| Smoker |
 As I've mentioned in past reviews of Rucka's Atticus Kodiak novels, I don't think I can really review them objectively. I love Rucka's writing and I love the character of Atticus. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why, I just really like the guy. Atticus is grounded and level headed. A very sympatric character that doesn't take shit from anyone and is loyal to his loved ones. I just think the character is fantastic and love reading stories about him. I enjoy Rucka's non-Atticus works a lot too, but it's the Atticus novels that I really wish he would produce a few more of.
Smoker is another fantastic Atticus book. Here, Atticus ends up going against one of the world's most dangerous assassins and wins. As always, the action is heart-racing intense, the suspense keeps you on the train until the conductor is threatening to lock you inside, and there isn't a stock, two-dimensional character to be found anywhere. What's also nice about finally reading Smoker is that it fills in the gaps of Atticus' history that I partially learned about in the last Atticus novel written to date, Critical Space. In Critical Space Atticus comes face to face with the same assassin again, and the history and events of Smoker are mentioned but not gone into detail. It was nice to finally have the full picture painted for me and to no longer be working from a thumbnail sketch. In fact, I'm thinking of rereading Critical Space immediately. I already think it's the best of all the Atticus novels, and I'd like to put the two parts together as one big story. It's like watching The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi back-to-back in one sitting. |