[latepaul]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

I missed The Hanging Tree in that series. Is it worth going back? I was getting a little jaded with the series towards the end.

I still enjoyed it but, here's the thing.

Spoiler:

The earlier books each had their own story and then you have little bits of the on-going story of the Faceless Man right?
(OK I suppose Moon Over Soho, where FM is introduced they are the same, but apart from that).
Well in this book I guess there's a separate story, but really a lot of the FM storyline is coming to the fore. Not only that but a lot of things about that storyline, new information, is still being introduced. So much so that it left my head spinning a little bit.

My based-on-nothing speculation is that Aaronovitch had a storyline for FM mapped out roughly in his head and was doling it out in bits in various books. Then at a certain point he realises that if he doesn't up the pace he'll be writing these books for the next 20 years. And maybe he wants to wrap it up sooner than that.

That said there were some well written sequences, a couple of new characters I enjoyed and some pretty badass magical action scenes. I still gave it a 4/5 on Goodreads.