Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the first, but still not 5-stars., March 12, 2008
I felt this book was better than the first one, Heart of Stone (The Negotiator Trilogy, Book 1), but it still wasn't a 5-star book. The first third of the book is very slow which is the same problem I had with the first book. This might have a lot to do with the author setting up the story and not all the players being involved, but it bordered on boring.
Once all the players get involved, however, the story picks up quite nicely. The dialogue is snappy and humourous at turns. Magrit, the main character, is more involved with the Old Races in this entry in the trilogy and the story is better for it. In particular, I really like the further exploration of Janx and Biali. Magrit's friends, Cole and Cameron, are more involved in this story than in the previous book as is Magrit's mother, Rebecca. They all add humanity to the story and make Magrit more fleshed out in her interactions with them.
I look forward to seeing where the last book in the trilogy takes everyone.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strong but erratic second book, March 10, 2008
After reading Heart of Stone, I was not sure if I would be that pleased with Murphy's second book because it would have been very easy to fall into the traps of cyclical romance and two-dimensional characters. In House of Cards, Murphy continues to tread on the line between typical and fantastic. My final verdict is favorible, however, and I am definitely hooked now for the third book.
In House of Cards, our heroine Margrit Knight continued her crusade for right and good in the face of the foolish and ignorant. Her attention to details and willingness to make "human" leaps of logic held the story together even as we chased her all over the city. The characters around her continued to grow as well. Margrit's passion-of-the moment choices made me shake my head at times, though Murphy is realistic enough to make the other characters' reactions to those choices just as painful and regrettable.
The main themes of defining a "person" and how rules shape society continued in this book, and ended up driving the convergence of the Old Races in a confrontation that was more puzzling than violent. "Grit"-the-public-defender and her human friend Tony-the-cop were set in juxtaposition across the book as they argued their interpretations of right and wrong.
In case you didn't catch it in the Amazon plot summary -- The plot this time focused on Janx's belief that someone was trying to kill the djinn in his employ, a conflict among the Old Races regarding interbreeding (and even interacting) with humans, and Margrit's struggle to stay upright in the winds of change in her life. Margrit continued to have trouble with Alban and Tony. The Old Races in New York City continued to play their power games, with a new twist that arrived from Hawai'i.
I do have to warn the readers that Murphy pulled a Laurell Hamilton towards the end of the book, where a completely unknown character appeared to drive a plot point. That painful flaw aside, it was a solid read from end to end. Enjoy!
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
If they're people, they have to play by the rules, May 11, 2008
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW:
It's something of a cliche of Urban Fantasy that even in settings where Humans know about vampires and werewolves etc, the various supernatural clans get to wage vendettas and kill each other without being subject to the state's monopoly on lethal force (the Kitty books are an exception). I don't like this: If a vampire is a person, then staking him is murder (or self defense as determined by a proper jury). Anyway, that's a lead-up to saying I find Magrit's attitude towards the Old Races puzzling. She's a lawyer with a passion for justice, but is prepared to forgive all of Janx's illegal activities just because he's a dragon and dragons need hoards? She made the connection in this book between the Old Races coming forward and the Civil Rights struggle. Well, that struggle was for ONE justice system for everyone. If Janx needs a hoard, he should amass it legally.
The Tony problem from book one continues here. It was obvious from chapter one, book one, that Magrit/Tony wasn't going to happen, so the romantic triangle was stillborn, but yet we keep having to deal with Tony. In this book, even after Magrit and Tony have a definitive breakup, under bad circumstances and with finality, we *still* have to deal with Tony.
I had a bit of a character problem with Janx and Elisio (the vampire) also. We're told many times that these are dangerous men, but Magrit faces them down so many times that they are starting to seem like creampuffs. They're only dangerous because the author says so. The way Cole reacts to Magrit's revelation seems out of character as well, as does (in a diffrent way) the reaction of Magrit's mother.
It's still an entertaining series, and I'm looking forward to the final book.
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