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Jurisdiction #3
Angel of Destruction
After offering the disenfranchised Langsariks an amnesty agreement that would put an end to their piracy, Garol Vogel investigates a series of brutal raids in Judiciary space that leave no survivors and that are being blamed on the Langsarik. Original.
342 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2001
About the author
Susan R. Matthews
29 books51 followersAfter earning an undergraduate degree in psychology, Susan R. Matthews was commisioned into the United States Army, where she was the operations and security officer for a combat support hospital specializing in nuclear, biological, and radiological warfare. Currently working as an auditor for an aerospace manufacturer, Susan lives with her partner in Seattle, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 8, 2017
This book is so mystifying. I mean, on one level, it's perfectly competent milsf with all the markers: interest in ship movements, and rank, and vectors. On the other hand: WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE READING THIS?
Because a normal reader doesn't start with book three, they start with book one. And if you read An Exchange of Hostages, you got to about one third of the way through, went "HOLY SHIT, NOPE" and nope-octopused out of there as fast as your eight legs would carry you, or you went "HOLY SHIT YES" and bought the next five books. And this book will appeal to the first group.
So, if you are in the second group, and are reading The Jurisdiction series for the further fucked-up adventures of Andrej Koscuisko, there's nothing for you here. Koscuisko technically does appear in one scene, but it's a walk-on role which could have been done by an extra.
If you... don't want to read about self-loathing torturer who platonically kisses his slave-soldiers a lot, you can read this book? It has none of that?
What this book is actually about:
What is learned in this book about the Jurisdiction universe, which you might want to know if you skip it:
Because a normal reader doesn't start with book three, they start with book one. And if you read An Exchange of Hostages, you got to about one third of the way through, went "HOLY SHIT, NOPE" and nope-octopused out of there as fast as your eight legs would carry you, or you went "HOLY SHIT YES" and bought the next five books. And this book will appeal to the first group.
So, if you are in the second group, and are reading The Jurisdiction series for the further fucked-up adventures of Andrej Koscuisko, there's nothing for you here. Koscuisko technically does appear in one scene, but it's a walk-on role which could have been done by an extra.
If you... don't want to read about self-loathing torturer who platonically kisses his slave-soldiers a lot, you can read this book? It has none of that?
What this book is actually about:
What is learned in this book about the Jurisdiction universe, which you might want to know if you skip it:
October 20, 2016
Not bad. Looking forward to more.
January 12, 2016
An effort to stick with. But I'm glad I did. Very satisfying conclusion.
It's really not the same without Andrej. He experiences Matthews' world at its most extreme, and thus his situation is the most interesting.
Our protagonist here is Karol Vogel, who's a good guy and means well, while serving his Evil Empire and trying not to lose his soul in the process. But we know much less about him and his struggle than is revealed about Andrej in the other books of this series. So harder to care.
However, if you're a completist and love Matthews' work and wish she would write more, as I do, you must read this.
It's really not the same without Andrej. He experiences Matthews' world at its most extreme, and thus his situation is the most interesting.
Our protagonist here is Karol Vogel, who's a good guy and means well, while serving his Evil Empire and trying not to lose his soul in the process. But we know much less about him and his struggle than is revealed about Andrej in the other books of this series. So harder to care.
However, if you're a completist and love Matthews' work and wish she would write more, as I do, you must read this.
November 13, 2011
Without the intense focus on characterization that defined her previous books, this tale becomes mostly a detective story set in her previous universe. It took me a while to actually care about any of the characters involved in the story, as she has side-lined her former main characters. Eventually the plot did begin to grow on me, along with the new characters. I’m hoping the saga now returns back to its roots, though. She has a very subtle tongue-in-cheek style of humour that one needs to be watching closely to catch.
June 8, 2019
This may be #3 in a series, but it’s really a standalone book. It’s set in a far lighter version of the universe inhabited by Andrej Koscuisko in the other Jurisdiction books — torture is alluded to but never performed. The violence is all ordinary sinister-villains-slaughter-innocents stuff. It is decently plotted, although as always Matthews has trouble with long rising action and anticlimactic endings. The setting tends to rely on details revealed more compellingly in the other books of the series, but it doesn’t matter all that much. The characters are what make it an excellent read.
September 23, 2020
1) I wish all "official" reading orders were in publication order rather than internal chronology, but especially omnibuses where the format enforces what is an objectively garbage reading order.
2) DNF'd at 25%. I'm in this series for the conflicted torturer id deep-dive, and that's absent in this spinoff/side novel with a different cast & tone. I appreciate that a larger setting for said character exists; in fact, the weakness in the setting has been a flaw in other books, so developing it can only do good. But I don't need to read it.
2) DNF'd at 25%. I'm in this series for the conflicted torturer id deep-dive, and that's absent in this spinoff/side novel with a different cast & tone. I appreciate that a larger setting for said character exists; in fact, the weakness in the setting has been a flaw in other books, so developing it can only do good. But I don't need to read it.
November 3, 2017
There's nothing particularly wrong with the writing of this book, and it's somewhat important to the worldbuilding and character building of the series. But it's boring.
