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Pines: Wayward Pines: 1 (The Wayward Pines Trilogy) Kindle Edition
One way in. No way out.
Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a mission: locate two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase.
As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation turns up more questions than answers: Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out?
Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan farther from the world he knew, from the man he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.
The nail-bitingly suspenseful opening installment in Blake Crouch’s blockbuster Wayward Pines trilogy, Pines is at once a brilliant mystery tale and the first step into a genre-bending saga of suspense, science fiction, and horror.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBallantine Books
- Publication dateOctober 18, 2022
- File size3765 KB
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What's it about?
A Secret Service agent arrives in a town to investigate the disappearance of two agents but finds himself in a mysterious and dangerous situation where he is unable to contact the outside world and is surrounded by electrified fences.Popular highlight
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From the Publisher
![The first book of the Wayward Pines trilogy.](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/3705f882-11f4-4783-890d-fe4155461db9.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
![One way in. No way out.](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/c902a710-4658-46b7-b065-3aeef67d75f3.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
On April 8, 1990, the pilot episode of Mark Frost and David Lynch's iconic television series, Twin Peaks, aired on ABC, and for a moment, the mystery of Who Killed Laura Palmer? held America transfixed. I was twelve at the time, and I will never forget the feeling that took hold of me as I watched this quirky show about a creepy town with damn fine coffee and brilliant cherry pie, where nothing was as it seemed.
Read on to find out what it was about Twin Peaks that inspired Pines at www.kindlepost.com.
From Booklist
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About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
He came to lying on his back with sunlight pouring down into his face and the murmur of running water close by. There was a brilliant ache in his optic nerve, and a steady, painless throbbing at the base of his skull—the distant thunder of an approaching migraine. He rolled onto his side and pushed up into a sitting position, tucking his head between his knees. Sensed the instability of the world long before he opened his eyes, like its axis had been cut loose to teeter. His first deep breath felt like someone driving a steel wedge between the ribs high on his left side, but he groaned through the pain and forced his eyes to open. His left eye must have been badly swollen, because it seemed like he was staring through a slit.
The greenest grass he’d ever seen—a forest of long, soft blades—ran down to the bank. The water was clear and swift as it flowed between the boulders that jutted out of the channel. Across the river, a cliff swept up for a thousand feet. Pines grew in clusters along the ledges, and the air was filled with the smell of them and the sweetness of the moving water.
He was dressed in black pants and a black jacket with an oxford shirt underneath, the white cotton speckled with blood. A black tie hung by the flimsiest knot from his collar.
On his first attempt to get up, his knees buckled and he sat down hard enough to send a vibration of searing pain through his rib cage. His second try succeeded, and he found himself wobbly but standing, the ground a pitching deck beneath his feet. He turned slowly, his feet shuffling and spread wide for balance.
With the river behind him, he stood at the edge of an open field. On the far side, the metal surfaces of swing sets and sliding boards glimmered under an intense, midday sun.
Not another soul around.
Beyond the park, he glimpsed Victorian houses, and farther on, the buildings of a main street. The town was at most a mile across, and it sat in the middle of an amphitheater of stone, enclosed by cliff walls rising several thousand feet on every side and composed of red-banded rock. In the highest, shadowed mountain nooks, pockets of snow lingered, but down here in the valley, it was warm, the sky above a deep and cloudless cobalt.
The man checked the pockets of his slacks, and then of his single-breasted coat.
No wallet. No money clip. No ID. No keys. No phone.
Just a small Swiss Army knife in one of the inner pockets.
***
By the time he’d reached the other side of the park, he was more alert and more confused, and the pulsing in his cervical spine wasn’t painless any longer.
He knew six things:
The name of the current president.
What his mother’s face looked like, though he couldn’t recall her name or even the sound of her voice.
That he could play the piano. And fly a helicopter.
That he was thirty-seven years old.
And that he needed to get to a hospital.
