Fists of Justice - Christopher G. Nuttal... This is a very good book indeed. However, although it follows nicely in the timeline of Emily’s adventures, it did feel a bit like a interlude, a little adventure story before Emily continues her education and moves on with the main story arc.

Nothing wrong with that but, personally, I do prefer the books where Emily is back at Whitehall getting on with her development. Also, a god chunk of this book is devoted to Ponzi schemes and the badness of these. As usual the angle is that Emily is, indirectly, responsible by introducing modern technology and ideas into the Nameless World.

Mr Nuttall does manage to evolve the story to one where magic plays the main role but I am afraid that, with a good chunk of the book a bit outside of my cup of tea, I’m not going to give a full set of stars on this one. There is nothing wrong with the book or the writing, which is excellent as usual, but it is just a personal preference of mine.

As I wrote the book starts of with Emily coming to Benefice and starting to learn that one of the largest businessmen in town is busy with a Ponzi scheme that, of course, is about to come crashing down. Some reviewers have claimed that the book is a bit preachy. I would not agree to that. It depicts a Ponzi scheme and its consequences fair and simple.

Around halfway into the book there is an interesting turn of events that moves it more into my own personal comfort zone. This is where magic and Emily’s real skills starts to become useful. From there on the book is as good as any of the books in this series which means it is pretty damned good.

After various adventures, betrayals and so on and so forth we, not surprisingly, arrive at the obligatory show down between Emily, her friends and the bad guy(s). Unfortunately things are complicated by the actions of her boyfriend. I have to say that I think he was a big arse both during and after the action. I am not really unhappy about how things turned out in the end.

So, the verdict is that this is a very good book. I would have rated it as great if not for some personal preferences of mine. As usual with this book series I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Wolf's Bane - Christopher G. Nuttall,Ale... With Wolf’s Bane Christopher Nuttall ends the saga of The Empire’s Corps. Well, at least the story arc that has served as the backbone of the series so far. I would not be surprised if we see more books in this universe sometime in the feature though.

It was a good last book with a good ending. After 14 books in the series I also think it was a a good time to end it.

I will not talk about the writing itself. It is in the usual Christopher Nuttall style, that is very good with good characters etc…

The headbutting between Wolfsbane and the Commonwealth progresses into its logical big showdown and conclusion. Admiral Singh gets pushed further and further into a corner and her behavior becomes more and more psychopathic. I thought this was a bit of shame actually because she lost a bit of the respect that I actually had for her.

There are a few mishaps and reverses of fortune along the way but the Commonwealth is finally going in for the kill. I was hoping this would be a major space battle, and it is (several actually), but a large portion of the book is spent on subversion and provocation of an uprising on Wolfsbane and thus the final outcome is a mix between military space action and civil unrest. Personally, the latter interests me less than the first. Also, during the endgame Admiral Singh is not as impressive as she used to be and her actions sometimes leaves something to be desired.

Having said that it is still a excellent book and a good end to the series. I was in two minds what rating I should give, primarily due to my reservations mentioned above, but in the end I decided that anything less than five out of five would be undeserved.

Desperate Fire - Christopher G. Nuttall This is the fourth and final book in the Angel in The Whirlwind series. Every good thing has to come to an end. Well it is the final book in the current story arc at least and given how much Kat has advanced in ranks the last two books I think it would be difficult for the author to write any more books where it is all about Kat.

As can be deduced from the book blurb the religious fanatics (hmm, these guys remind me about someone…) are about to get their arses kicked so they of course do what religious fanatics always does. Throws more things that go boom around themselves and kill more people and it really matters very little whether the people killed are the enemy or their own. Luckily Kat & Co is not a “lead from behind” person so the response is not exactly what the religious dickwads was expecting.

Actually I was a bit worried from the blurb that there would be a lot of political bullshit about whether to accept peace etc. etc. blabla and so on but luckily this was not the case.

Kat is back, of course, and so are most of her friends. However, due to the responsibilities heaped onto her, she is not really the main character she was in most of the previous book. I kind of miss the old Kat that was the Captain of a single ship and had a hands on role in most operations.

The books is as excellently written as the previous ones. Great characters, good action and just the right amount of “glue” tying the various bits and pieces together. From a technical point of view this book is just as good as the other ones in the series.

So I guess you are wondering why I gave this book one star less? Well, this is really due to reasons of personal taste. I missed a bit that Kat was no longer the centerpiece in the same way as before. There was also quite some time spent on the humanitarian crisis after the religious fuckfaces (trust me, they deserve that epitet) screwed everything upp. Yes, this was quite realistic, well written and I am sure that a lot of people liked those parts. Me personally…not so much. Finally I felt that I, or rather Kat I guess, was being robbed from the joy of giving the religious fanatics the ass whopping they deserved by some tragic events in the final chapters of the book.

So the final verdict is that this is a book that is at least as good as the rest of the books in the series but one that I, due to personal taste, was a little less thrilled about than the other books in the series. I did still find it a very good book though.

Falcone Strike - Christopher G. Nuttall a bit better than the first book, more see there.

Falcone Strike - Christopher G. Nuttall a bit better than the first book, more see there.