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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2015
Guillermo is having a very bad week. He and his sidekick bodyguard Dervish are set upon by alien ‘bug’ forces from above and below this Five Rings world. As one of the few surviving Terrans Guillermo is fulsomely loathed for his species’ earlier Phaedran Empire, and frankly, he could care less. As he and Dervish set about solving a recent horrific series of crimes onworld, they also struggle to help the bug Queen save her realm.
If relentless, unabashed, take-no-prisoners action is what you crave you can't go wrong with ‘The Terminarch Plot’. The action, dialogue, humor, repartee, and multiple escapes through pheromonally appalling sewers will have you reeling. Many of the novel’s SF elements come at the genre from a different, fresh angle. For example, the bugs’ communication occurs via complex layers of body language and pheromonal (olfactory) emissions. It is made to sound at once entirely plausible, and hilarious.
'The Terminarch Plot' is a hybrid SF action novel with strong elements of Philip Marlowe. The strengths of both genres come through, combining visceral action with Guillermo’s distinctive ‘detective’ voice. It’s hard to imagine a better foil to his mordant banter than the very literal Dervish, tasked by the Queen to protect Guillermo unto death.
My only caveat is the action rarely lets up, though the repartee and humor does bring relief. The story is narrated in the third person, unlike the detective genre. In a sense it is told over Guillermo’s shoulder, so we hear some of his internal monologue while allowing the action to unfold with an objective, cinematic smoothness.
Overall this novel makes for a very entertaining foray into a different kind of SF. I'm looking forward to reading the 2nd book in this series!
If relentless, unabashed, take-no-prisoners action is what you crave you can't go wrong with ‘The Terminarch Plot’. The action, dialogue, humor, repartee, and multiple escapes through pheromonally appalling sewers will have you reeling. Many of the novel’s SF elements come at the genre from a different, fresh angle. For example, the bugs’ communication occurs via complex layers of body language and pheromonal (olfactory) emissions. It is made to sound at once entirely plausible, and hilarious.
'The Terminarch Plot' is a hybrid SF action novel with strong elements of Philip Marlowe. The strengths of both genres come through, combining visceral action with Guillermo’s distinctive ‘detective’ voice. It’s hard to imagine a better foil to his mordant banter than the very literal Dervish, tasked by the Queen to protect Guillermo unto death.
My only caveat is the action rarely lets up, though the repartee and humor does bring relief. The story is narrated in the third person, unlike the detective genre. In a sense it is told over Guillermo’s shoulder, so we hear some of his internal monologue while allowing the action to unfold with an objective, cinematic smoothness.
Overall this novel makes for a very entertaining foray into a different kind of SF. I'm looking forward to reading the 2nd book in this series!
