Series Re-Read: #22 The Solution

[frenchroast]

Okay, I'm a terrible person (maybe not as terrible as David) because it's been a year since the last re-read, AND I left us hanging 2/3 of the way through a story arc. But let's move on now, shall we?

Ax hesitated a moment. Then he said, First off, this is one of my favorite books, if only for the number of emotional punches contained within.

Comments

[acts_of_tekla]

I think this was the best of the three books in the David trilogy. The first was leaning too much towards Idiot Plot (characters acting much dumber than we know them to be in order to advance the plot), and David's turn in the second just didn't work for me, but David as a villain works spectacularly well. There were a lot of character moments that made this overall more good than bad, and an effective turning point in the series. The ones I most remember are Jake's realization that he was an effective leader because he used others, Rachel's acceptance of the violence in her nature, and Cassie's (sadly not really followed-up on) ability to manipulate.

[frenchroast]

I always thought that the reason Cassie's ability to manipulate wasn't followed up on much was because of how things turned out with David. As in, she was probably horrified at herself for figuring out how to do what they did, and probably tried to avoid doing that again; there was really no other non-murderous alternative for David, and they never really faced another situation that required such a dire response. And I think that looking back, they realized that what they did to David might have been worse than death.