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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Middle book. Still cold. Moving on to the third., November 8, 2008
For every developer sitting at his or her desk, wondering if there was every going to be a moment where their native brilliance would be recognized by the Company-- For every engineer passed over for a salary rise in favor of a stuffed shirt manager-- For every unrecognized genius who lies in the dark thinking that someday they are ALL going to pay-- For all of you, this book's for you. The story of the engineer Ziani Vaatzes is a trilogy for everyone who is able to make plans while those around them are seemingly only able to react. The plotting of a single man brings down the walls of nations. Love abounds, but is clearly more of a force for chaos and destruction than of poetry and healing. The God of this world is a machine. I was on a knife's edge after reading Devices and Desires, the first book in the Engineer trilogy. I found it cold and bleak, but laced with surprising bursts of warmth and humor. I didn't like most of the main characters, but I accepted that I wasn't really meant to like most of the main characters. I really was glad that I read it, and I had both hopes and fears about what Evil for Evil was going to bring. I have to confess, I am marginally less glad that I read Evil for Evil. I am beginning to find Vaatzes' nearly omniscient planning grating. I kept hoping for his demise because I have the feeling that I actually might be interested in the other characters if they can get out of his game somehow. The way the story goes is starting to feel a little bit predictable to me. At least in the sense that even if I do not know where the book is going, exactly, I kind of have the feeling that I know how it is going to get there. The tone feels as though it is going to be consistent, and I find that too bad. Not sure if that really makes sense. I'm still going to read the third book, but I'm not going to be nearly as enthusiastic as I was about the second. Things you should know if you are considering buying this book: You can't read this separately from Devices and Desires. Begin at the beginning of the trilogy, as this is more like one long book than it is three separate novels. This isn't the most violent of fantasies, but is rather surprisingly adult. Sexual violence is both implied and described. I would be wary of this book in the hands of younger teens.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Middle book of a fascinatingly repulsive series, June 1, 2008
First, this is the middle book in the trilogy, with ALL that that implies. The writing is solid, and the storyline is definitely being continued. Unfortunately, Parker introduces a new major player in this book -- or at least, a seemingly major player. The stories generally continue smoothly from the previous volume. But the book is off-putting because some of the things you expect just don't happen, and the importance of the characters is shifted in some surprising ways. In addition, the many of the characters spend much of this volume in a sort of depressed fugue, whining and gnashing their teeth about the great unfairness of ... well, whatever. I laughed out loud at one passage (sadly late in the book) where Varens was complaining about a particular author's characters being whining bitches that sat around waiting to be rescued -- intentional or no, it was self-parody. This series has a sort of Thomas Covenant-like fascination for me in the "Engineer" character. Initially he was a sympathetic element, but over time Parker has distanced all of us from him, so that now he seems purely an evil menace. Page after page, I find myself hoping that someone will just casually order him killed, and that the rest of the series will consist of putting things to rights after he is gone. (I've read the cover blurb on book #3, so I know I'm destined for disappointment.) Anyway, if you want to finish the series, you pretty much have to read this book. But I don't think you'll like it very much.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the character ziani vaatzes, is, February 27, 2008
so repulsive at this point in the story i have come very close to putting down the trilogy all together. i have taken to reading over the parts written involving his character and imagine exquisite,painful tortures done to him. the war could go on,but this character i have come to loathe. maybe i will get my reward for trudging through the many accounts of his treachery in ' the escapement'. obviously, this is an engrossing and imaginative thriller,hard to put down and almost impossible to leave.
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