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The Minority Council (2012)

by Kate Griffin(Favorite Author)

4.25 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Orbit

series

Matthew Swift

review 1: This was a richer story than I expected from the series. The complications of being the Midnight Mayor and Matthew Swift stand out in sharper focus between a twisting story of drugs, summoned monsters and of course, horrible, blood. I put it down ready for the next book, which is a bit annoying since the next book is months away. And again, Good Lord and Butter, Penny Ngwenya is easily the most annoying 2nd banana in all of written human history and probably television. Please do drop into a pit or run away and join a circus. Why can so many of the other characters feel well crafted, yet Penny is either loudly irritating or silent? Sadly, her abrasive self is in a good portion of the story. The constant disrespect in a very mean way towards Matthew is also a trope I think ... morehas run it's course. So is the constant physical abuse. But other those 2 minor gripes, this is a meaty story with rich images, tension and real moments of complicated beauty. Enjoy it.
review 2: This is probably my favourite current urban fantasy series by some way for a variety of reasons - I love the way Griffin evokes London, the plots are usually nicely dark and splattered with inventively high body counts and there is none of that irritating romance (especially of the being-torn-between-two-options rubbish that everyone's doing). However with that does come some issues and I began this installment well aware that the cast of recurring characters had undergone what can only be described as a savaging due to previous events. So a load of new characters (or cannon-fodder) need to be introduced. Knowing that only about 10% are likely to see book 5, it was hard to really invest in them (apart from Kelly who was a new grade of awesome - like plutonium-grade awesome). Equally I felt similar apprehension with the plot. After the frankly apocalyptic finale of Neon Court - where was there left to go? Who in their right mind would be stupid enough to take on someone with Swift's track record? Drugged up magicians it seems - which I found slow to engage with but it did lead to a very satisfyingly messed up showdown as Swift's psyche undergoes a small meltdown in probably my favourite sequence of the novel so far. So yes, though it didn't pack the emotional punch of previous installments, it still served up action and sheer invention in spades. I'll be preordering the next one. less

Download links for: The Minority Council

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