Outside those facts, the world and his place in it wasn’t so much hidden as printed in a foreign nomenclature beyond his comprehension. He could sense the truth hovering on the outskirts of consciousness, but it lay just out of reach.
He walked up a quiet residential street, studying every car he passed. Did one of them belong to him?
The houses that faced each other were pristine—freshly painted with perfect little squares of bright grass framed by picket fences and each household name stenciled in white block letters on the side of a black mailbox.
In almost every backyard, he saw a vibrant garden, bursting not only with flowers but vegetables and fruit.
All the colors so pure and vivid.
Midway through the second block, he winced. The exertion of walking had drawn a deep breath out of him, the pain in his left side stopping him in his tracks. Removing his jacket, he pulled his oxford out of his waistline, unbuttoned the shirt, and opened it. Looked even worse than it felt—all down his left side stretched a dark purple bruise, bull’s-eyed with a swath of jaundiced yellow.
Something had hit him. Hard.
He ran his hand lightly over the surface of his skull. The headache was there, becoming more pronounced by the minute, but he didn’t feel any signs of severe trauma beyond tenderness on the left side.
He buttoned his shirt back, tucked it into his pants, and continued up the street.
The blaring conclusion was that he’d been involved in some sort of accident.
Maybe a car. Maybe a fall. Maybe he’d been attacked—that could explain why he carried no wallet.
He should go to the police first thing.
Unless . . .
What if he’d done something wrong? Committed a crime?
Was that possible?
Maybe he should wait, see if anything came back to him.
Though nothing about this town struck him as remotely familiar, he realized, as he stumbled up the street, that he was reading the name on every mailbox. A subconscious thing? Because down in the recesses of memory he knew that one of these mailboxes would have his name printed across the side? And that seeing it would bring everything back?
The buildings of downtown lifted above the pines several blocks ahead, and he could hear, for the first time, the noise of cars in motion, distant voices, the hum of ventilation systems.
He froze in the middle of the street, involuntarily cocking his head.
He was staring at a mailbox that belonged to a red-and-green two-story Victorian.
Staring at the name on the side of it.
His pulse beginning to accelerate, although he didn’t understand why.
Mackenzie
“Mackenzie.”
The name meant nothing to him.
“Mack . . .”
But the first syllable did. Or rather, it prompted some emotional response.
“Mack. Mack.”
Was he Mack? Was that his first name?
“My name’s Mack. Hi, I’m Mack, nice to meet you.”
No.
The way the word rolled off his tongue, it wasn’t natural. Didn’t feel like anything that belonged to him. If he was honest, he hated the word, because it conjured up . . .
Fear.
How strange. For some reason, the word instilled fear.
Had someone named Mack hurt him?
He walked on.
Three more blocks brought him to the corner of Main and Sixth Street, where he sat down on a shaded bench and took a slow, careful breath. He looked up and down the street, eyes desperate for anything familiar.
Not a chain store in sight.
There was a pharmacy catty-corner from where he sat. A café next door.
A three-story building next to the café with a sign overhanging the stoop:
Wayward Pines Hotel
The smell of coffee beans pulled him off the bench. He looked up, saw a place called the Steaming Bean halfway up the block that had to be the source.
Hmm.
Wasn’t necessarily the most useful piece of knowledge, all things considered, but it dawned on him that he loved good coffee. Craved it. Another tiny piece of the puzzle that constituted his identity.
He walked to the coffee shop and pulled open the screened door. The shop was small and quaint, and just by the smell of things, he could tell they brewed great product. A bar down the right side faced espresso machines, grinders, blenders, bottles of flavor shots. Three stools were occupied. A few sofas and chairs lined the opposite wall. A bookshelf of faded paperbacks. Two old-timers were at war on a chessboard with mismatched pieces. The walls displayed local artwork—a series of black-and-white self-portraits of some middle-aged woman whose expression never changed from photo to photo. Only the focus of the camera changed.
He approached the cash register.
When the twentysomething barista with blonde dreadlocks finally noticed him, he thought he detected a flicker of horror in her pretty eyes.
