Theories of Flight

Theories of Flight by Simon Morden
Rating: 4/5
Source: Review copy from Orbit Books via NetGalley
Links: Amazon, Book Depository, Goodreads, Author's website

Set to be published in May 2011.

This is the second in the Samuil Petrovitch series. While my review does not contain spoilers for this book, it may for the first book, Equations of Life.

Samuil Petrovich is a scientist who has just discovered how to make anti-gravity. He works and lives in Metrozone, which used to be London, England before Armageddon changed the world. Unfortunately, Metrozone is being torn apart. Can Petrovich save his beloved city?

One of my main criticisms of Equations of Life was the difficulty in understanding the world set-up. As I expected, this is not an issue in the second book. Not just because I am familiar with it now, but the outside world plays a very small part in the book. It is really concentrated on the happenings in Metrozone itself.

This story is just as action packed as the first, maybe even more. It moved very quickly and had lots of heart-pounding moments. There were a few appearances of people from the first book, and I found it fun to be able to recognize them. I really loved Maddy, his love interest from the first book. It this one, they are newly married. She didn't feature prominently, but she was always on his mind, and everything he did was for her. It was very sweet.

My second criticism of the first book was the frequent use of Russian words and phrases. This was not an issue this time around. There were still a few Russian words, but I'm pretty sure they were all expletives, and not too difficult to figure out. Somehow having the profanity in a different language helped convey the meaning without being vulgar. Something I very much appreciated.

Overall, a very good story, and a great follow-up book. There is a third book coming out as well, and I am have to add it to my reading list. If only to discover the conclusion to the trilogy.