I was gonna do a review, but eh.
I liked Skin Game. I did, really. However, I'm starting to pick at things in my head.
For example, in retrospect, I wish the heist had been more... complex, I suppose? This was totally going to be the "Ocean's Eleven" book, but it lacked a ton of the finesse one would expect from that movie.
I mean the scheme is basically, 1) Bust in to a bank. 2) Bus through the first Gate 3) Run through the second Gate 3) someone dies at the third Gate 4) Take the stuff, and run back out.
The bit at the start where they had to get the guy's blood seemed much more complicated than it should have. Awkward plan, followed by a huge blow-up battle, plus never-explained interference from Tessa?
(Sidenote: It is amazing how much physical punishment Our Heroes take in this book. I mean, Harry usually gets a bit beat up, but he needs to be stitched up something like three different times, and Murphy and Butters both get beat down, HARD.)
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Next little complaint: Lasciel. She didn't really DO anything. This should have been an epic "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" setup, with little psychological and emotional conflict triangles springing up between Harry, Lasciel, Lash, Murphy, Nicodemus, Hannah, and Micheal. Instead, Lasciel stays hidden (and Hannah doesn't DO anything) nearly the entire book. Then she hops out, yells "Boo!" and then has rocks fall on top of her.
Other than that, I enjoyed it. I did NOT see Micheal coming back, even temporarily. The Batman-Butters thing was... ok, but I do like the idea of Butters becoming a Knight. And the fact that he essentially has a lightsaber amuses me.
The Parasite Pregnancy was interesting, as well. Although something that needs to be explained: Demonreach said that the "parasite" only agreed to help keep Harry alive if they didn't tell Harry anything about it. Considering that Harry reacted by basically going "Aw, now I have TWO daughters!" this seems strange.
Feel a bit bad for Murphy- she screwed up at being a Knight. Wonder if she'll get another chance?
I'm glad that the ending has finally set up the possibility of Harry getting back into Chicago. He was out on Demonreach for about a year and a half, I believe. The next book, Peace Talks (which is apparently going to be especially violent, ha) had better be him taking out all the trash in Chicago, and getting back to some semblance of normalcy.
