Customer Reviews

The Third Claw of God (Andrea Cort Novels)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every decade or so a super tough new hero or heroine appears and sticks; becomes part of the public consciousness. It was like that with Lara Croft and almost happened with Sky Captain. It even happened twice for James Bond. I'm not psychic, or even particularly hip but I think it may happen again soon with Adam-Troy Castro's new uber-bad protagonist Andrea Cort.

Cort is all business in the mind bending sci-fi masterpiece "The Third Claw of God". She is the least likeable person in a galaxy of unlikeables. The difference is she doesn't delude herself. As Prosecutor at Large for the Confederacy's Diplomatic Corps, Cort cannot afford to make many friends and vengeful enemies are just part of the job. Through Andrea Cort's eyes, Castro shows us intriguing alien races, world-raping corporations, weapons too foul to describe and minds fouler still willing to commit any atrocity to further their own sick agendas. And that is just the first chapter.

"The Third Claw of God" is the follow up to what is easily the most original sci-fi novel of the last five years, Emissaries from the Dead. The third installment is being written even as I type this review and I hope it will be in stores by next year.

If you have been looking for a great sci-fi story "The Third Claw of God" is for you. If you have been wondering whose career to follow, check out the acclaimed works of Adam-Troy Castro. You can't go wrong on either score.

I love cross genre mysteries and this series is building up as one of the best, particularly in the science fiction field. Like Isaac Asimov before him Adam-troy Castro builds a completely fair mystery using an alien environment and solves it within the unique circumstances presented. I have only one quarrel with the book. It needed a good copy editor. There are dumb mistakes in syntax and grammar, particularly early in the book (or maybe I was too involved later to notice) that should have been caught. I look forward to meeting Andrea again.

I was really bummed by this book. I enjoyed the first Andrea Cort book. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make it past page 50 of The Third Claw of God. Yesterday I put it back in my TBR pile.

The author changed the voice and character of Andrea Cort. He also uses a different writing style. This book sounds more formal and I found myself stumbling on word order in sentences and re-reading sentences. Also, Andrea doesn't do nearly as much talking and thinking in this book. The plot seems far fetched even for scifi. There's also heavy focus on the relationship between Cort and her love partners. If they're not in bed, they're thinking about wanting to be in bed.

I may try it again this winter.

Solid detective trapped in a box story.
I liked this a little better than the first novel, chiefly cause it answered more questions.
Some interesting weapons of assasination in this one.
Fughe virus was interesting.
Not even the good guys are all good.
I love the omniscient AI that has a faction that wants suicide and another that wants life.
This novel you actually emphathized with the bad AI side.

The author's setup is a classic: a horrible crime is committed in a mansion (well, a space elevator) full of aristocrats, their functionaries, servants and guests, and a gifted police inspector must unearth the murderer's plan before it's too late. Our investigator is Andrea Cort, war criminal and misanthropist, who has to apply insight peculiar to her horrifying background in order to solve the case. Cort's a fascinating character, unpleasant and provocative, and it's a lot of fun to watch her prod and torment her suspects as she gradually unravels the mystery.

The problem with writing about geniuses is that you need to demonstrate their intelligence by having them deduce things that the readers can't. It's in portraying Cort's genius that Castro runs into trouble. Her identification of the murderer requires a bizarre intuitive leap that it's hard to imagine anyone making, but she misses hints (the unusual link between two characters, the unnatural servility of the family staff) that leap off the page. Cort's powers of observation oscillate between Sherlock Holmes' and Clouseau's, making the revelation of new clues a herky-jerky affair.

The epilogue feels frustratingly short; much of what's revealed in those few pages would have been much more satisfying if drawn into the bulk of the novel. Still, Cort and her companions are extremely entertaining, and I find myself wanting to know more about this universe and the war going on between two factions of an artificial intelligence; I expect that I would read the next entry in this series.

This is the second story about Andrea Cort, Counselor, war criminal since the age of eight. She is highly intelligent and evolving, with the help of her partners, Oscin and Skye. The storyline reads very well. She's trapped on a space elevator with about 15 other people and one person has just been murdered. There has already been an attempt on her life. It's her job to solve the mystery. While this book reads great and keeps your interest it is very much a mystery novel set in a science fiction setting.
Ultimately, Colonel Mustard kills the Bocaian in the parlor with the claw of God. Oops, hope I didn't give anything away!

p.s. I do highly recommend this book and the first in the series also. Adam-Troy Castro is on my list of authors to watch.

I really liked Andrea Cotrt's debut novel, Emissaries of the Dead, and was looking forward to reading the latest novel. Unfortunately, I really can't recommend it to anyone. While the story is a hybrid sci-fi/mystery much like the 1st book, it lacks the imaginative locale and interesting alien culture of the 1st book. Instead it's an update of the old, cliche English drawung room mysteries made famous by Agatha Christie except, instead of the action taking place in the narrow confines of an English country estatre, it takes place on a space elevator stuck on it's descent. An entire universe at his disposal and almost an entire book takes place in a locale a little bit larger than my house. The genre can be done well (Asimov's robot books and Card's Speaker for the Dead being good examples) but this is definitely a misfire. A couple of revelations and twists aside, the mystery itself isn't all that interesting and here's hoping the next book can get back on track

This is the second in the author's series featuring the unlikeable sociopathic investigator Andrea Cort. (There! I've warned those of you who don't like heros who are not nice.) It's even better than the first. It begins with Andrea and her bodyguards the Porrinyards arriving at a space station en route to a meeting with a bigtime industrialist and arms dealer who (literally) owns the planet, Xana, below. There is an assassination attempt, quickly thwarted, and then Andrea meets with station security. We think we know where this is going. Andrea will enlist the aid of the skeptical security chief, get planetside, and begin an adventure to find who the assassins were.

Not hardly!

The book suddenly segués into an Agatha Christie mystery, as foul play ensues on the shuttle ride (it's a VIP space elevator--a neat concept) down to the planet.

As all good mystery writers do, the author takes time building the scene, introducing the characters/suspects, and building the tension; but when things finally get going they gallop on to a satisfying conclusion. And helping you along Is Mr. Castro's list of characters, which is accompanied by a clever author's note that misdirects more than it helps. (No doubt when the casting call goes out for the movie version, actresses will be clamoring to play the role of Jane Ellery.)

Almost eclipsing Andrea as the star of the show are the weapons (the claw of god is one such), which are ancient devices created by an equally ancient civilization. In the closed environment of the elevator, Andrea has to deduce if there are more such weapons aboard (she surely thinks so), and if so who has them?

Naturally, all is revealed, but with 60 or so more pages to go at that point, you will of course suspect that there is a surprise or two still to come. Just so. We segué back into sci-fi action hero mode as Andrea must make a game-changing decision before the book ends . . . and before you'll feel like you want to smack her. Hard. Come to think of it, maybe you still will.

This book has it's flaws, as noted by other reviewers, but after about page 200 I couldn't put it down. The psychic communication between Andrea and her AI handlers was kept to a minimum (unlike the first book, where it tended to dilute the tension in the story), the suspense and action were handled skillfully, and at least two twists in the plot caught me completely by surprise.

Excellent closed room Sci-Fi murder story. Some have
said they don't think it as good as the first in series,
but I see no reduction in quality. I love the strong, brilliant,
troubled heroine. In novels, as in life.