Does she know me?
In a mirror behind the register he caught his reflection and immediately understood what had prompted her look of disgust—the left side of his face was blanketed in a massive bruise, and his left eye bulged, nearly swollen shut.
My God. Someone beat the shit out of me.
Product details
- ASIN : B09T8YRT3Z
- Publisher : Ballantine Books (October 18, 2022)
- Publication date : October 18, 2022
- Language : English
- File size : 3765 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 304 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1612183956
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,682 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #8 in Technothrillers (Kindle Store)
- #11 in Technothrillers (Books)
- #40 in Science Fiction Adventure
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Blake Crouch](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/827n3cv45ujunsk0997mm72la9._SY600_.jpg)
Blake Crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His novels include the New York Times bestseller Dark Matter, and the internationally bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, which was adapted into a television series for FOX. Crouch also created the TNT show Good Behavior, based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. His latest book is Recursion, a sci-fi thriller about memory, and will be published in June 2019. He lives in Colorado.
To learn more about what he is doing, check out his website, www.blakecrouch.com, follow him on Twitter - @blakecrouch1 - or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/blakecrouchauthor
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the writing compelling and frenetic. They also say the plot is deeply involved, with twists and turns. Readers describe the characters as well-developed. They describe the difficulty level as high concept and fascinating. They mention the visuals as imaginative and talented. Customers say the book holds their interest from start to finish and keeps their eyeballs transfixed. They appreciate the great pacing and the nicely wrapped up first book. Opinions are mixed on the engagingness, with some finding it hard to put down and others saying it's hard to read.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the plot intriguing, compelling, and satisfying. They also say the minimalist style perfectly suits the tense action scenes. Readers also appreciate the tantalizing clues and unexpected events. They praise the masterful writing and structural expertise of the author.
"A fun suspenseful horror thriller and a great fast read, it’s worth picking up, try it out I didn’t see the end coming" Read more
"...While book one was a super-fast paced thriller purely from Ethan’s perspective – delirious, lost and heart jackhammering from all that fear and..." Read more
"...The plot was intriguing and the explanation of it all was quite creative...." Read more
"...With twists and turns, the story has a deeply involved plot, and a fascinating setting as well as a unique premise...." Read more
Customers find the writing style compelling, frenetic, and easy to follow. They also say the book is a quick read with satisfying explanations that leave them wanting for more.
"...Mr. Crouch is a very phenomenal writer and I do believe he is my new favorite author...." Read more
"...As in his other novels, Crouch’s writing is tight paced. The action is not just physical but psychological as well...." Read more
"...a sample from Amazon and passed judgement the same day; the writing was simple, and quick to the point. This was light reading dressed up as horror...." Read more
"...Dislikes- The writing / editing wasn't great, the book is written the way people talk (even when there are no dialogues), and I found..." Read more
Customers find the pacing of the book great and hooked. They also appreciate how nicely the first book wrapped up.
"...both 5 stars and this novel gets the same rating for its fast paced, suspense filled thrill ride...." Read more
"A fun suspenseful horror thriller and a great fast read, it’s worth picking up, try it out I didn’t see the end coming" Read more
"...Blake Crouch writes a crackerjack of a novel that is so well paced throughout that I found myself distancing myself from my normal life just so I..." Read more
"...along by the Mayberry type residents of Wayward Pines, and gets nowhere very slowly...." Read more
Customers find the characters in the book well developed.
"...This story features a strong protagonist with supporting characters that are developed and detailed beautifully...." Read more
"...The author gives readers creative world-building and a struggling main character...." Read more
"...Crouch crafts characters that are fully formed, all-too real in your imagination. So, with each twist and turn your own heart races for them...." Read more
"...habit is easily overlooked because the story is so good and characters are natural and quite developed. It's definitely worth the $$ to buy it." Read more
Customers find the visuals imaginative, well thought out, and captivating. They also describe the book as unique, fresh, and beautiful. Customers also mention the plot is almost perfect, with a few wobbles in logic.
