked it
2- Disliked it
1- Hated it
Rating: 3.75 / 5
Before we begin, here are some reasons NOT to read this book if you are not into these things:
- Lots and lots of swearing. Very creative swearing, granted. But probably three times more swearing than in other books nonetheless.
- Violence is the solution to everything (due to the attitude of our main PoV).
- Graphic torture scenes.
My two cents:
This book is a lot shorter than the previous installment. It also dispenses with the metaphysical themes. We get a fairly straight forward tale of action, intrigue and betrayal. But, the story is told from two perspectives. One is the 25-year-old Hari Michaelson during his breakthrough mission. The other perspective is the 50-something-year-old Caine (no, not Hari; Caine) being pulled into a hairy situation by one of his acquaintances.
The timeline from the past is well put together and gets resolved satisfyingly. The timeline from the present however feels a bit rushed. We get presented lots and lots of information, which explains the situation that Caine finds himself in. But sadly, the present timeline is somewhat rushed. It could probably have benefitted from around 100 or so more pages. Lots of characters, some of them supposed to be central to the narrative, are briefly introduced only to be never mentioned again or not play a role at all. Maybe this is due to set up for the last book. But still, not elegantly handled here.
Besides the issues of the present timeline, this book is somewhat of a return to form, like in the first installment. However, in terms of the feeling, the first novel was a standalone movie and this book is the third episode of an ongoing show. Much of what happens here is exposition, topped off with a giant cliffhanger. Would this series have ended after this book, it would have left a sour taste in my mouth.
The last point worth mentioning is that this is very much a Caine novel. The distinctive narrative voice is back, and it is great as always. Caine disrespects people, kills people, betrays people, just makes life miserable for people. All while doing it in a highly entertaining way (he is, after all, an actor). Action is always only a few pages away, and it is superbly written, as should be expected from a Caine book.
I hope that the last book is a step up from this novel. All in all this thing could have been longer, but after the last book i can't blame MWS for cutting down on the page numbers. A solid and enjoyable read, but not as good as the first two novels.