Shadows of Annihilation

I enjoyed this third book in the series more than I expected. From the title, I expected a grim story fraught with danger, whereas in fact what we get is a mostly peaceful tour of Mexico in the summer of an alternative 1917, after the country has been thoroughly occupied and pacified by the USA.

Stirling's novels tend to be punctuated by outbreaks of deadly hand-to-hand combat; and there are some here, but they're few and occasional, and seem almost incidental to the story. The story tells of a few German agents planning an attack and the American agents planning to thwart it, without knowing what sort of attack it will be. But these mainly peaceful preparations go on for most of the book, until the attack is actually made, near the end.

Fans of action and danger may find this book disappointing; I found it relatively pleasant and restful, and Mexico at peace and in summer is more congenial a setting than wartime Germany in winter (the setting of the previous book). Stirling always excels at research, so there's plenty of plausible detail in this picture of Mexico as it might have been, bringing it alive for us.

Why only 3 stars? Well, the research and the writing are good as usual; I found the result pleasant to read and will undoubtedly read it again in future; but relatively little happens in this story. As a novel, it's not very memorable. Even the climax is relatively brief and muted compared with the various exciting cinematic action sequences of the previous books in this series.

This is not a complaint, just an explanation of how I arrived at my rating. I liked the book quite well, and that's what 3 stars are supposed to represent.

The two heroines are still in love with each other, but more accustomed to each other by now, so that their relationship is slightly more in the background, which is just as well. I don't mind them being in love with each other, but it can become a bit tedious if they go on and on about it.

I still find Luz's supreme excellence in combat, languages, cookery, etc., to be implausible and over the top, and Ciara's brilliance with machinery is almost as bad. I suppose it's OK if you don't take these stories too seriously, but it nags at me a little.