Where I Hated the Last Page

The Cardinal's Blades by Pierre Pevel
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

There is no right score for this book. I thought I was loving it, planning to give it 5 stars, but then (everything from here on is spoilers) at the very end, literally the last sentences, the author pulls the rug out from under the reader and destroys whatever pleasure I had taken in the book.

I want to give it a negative score.

Yeah, it's fun to read. I liked it so much I was planning to buy everything this author has available in English. But then he betrays us with the ending, going from a decently happy resolution to a tacked-on sort of cliffhanger that reveals we've been tricked into cheering one of the villains.

It's like finding out that James Bond has been a double agent all along, Sherlock works with Moriarty, and Captain America is stealing from old folks at the retirement home. It's not clever. It's a big f you to the reader.

For most of the book, this reads like a fantasy version of the Three Musketeers, which is a combo I love. I've seen some critiques of the language; I liked the language. Some thought there was too much exposition; I didn't see it that way. I thought it all worked well, and I was happy with the conclusion--up until the last page. Then, when the leader of the title group of characters, the hero of the story who led them to an improbable victory, is shown in the final sentences to be part of the bad guys' organization all along, I wanted to throw the book away. It's like drinking a shake all the way down and then finding worms and cockroaches at the bottom of the glass.

What a disappointment. I don't trust the author to tell a story again. And I'm switching it to a 1.

Grrr.

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