Back
Adam-Troy Castro: The third claw of God (2009, Eos) 3 stars

Counselor Andrea Cort answers a cryptic summons to the home world of the powerful Bettelhines, …

Review of 'The third claw of God' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A decent follow-up to the first book in the series, although not quite as strong. I can't put my finger on it, but while I read the books and enjoy them I can't quite get engrossed in them. There's some very interesting ideas at work, and I don't have any issues with characters or dialogue. It may be the fact that because of the nature of the first two books, which both center around murder mysteries, there's a lot of long interrogation scenes. These were offset in the first book, but take up the majority of this book. This makes sense considering the main character's position is essentially an investigator/prosecutor, but it means that there is more exposition handled in the same room than there is anything else, which tends to get a bit dull and predictable.

I do also have a bit of a problem with the main character, there's something about Andrea Cort that I don't quite buy into, but yet for some reason I find myself compelled to read anyway.

It's an enjoyable novel, and their a number of interesting concepts explored with regard to free-will and identity. The novel is thought-provoking without being mind-blowing, but I still liked it, and will probably read the next one in the series too, which I guess is all that I really need to say in a review.