Will Sargent reviewed The rook by Daniel O'Malley
Review of 'The rook' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
So the protagonist wakes up with amnesia into a complex and deadly situation. This in principle isn't different from Memento or Jason Bourne or many other situations, but there are two things that make this far more entertaining -- Myfanwy Thomas is a female bureaucrat who has no combat skills, and in her previous life, she knew that her memory would be gone and so left notes for her amnesiac self, who is none too happy to be dropped in the middle of this.
But that's the first third of the novel. What makes this book interesting is how English it is. Even in the face of danger, Thomas and the agency she works for are remarkably calm and composed -- what disturbs Thomas is emotional betrayal and the violation of "good manners" and protocol between different organizations. Unfortunately, this is carried too far in a couple of cases, and …
So the protagonist wakes up with amnesia into a complex and deadly situation. This in principle isn't different from Memento or Jason Bourne or many other situations, but there are two things that make this far more entertaining -- Myfanwy Thomas is a female bureaucrat who has no combat skills, and in her previous life, she knew that her memory would be gone and so left notes for her amnesiac self, who is none too happy to be dropped in the middle of this.
But that's the first third of the novel. What makes this book interesting is how English it is. Even in the face of danger, Thomas and the agency she works for are remarkably calm and composed -- what disturbs Thomas is emotional betrayal and the violation of "good manners" and protocol between different organizations. Unfortunately, this is carried too far in a couple of cases, and there were some plot points which I found frankly unbelievable and reckless for Thomas to have engaged in, and there are points in the book where the work the agency does is written for giggles and humor. The introduction of the Vampire into the agency in particular is just absolutely unbelievable. I don't give a fuck how valuable he is, someone who kills three hundred people in your agency before he even says hello is not to be trusted.
That being said, it's an enjoyable and unpredictable read, and there are white knuckle terrors that can rival Charles Stross's little mise en scenes.