"...this novel was somewhat uncomfortable at times, entertaining, and imaginative...." Read more
"...The things that draw me to Blake Crouch are all here...wild imaginiation, page burning prose, break neck plotting, a world where the believable and..." Read more
"...I found the ending overly soppy and unrealistic...." Read more
"...But, wow.That aside, Wayward Pines was interesting, unique and gripping. A good summer read." Read more
Customers find the book holds their interest from start to finish, keeps them reading almost without break, and delivers a fine take that keeps them interested. They also say the story is strong, and the first chapter keeps their eyeballs transfixed. Overall, customers say the book is well done and worth following.
"...Likes- The pace was great, it kept you hooked and I read it in just a few days despite a busy agenda-..." Read more
"This is a strong story, obviously so by virtue of the fact it is now a mini-series on Fox...." Read more
"...n't the type of book I like to read, but the author did a great job of keeping my interest and helping me break into the realm of a somewhat sci fi..." Read more
"...The book is amazing: it's a brilliant page-turner that keeps you engaged until the very last page...." Read more
Customers find the book high concept, well researched, and satisfying. They also say it arouses their curiosity at every turn and has excitement. Readers also mention that the book provides an environment and situations, and an interesting take on mankind's future. They say the author is skilled and practiced in his craft, and has built a convincing, realistic world.
"...The author gives readers creative world-building and a struggling main character...." Read more
"...because the story is so good and characters are natural and quite developed. It's definitely worth the $$ to buy it." Read more
"...swallow, all within a few pages in the end, but I think it was very well researched, fairly plausible, and smoothly pulled off...." Read more
"...I am not. The book does have potentials and I am actually curious with how well it will translate on TV...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the engagingness of the book. Some mention it's a good beach novel and hard to put down, while others say it doesn't let them down.
"...The pacing was very efficient and made PINES very hard to put down. However, some readers may not care for what they learn when the big reveal comes...." Read more
"This is a fast-paced book that is difficult to put down. Admittedly, once I started reading I was determined to finish the book in one sitting...." Read more
"...Loved this book and highly recommend it. Great writing and very hard to put down, it’s frustrating to read because you want answers and they..." Read more
"Great book, sucks you into the story and hard to put down. I read most of this in one night , I could not go to sleep I was so enthralled...." Read more
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This story starts with our protagonist (Ethan) waking by a river, unsure how he got there or where exactly he is at. He is a Secret Service officer on an assignment to determine the whereabouts of two other Secret Service agents who were dispatched in that area to investigate a financial matter. As he wonders into town he heads to a coffee shop for information. He realizes he does not have his badge, firearm, ID or money. In the coffee shop he asks the girl some questions hoping to get answers about himself and where he is at. The only thing he learns is that she does know him. Something about this town is off. Later, Ethan wakes in a hospital where he learns he was in a crash with his assigned partner (who he just met) the partner was killed and Ethan survived. From here the story only gets more mysterious. These people are not who they seem and they seem to be oblivious to reality, they seem to be stuck in 1960.Ethan is determined to get answers and continue with his assignment. He goes into an empty bar and befriends the beautiful bartender (Beverly). She sympathizes with his plight and offers him a beer and a meal. Later when Ethan leaves she gives him her address and say it in case he needs anything. Eventually Ethan realizes he needs to take her up on that because the Sheriff’s office offers no help and he cannot seem to reach anyone outside of town. He walks to her address and finds a dilapidated home that should be condemned. However, Ethan goes in anyway and discovers the foulest stench. The stench of death. He follows this to a room to find a deceased man cuffed to a bed. A man he assumes is his missing Secret Service agent.
Ethan soon finds out the Sheriff suspects him of suspicious behavior and questions how he found himself at the house. The Sheriff claims there is no woman who works at the bar and questions if he is telling the truth. There are many strange occurrences in this town and by the end of the story you will have answers and be ready for the next in this series.
