So I slacked off a bit on getting the reviews done in a prompt and efficient manner.
I’ll try to do better.
I promise nothing.
A straight up detective novel is something a bit different for me. I like to switch up the subject matter and genre of the stories I read as going too long reading one style gets old and repetitive and boring and blah. Someone somewhere (probably a lot of someones) had I Am Pilgrim in a list of book recommendations so at some point I added into my Goodreads list.
Early on in the book I was a bit confused as to what was going on, but I think that had more to do with me trying to match up what was going on in the story with the description of the story that comes on the book jacket. Maybe it’s just me but that messed me up a bit, it was like it didn’t quite match. Regardless, once I let myself get into the actual story I very much enjoyed it.
Basically our hero in this story is a former government operative that was somewhat retired and is called back to duty because of an imminent threat that will destroy Western Civilization as we know it. How? Why? Would it really be able to? I don’t care. The author does a good job of setting up his MacGuffin enough so that we can accept that it will do what everyone is worried it will.
I think what I enjoyed most about this story is that the protagonist is not perfect. He makes mistakes and we get to ride them out with him. He is of course an exceptional detective, but he’s human. I’ve never been the biggest fan of characters that do everything right as the best part of any story is how we observe characters deal with conflict. Doing stuff wrong and being wrong are things that we are all able to relate to, and experiencing the consequences are some of the most enjoyable parts of stories.
The secondary storyline and investigation never really drew me in. I kept forgetting the main parts of it, like, who got dead, how, why I care, what it matters. That kind of thing. I’m not going to hold it against the story too much because for the most part I liked the character of the Pilgrim and I enjoyed his quest to solve the primary issue. This is supposedly the start of a series, when we’re introduced to the Pilgrim he is already well on in his career and years so I would definitely enjoy a look at his earlier days, though I would still hop on board for his next adventure.
