2019 urban fantasy, third and to date last of its series. Dr Greta
Helsing is invited to step in as clinical resident at a spa for
mummies. But something very strange is going on…
And as before I find myself more taken with the setup than with
the execution – though this time we do at least get a bit more of
Greta doing the thing she does, being a doctor to weird supernatural
creatures, and by gum it's glorious. This is what I'd have happily
read a whole book about.
But instead the "main" plot is yet more decay in the fabric separating
realities just as in the last two books, and just like last time it
was all part of a bigger plot, and the literal end of the world might
be involved, and do you watch new Doctor Who or something?
Escalation alone is dull; a thousand deaths or a million are still
a bad thing, but I don't feel a thousand times worse about the latter.
I'm much more interested in Greta and her friends and allies facing
new problems and trying to work out how to solve them.
I like these people and I'm happy to see them doing their thing, even
if some of them are really rather stupid when the plot needs them to
be (Grisaille in New York I'm looking at you). The various romances
worked for me. I'm less convinced when it comes to Heaven and Hell if
only because I've never found the structures one gets from The Divine
Comedy and Paradise Lost particularly engaging (and I strongly
suspect that angels and demons really shouldn't be talking and acting
like normal people who just happen to have some special powers), and
less convinced again when it comes to yet another deus ex machina
resolution. Yeah, I get it, you want to show us the good guys having
done all they can and making their peace with themselves in the face
of the end of everything… but you also want a happy ending. That
would have spoiled the effect in On the Beach, and it spoils it
here.
Ah well. It's not terrible, and I'd lightly recommend the whole
series, particularly for Shaw's writing style, but go in with low
expectations and get a pleasant surprise rather than expecting
something amazing and being let down.
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