I really recommend to those who like Suspense, thrillers and/or Sci-Fi
If there is a word that captures the whole Wayward Pines trilogy, that in my dictionary would be Electrifying. Slick action thriller rolled in tight with horror, science-fiction and dystopian elements, this whole series kicks ass like no other.
I haven’t been itching to finish a series like this for a long time. Miriam Black by Chuck Wendig came close – a real balls-to-the-wall visceral experience. But this reading has been a much more wholesome and fulfilling experience. A fire that burns through and consumes you. A little s***-kicker of a thriller with plot twists and action galore. Blake Crouch really knows how to keep you dangling by the barest of the thread, crouched on the balls of your feet, ready to explode into action with every dark blind corner you take on this ride. It’s a confusing ride, pretty much like our main protagonist Secret Service Agent Ethan Burkes who’s barely hanging on for the ride – as jumpy as ever, suspicious and untrusting of every leaf that flutters, back from a bout of short term amnesia, battered and bruised beyond belief and an emotional train wreck. Almost two-thirds through the first book, this is pretty much how you will feel. Lost and bumbling like a wet rat caught in a sandstorm. And the storm blows like crazy before you find your feet.
This kind of thrill ride without any destination might turn off a lot of readers but for me, I loved the journey and I trust the driver blindly. God only knows why, but the Fantasy Book Critic review of both books was the stamp of approval enough for me to take this plunge.
As I said before, electrifying.
So a brief about the story from the first book and I will try and keep this free of spoilers as much as possible. Secret Service Agent Ethan Burkes arrives in the idyllic town of Wayward Pines in Idaho – surrounded by tall pine tree forests and insurmountable mountains on all sides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two agents who had landed here two weeks before – he is involved in a horrific accident that leaves him with partial memory loss. But when he recovers, his interactions with the town residents, in particular the sheriff, makes him realize there is something wrong with the whole town itself. He also finds out that he is not able to reach his wife and kids in Boise or his handler within the agency. Dead bodies turning up, mysterious bar-tenders who disappear, a psychiatrist and a nurse who seem hell bent on harming him than curing and a whole town of kooks who love nothing more than shooting the breeze during day time and take part in blood fetes at night. It gets murky and weirder by the page. And things take a decidedly uglier turn when he attempts to escape the town. Book One, Pines is dedicated to him discovering the horrifying truth behind this idyllic town.
Blake Crouch writes a crackerjack of a novel that is so well paced throughout that I found myself distancing myself from my normal life just so I could read that extra chapter. I haven’t stayed up late night to finish a book like this. The plot twists are simply spectacular and they hit you out of nowhere. Especially the big reveal at the end of book one left me agape and thinking for days after.
Naturally I couldn’t resist the second book – again up on promo prices of $2 on Kindle and I went click-click. I was curious to see where Blake would take Ethan after that ending. And naturally my anticipations were sky high. Book two took my expectations and blew them away. While book one was a super-fast paced thriller purely from Ethan’s perspective – delirious, lost and heart jackhammering from all that fear and adrenaline as he stumbled from one plot twist to the next – book two widens the gamut of characters and we get a much rounder view of the larger plot at play here. It gets even much more cagey – a larger game of survival. With clear genre-bending elements that expand the world setting that Blake builds up, book two hits the ball out of the park. It’s very difficult to actually write anything about the plot without spoiling it for the readers unfamiliar with Blake’s first book on Wayward Pines. So I would let you as a reader – immerse and soak yourself up – in this entirely mind-blowing spectacular thrill ride.
It’s a blistering read and a thoroughly satisfying thriller that should strike the right chords with a reader. With a climax that ups the ante and the stakes like crazy, I cannot wait for the last installment in the series now. Plus with Manoj Night Shyamalan going to make his TV debut with this being televised on FOX debuting in July this year, the interest levels are going to be stratospheric. Hit the moon and back. Take the plunge and you won’t be disappointed! This one's a 5-star through and through.
