Jon's Queen Consort Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 My sister recommended me the Pendergast series and I wanted to hear your opinions before buying the books. Is the series interesting? What the books are *talking* about? Are they in chronological order or I can buy the ones I will find? Which books from the series you believe that are the best? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andorion Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Publication order os the way to go for this one. The series stars super genius, super sophisticated detective from Louisiana - Pendergast as he encounters bizarre case after bizarre case. I read quite a lot of these a few years back. The first two Relic and Reliquary are not really straight up crime books - more techno thrillery... After that you get a bunch of bloody and gruesome cases, there's a trilogy where he takes on a supergenius antagonist - I think it was 5 to 7 Overall the books are entertaining. Don't expect something superlative, but they do entertain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Read all of them that were out at the time about seven/eight years ago. Relic felt like a Michael Creighton type book: psuedo-science techno thriller. Like Andorion said from there it follows Pendergrast to cases that seem supernatural but have more mundane answers. Pendergrast is a good character with a cool background that comes out slowly through the books. But the books themselves can be choppy (from reading their solo work Child is the better writer of the pair) and the series really goes off the rails after the loose trilogy that starts with Brimstone. I had to quit the series after Wheel of Darkness and I was much less picky when I was reading these. The authors also have an annoying habit of dropping titles of their other books into the text but this may have been something I remember from their solo works) That said compared to every other grocery store thriller I have tried (James Rollings, blech) these were probably the best. I would say that they have at least left me with enough good memories that I feel like rereading the first few to see how they hold up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMorrigan Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I love crime fiction and this series is one of my favorites. Cabinet of Curiosities Is probably my favorite of the series. If you're interested after reading Relic, they also wrote a great book called Dinosaurs in the Attic about The Natural History Museum. I highly recommend them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andorion Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 9 hours ago, SkynJay said: Read all of them that were out at the time about seven/eight years ago. Relic felt like a Michael Creighton type book: psuedo-science techno thriller. Like Andorion said from there it follows Pendergrast to cases that seem supernatural but have more mundane answers. Pendergrast is a good character with a cool background that comes out slowly through the books. But the books themselves can be choppy (from reading their solo work Child is the better writer of the pair) and the series really goes off the rails after the loose trilogy that starts with Brimstone. I had to quit the series after Wheel of Darkness and I was much less picky when I was reading these. The authors also have an annoying habit of dropping titles of their other books into the text but this may have been something I remember from their solo works) That said compared to every other grocery store thriller I have tried (James Rollings, blech) these were probably the best. I would say that they have at least left me with enough good memories that I feel like rereading the first few to see how they hold up. I agree that Lincoln Child is the better writer. I liked his James Logan books better than most of the Pendergast ones. Also if you want a creature feature type of book his Terminal Freeze is great. As for other thriller writers I think Lincoln Child in particular is far better than James Rollins. But I would say that Patrick Lee's Breach was better than anything put out by Preston and Child Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon's Queen Consort Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 On 24/10/2016 at 8:07 PM, Andorion said: The series stars super genius, super sophisticated detective from Louisiana - Pendergast as he encounters bizarre case after bizarre case. I read quite a lot of these a few years back. He shounds really cool or at least better than most of the book detectives. On 25/10/2016 at 0:41 AM, SkynJay said: seem supernatural but have more mundane answers. That sounds really interesting. On 25/10/2016 at 0:41 AM, SkynJay said: The authors also have an annoying habit of dropping titles of their other books into the text but this may have been something I remember from their solo works) I think that this might be less annoying that the author's appearance in other books playing deus ex machina. On 25/10/2016 at 1:01 AM, TheMorrigan said: I love crime fiction and this series is one of my favorites. Cabinet of Curiosities Is probably my favorite of the series. If you're interested after reading Relic, they also wrote a great book called Dinosaurs in the Attic about The Natural History Museum. I highly recommend them Thank you for the recommendation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andorion Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 44 minutes ago, Jon's Queen Consort said: He shounds really cool or at least better than most of the book detectives. That sounds really interesting. I think that this might be less annoying that the author's appearance in other books playing deus ex machina. Thank you for the recommendation! OP take note that the Pendergast series is still ongoing. As far as I know, the more recent books are not as good as the earlier ones. I recently read a Preston book in another series and its quite bad. So if you start the series but want a good jumping off point: Relic and Reliquary are linked. Cabinet of Curiousities and Still Life with Crows are standalones Brimstone, Dance of Death and Book of the dead is a trilogy Wheel of Darkness and Cemetery Dance are standalones Fever Dream, Cold Vengeance and Two Graves is a trilogy. Now that is where I stopped reading. Frankly I thought Two Graves was an excellent point to end the series. Also, all of this is based on 3+year old memories, so I might be a bit off. But start with Relic. It introduces Pendergast and some recurring characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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