Dissolution review

[alobear]

I definitely went about trying C J Sansom's Shardlake series in the wrong way.  I started accidentally with the last in the series, which I really enjoyed.  nezumi_sama very kindly lent me the first in the series, Dissolution, which I finished this morning.  It was still pretty good, but not nearly as good as the fourth (Revelation), which goes to show that Sansom has improved quite a lot over the intervening time.  I actually didn't like the main character that much in Dissolution, which goes to show that Shardlake has improved as a person over the course of the series, as well, which is quite interesting.  It was all a bit one-dimensional as well - what I really liked about Revelation was the raft of sub-plots and fascinating peripheral characters.  Dissolution had only the one plot, and was confined to one place for most of the book, which felt a bit limiting.

Still, it wasn't a bad book, and I enjoyed it overall - I think I'll take a break from Sansom now, though, so I won't be borrowing the middle two books for a while.