My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked Infidel better than the first book, possibly because the world and the characters were already established, which helped push the plot along faster and with less distractions (and trips to the dictionary). Maybe also because I got a little less squeamish about all the bug-based technology.
Being a middle book, is it true that the more things seemed to have changed, the more they stay the same. Nyx is still a wreck, Rhys is still torn and undecided, and the team members seem on the verge of breaking apart at any moment. Much of the plot is spent waiting and planning, with nothing but preparations happening for days even if they’re under a strict deadline, which sometimes makes it feel more like a John Le Carré novel than one about a bounty hunter. Not that it’s a bad thing.
Like with the first book, the one thing that occasionally threw me out of the story (even if, at one point, it actually becomes part of the plot) is how our favourite ex bel dame is able to survive in her line of job and throughout the book when every encounter with the enemy ends up in a bloody beating and a trip to the magicians to patch her up from scraps. Good thing the bugs can basically bring people back from the dead, or this would have been a very short book.