Top reviews from other countries
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From Page-1 you know something is vastly amiss, midway you start wondering whether the protagonist is imagining it all, is it all real or is it some isolated community a la. The Village of Manoj Night Shyamalan.
There were brief interludes to protagonist’s torture in the Gulf War which I felt did not contribute anything to the storyline. I learnt that this has not been covered in the TV version of the story. Wish could watch the Fox TV show too (believed to be better than the book) but it’s not available in India.
Mismatch in time lines in the character’s lives does lead one to conclude that some delusional reality is in existence but before you end up pulling all the hair from your head the author pulls the rug right from under your feet.
As other reviewers have commented the writing though highly engrossing isn’t exactly top notch and the climax is on your face type without much of a buildup to the actual reality prevailing at Wayward Pines.
Nevertheless, I am not complaining, as I mentioned earlier this is the best thriller novel I have read till date and I am definitely going to read the next two installments of Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch.
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Sein Zustand verschlimmert sich, seine Erinnerungen manchmal zum Greifen nahe, entgleiten seinem Verstand doch immer wieder. Und als er sich endlich erinnern kann, sieht er sich mit einem noch viel größerem Problem konfrontiert. Was ist das nur für eine Stadt, dieses Wayward Pines? Sie ist idyllisch, ein Traum inmitten eines Canyons, malerisch - und etwas stimmt mit ihr ganz und gar nicht, dieser Gedanke beschleicht Ethan immer mehr. Was geht hier vor sich? Und was verbergen die Bewohner von Wayward Pines?
Der Klappentext hat mich sofort angesprochen. Geheimnisse und Mystik - absolut das Meine!
Und dann dieser Schreibstil. Es ist alles so leicht und schnell zu lesen, gleichzeitig baut sich eine wahnsinnige Spannung auf, die einen das Buch nicht mehr aus der Hand legen lässt. Das Gefühl von Anspannung und Bedrohung schleicht sich sofort zu Beginn ein und bleibt bis zum Schluss fester Bestandteil des Lesegefühls. Außerdem ist es so actiongeladen, dass keine Längen entstehen. Die Story geht voran, aber trotzdem ist Zeit, die Figuren kennenzulernen. Rückblicke sind so gestaltet, dass sie die Geschichte nicht stören, sondern gut zum Eindruck passen und ein dreidimensionales Bild des Protagonisten formen.
Daher mein Fazit: Ich habe das Buch sehr schnell durchgelesen und hatte viel Freude dabei. Zwischendurch blieb mir einfach die Spucke weg, weil ich kaum verarbeiten konnte, was alles passiert ist und wie genial sich alles entwickelt hat.
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The novel follows Secret Service agent Ethan Burke on an investigation into Wayward Pines, a tiny, isolated town deep in the mountains of Idaho. On arrival, he’s in a terrible car accident, in which his partner dies. From there, things spiral out of control. The idyllic town is far from what it seems, and soon agent Burke is fighting for his life while attempting to unravel an unbelievable mystery. I can’t say any more without serious spoilers.
I enjoyed this book though it wasn’t without its flaws. The story is excellent, and the world Crouch has created is thrilling. I’m definitely going to continue the series, so that should confirm the flaws are relatively minor.
I didn’t really like Ethan Burke as a person. Honestly, it wouldn’t have bothered me too much if he died. This wasn’t entirely his fault *redacted due to spoilers*, but the fact remains. I will be interested to see how he develops in the next book.
The other niggling issue I had was some of the prose. Most of it is fine, but when emphasizing something Crouch has a habit of using sentences that are oddly formed, and it brought me out of the flow every time. The other aspect that bothered me was some of the descriptions, which veered into unusually (unnecessarily) technical / specific. None of the descriptions were inaccurate, they just didn’t feel like they fit the rest of the prose (or the character’s POV).
These are relatively minor gripes, and subjective. I still enjoyed the book and will keep reading the series.
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Consigliato se anche voi non avete la pazienza di aspettare settimana dopo settimana per anni di sapere come finisce.