6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
slightly disappointing, September 13, 2007
I am a big fan of Greg Rucka, especially the Atticus Kodiak series. It has been several years since Rucka has written a Kodiak thriller. I've been waiting for this book, and wondering how he was going to continue the series, since the last book ended with Kodiak no longer being a bodyguard, and being alienated from his friends.
Well, Rucka has written on hell of a good thriller. I'll give him props for that. But what I loved about the previous Atticus Kodiak books is missing.
The plots were always unique, because the hero was a bodyguard. Not a cop, hitman, or soldier. I enjoyed the interplay between Kodiak and the guys he worked with.
The only major character from all the earlier books, is Natalie Trent and she disappears after the first chapter. What happened to the guys that Kodiak worked with? What about Bridgit Logan. Erica? They are never even mentioned in this book.
The idea that Kodiak would willingly help Drama, reformed or not, is crazy to me. It goes against the way that Rucka has written the character in the past. And the idea that Kodiak would fall in love with a killer??
As a stand alone thriller this is a fantastic book. As an Atticus Kodiak thriller it fails miserably.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bring back the old Atticus, October 15, 2007
I miss Atticus as he was when Bridgett was around. I don't like Alena, her emptiness. Maybe it's a woman thing. But the characters seemed more gritty back then. Not so long ago, either.
While I give "Shooting at Midnight" and most of Greg Rucka's other novels five stars, this one only gets three.
Bring back the old Atticus...
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What was Rucka thinking?, September 18, 2007
Simply put - better that Atticus Kodiak had been killed off at the end of
Critical Space than brought back as a completely different person.
Now, I am a big fan of Rucka's work; I think his
Queen and Country) novels are terrific, and while the Kodiak series is slightly uneven, Kodiak was a strong character, with a strong supporting cast.
But it's clear what Rucka wants is to write more Queen and Country. That would be fine, but turning the Atticus Kodiak series into a second-rate Q&C is *not* the way to go.
Rucka's completely gutted Kodiak's character. The 'clean body clean mind' international assassin thing might work with Drama/Alena. With Kodiak, it just makes him dull.
The thing that made the earlier books work was the highly technical background in security. And while you can't turn out 20 books of that, re-inventing the main character and turning him into *someone completely different* plays like one of those soap opera moments when a new actor walks in as our favorite character, and we're expected to pretend nothing's changed.
Much of this book is taken up with details of Kodiak and Alena's travels in eastern Europe; which does nothing to make Alena character interesting (the trouble with inventing a character who's a cypher is that said character needs to stay a cypher to be consistent, or be developed. Rucka does neither, dropping the thing that made her interesting and not replacing it with anything), and doesn't play Kodiak like the character we've gotten to know. It also doesn't move the plot at all, it's just filler.
The books works when the action turns on - Rucka's great at action. But in between, the slow, steady, detailed run-down which works so well in Q&C, falls flat when the characters are just hanging around waiting. These two characters are relentlessly dull.
Rucka's better than this. A lot better. And if he wants to pull Kodiak out for another go-round, he's going to have to do a lot better job selling this new 'international assassin' version; he needs to sell that Kodiak has changed in some fundamental way, and he needs to d
rop the aimless running around.
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