I finished The General's Thumb on Sunday, but haven't really had a chance to write up my feelings on the book until now. I assume we don't need to spoiler stuff after the deadline?
I agree with a lot of other people's thoughts on this by the looks of it. The pacing was enjoyable, as it kept everything moving at a good pace, and flitting from character to character prevented it from becoming dull at any point. Unfortunately, this meant it took a long while to begin to feel like you knew the characters, and unfamiliarity with Eastern European names meant initially I struggled to follow just who was who.
The story itself was perfectly enjoyable, but I felt the ending really let it down. I'm unsure why Nik and Sakhno ended up doing what they did in Germany, or who was giving them orders and why. I'm still unsure why there seemed to be a dispute between rival internal Ukrainian intelligence services, and how this affected what was going on, and who was trying to take out Viktor, and the leads he found in his case. Most frustrating of all, given that it's even mentioned in the book that it's left unanswered, it's why Georgiy and Refat seemed to have been working together, but Viktor had to lie to Georgiy about Refat's involvement in helping with the case.
Whilst enjoyable, it certainly wasn't in danger of going beyond being anything other than a soft crime thriller, so I really can't give it more than 3/5 overall.
Looking forward to starting Stars My Destination when I get back home. I've got a bit more time off before going back to work next week, so should be able to make a good start on it.
Parksey wrote:this also has the most horrendous cover known to man,
It's from the same Sci-fi Masterworks range that my copy of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep is from, and that has a pretty bad cover, too, but thankfully is a much better read. In fact, I think the only other Sci-fi Masterworks book I've read is I Am Legend, so it's a range that's been very good to me so far.