I read The Bone Season last year and came away from it thinking it was fine. No real complaints, a fun read. I'm not sure if the way I went about reading it (listened to the first half on audiobook and then finished it in text) affected my opinion, or if The Mime Order has actually taken the story to the next level, but this one totally hooked me!
I think the expanded character development for most of the main cast really helped this book. I liked Paige fine in the first novel but she's really grown on me as a protagonist, especially in the way her relationship with Warden is handled (ie it isn't, for most of this; she has much bigger things to worry about). And Jaxon! What an asshole, but so well-developed, and it was just a pleasure to get more of a look at him through the course of this novel.
The plotting was fine, even if there were a few scenes/chapters that seemed extraneous; Shannon describes this one as more of a murder mystery than the first, and while I guess there was that element it didn't overwhelm the continuing narrative (a positive for me, since mystery/crime novels are one of my least favorite genres). The climactic scene (spanning two chapters near the end of the book) was suspenseful and wonderfully written. The movie rights for the series have already been sold and you can tell Shannon is thinking about it with the visual quality of most scenes. After The Bone Season, I wasn't sure if I'd continue on with this series. After The Mime Order, I'm marking next year on my calendar to await the release of the third book.
I think the expanded character development for most of the main cast really helped this book. I liked Paige fine in the first novel but she's really grown on me as a protagonist, especially in the way her relationship with Warden is handled (ie it isn't, for most of this; she has much bigger things to worry about). And Jaxon! What an asshole, but so well-developed, and it was just a pleasure to get more of a look at him through the course of this novel.
The plotting was fine, even if there were a few scenes/chapters that seemed extraneous; Shannon describes this one as more of a murder mystery than the first, and while I guess there was that element it didn't overwhelm the continuing narrative (a positive for me, since mystery/crime novels are one of my least favorite genres). The climactic scene (spanning two chapters near the end of the book) was suspenseful and wonderfully written. The movie rights for the series have already been sold and you can tell Shannon is thinking about it with the visual quality of most scenes. After The Bone Season, I wasn't sure if I'd continue on with this series. After The Mime Order, I'm marking next year on my calendar to await the release of the third book.
