Persepolis Rising

I went into this book a little skeptical as I had some problems with book six, and while I feel some of the issues were addressed, I still don’t think it holds up compared to early books in the series.returnThe book starts after skipping thirty years. I noticed a lot of reviewers though of this as a ‘big risk’, though I’m not entirely sure why. It works effectively to advance the plot to a necessary point without wasting undo time and space on what were ostensibly relatively uneventful years (it certainly spares us from having to slog through the entirety of another failed marriage of Alex’s). One of my problems with book six was a lack of seeing the Roci crew together as an ensemble with the accompanying group dynamics, the same sort of thing late seasons of Stargate suffered from. That is thankfully remedied here for the most part, even though we are initially led to believe that may not be the case. I am saddened by the minimal presence of Avasarala, much like in book six, as she is an outstanding powerful female character. I feel as though the authors tried to make up for this lack of that powerful female figure with the introduction of Drummer, but it just doesn’t play well. She’s not in much of the story, and when she is there due to the nature of what is happening she is mostly ineffective. Again, as always, I miss Miller and the interplay between him and Holden, though there are hints at the end that MAYBE there will be a return of Miller in some form. We get some good emotional development concerning Amos, probably one of my favorite parts of this, though it still falls short of him being a truly dynamic character, mostly concerning the interplay between him and Clarissa. We get a satisfying ending to the evolution of Clarissa as a person as well. I feel we also see Bobby in the end stages of her growth and development as a character, but again in a satisfying way. As Clarissa and bobby have been the most dynamic characters (let’s face it, with the exception of one book, Holden has pretty much been a static figure), this worked well going into the final arc of the series.returnThat is something to consider in both the striking and weak points of this entry, this is meant as the first part in a final three part story arc. This is problematic in a few ways...in previous books, regardless their placement in the overall arc, there was still typically a self-contained plot that got wrapped up within the book. That doesn’t happen here which is pretty unsatisfying. Another issue is that it caused the introduction of some characters which could have been interesting additions to the plot which we barely see at all, presumably as they will play a role later in the arc, but within the context of this story makes them feel superfluous (re: Houston, Trejo, Drummer, Duarte, etc.).returnMy final issue with this is the sort of inevitability of the ending of this book. It is clear very early on that the Laconians and Duarte are being set up as undefeateble foe, barring some serious dues ex machina, which is actually teased at at one point put presumably won’t pay off until the next or final book. I understand the appeal and point of seeing our heroes defeated only to rise and triumph again later, but I feel like the larger conflict being developed by the authors could still have been done distasteful Laconions, and without having a predictable ending from nearly the very beginning of this book.returnOverall an improvement over book six, but still lacking in some important ways. I wonder if some of that is not the result of a rushed timetable caused by the overall success of the series as well as the development of it into a television show.