April 9, 2024
Na, ebben már volt némi military sci-fi, ráadásul nélkülözte a beteg dolgokat, amiktől a korábbi kötetekben hidegrázást kaptam. Viszont Andrej, az inkvizítor csak említés szintjén szerepelt benne. Nyilván a kettő összefügg, és tudom, nekem semmi sem jó, most akkor mit akarok, legyen rajta sapka, vagy ne legyen, de így is csak 4 csillagot ért nálam.
Hogy mondjak jót is a könyvről, volt benne aranyos románc (igazából kettő is), és Vogel specialista egészen kedvelhető karakter, bár nekem Stanoczk kuzin, a Malcontent nevű dolgorukij vallási titkosszolgálat ügynöke (ez már eleve durván jól hangzik) volt a kedvencem.
Hogy mondjak jót is a könyvről, volt benne aranyos románc (igazából kettő is), és Vogel specialista egészen kedvelhető karakter, bár nekem Stanoczk kuzin, a Malcontent nevű dolgorukij vallási titkosszolgálat ügynöke (ez már eleve durván jól hangzik) volt a kedvencem.
April 24, 2020
A bureaucrat must defy his superiors to prevent the genocide of a falsely accused enemy population.
January 18, 2015
I found this to be an interesting book to read. I picked it up at a discount book store off of their further discounted book shelf (I'm seeing a recurring trend here) and the back sounded interesting. Reading the novel I got the impression that it was part of a larger series due to the repeated hints of there being more back story to each of the characters and their relationships with each other, but the back of the book cover clearly stated that it was a stand-alone novel. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had read other books set in the author's universe, but overall this particular volume stood fairly well on its own.
For my own part, there are some odd phrasing or grammatical structures while I was reading that would sometimes throw me off the rhythm of reading. Some of these were various characters speaking, so I disregarded that as being part of the "flavor" of the novel's atmosphere, but other times it was part of the regular text. At these points I would have to pause to decipher the intent of the writing, fortunately these occurrences were infrequent enough to allow me to progress fairly easily through the story.
The author also has the viewpoint jump around quite a bit over the course of the story line, which I feel detracts a bit from the overall flow. I think I might have liked it better, if it had been written more as a mystery from only one or two viewpoints, instead of the dozen or so different ones that we migrated through on our journey to the novel end.
For my own part, there are some odd phrasing or grammatical structures while I was reading that would sometimes throw me off the rhythm of reading. Some of these were various characters speaking, so I disregarded that as being part of the "flavor" of the novel's atmosphere, but other times it was part of the regular text. At these points I would have to pause to decipher the intent of the writing, fortunately these occurrences were infrequent enough to allow me to progress fairly easily through the story.
The author also has the viewpoint jump around quite a bit over the course of the story line, which I feel detracts a bit from the overall flow. I think I might have liked it better, if it had been written more as a mystery from only one or two viewpoints, instead of the dozen or so different ones that we migrated through on our journey to the novel end.
December 16, 2016
If I could give this one six stars I would. Definitely the best in the series in my opinion. Note that it is also the least like the others. Starting this series is a disturbing experience, and you have to get through the "do I even want to be reading this, no matter how well written?" question for the first few books, but by the time I got to this one, I figured it had been worth it, no matter how much the first one disturbed me. (And honestly, writing this years afterward, when in the meantime we've had Game of Thrones, the violence and sadism in this series aren't going to seem /nearly/ as extreme or disturbing to a lot of people.) Another note: we find in the course of the book that Garol Vogel's middle name is Aphon, which if one decides to read this as a Greek compound and Vogel as the German word it is, means that this charactor's name is Garol Silent Songbird. Don't know whether that was deliberate or not.
August 18, 2014
An elaborate frameup threatens a large group of ex-pirates on probation. This whodunit never reaches its fairly high potential because the author explains everything that's going on to readers long before she lets her detective figure things out; there's no suspense until a brief final chase scene. Also, just about all of the violence--and all of the retribution--is offstage (there are threats of torture but none is actually performed), and though there is some humor to lighten the tone it's weirdly deadpan. Judging from the reviews this is the most palatable of the series, but I was disappointed.
NB: Koscuisko the torturer makes a cameo---and isn't it odd how many Goodreads reviewers misspell his name? Some sort of mass hypnosis?
NB: Koscuisko the torturer makes a cameo---and isn't it odd how many Goodreads reviewers misspell his name? Some sort of mass hypnosis?
September 11, 2010
Not my favourite of the series. The quality really drops here, and Koscuisko doesn't make much of an appearance, which is too bad, as he's the most interesting character of the lot. I might read it again someday, but other books are much much higher on the list.
For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_48299...
For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_48299...
October 16, 2007
Very interesting universe - mixing futuristic society with an almost midievel justice system. This is supposedly a stand-alone offshoot of a series I have not read - yet...
February 10, 2015
3 1/2 stars
September 20, 2015
Same universe as the others in series, but different characters altogether. I liked it.
August 12, 2015
Susan R. Matthews start out extraordinary, and exceeds herself with each book.
September 20, 2023
It was okay. There actually was a happy ending.
August 12, 2015
A fabulous read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews