Theories of Flight by Simon Morden

I liked the first of these quite a lot. Interesting ideas, good fun and a main character that was unlikeably likeable. This is really more of the same with some new stuff thrown in. If I have one reservation it's the same one I have about Lisbet Salander - that they both exhibit unreasonable levels of genius. It's fine to have clever characters - in fact I love sharp heroes who aren't winning or surviving because they're brawny. However, Petrovich sometimes falls into the 'too clever to fail' category and you feel that, like with poor genre writing where the McGuffin solves all plot problems, his genius is also used to solve otherwise unresolvable dilemmas. All the character flaws in the world won't hide this misuse of a character's identity.

It's a shame because Morden has constructed a well thought out world and characters who are also, generally, believable even if (I'm thinking of Wong here) they're so cliched as to jump right out of a pulp novel from the 50s.

Still, Theories of Flight rattled along and passed the first couple of hours of a flight to Miami in style. I'm looking forwards to the last of the trilogy and whatever my reservations I enjoy the pace and atmoshpere immensely.