julio-alexi genao

Frustrating.When it's good, it's bloody brilliant. There's some lovely symmetry in character development between the various menz, a thrilling sequence in the Balkans, loads of sex... and a good 300 pages of people talking about how they feel.Mercs I and II, taken as a whole: flawed.Some really exciting and suspenseful set pieces and riveting character work, but the story is ultimately undermined by the conspicuous absence of the restraint that made Soldiers so comprehensively, spectacularly excellent. Where Soldiers gripped me by the throat and didn't let me go until everything was blown to hell, Mercenaries unfolds in fits and starts, pausing for very long stretches of tedious discussion that don't drive the plot forward. Granted, these relationship peace-summits occur in fabulous settings, but as a story, it falls short of the dark poetry of Soldiers.A GR friend suggested I'd be able to skip huge chunks of it and not miss anything, but I reserved judgement until I'd read it for myself.She was right.But—fuck me: when it goes all amazeballs, and you can't stop yelling at your e-reader, and your friends are sniggering at your anguished GR updates?So worth it.