In discussing him with Bale upon finishing the book, he mentioned that Weaver's character arc is probably his favorite, and I think I'd have to agree.

I liked seeing a softer-but-still-resilient side of her in this story. Natasha is as strong and resourceful as ever, but she's a very damaged person and her problems are starting to catch up to her. The preacher remains a mystery, and I love that some of his dialogue and one-liners crack me up. I've always liked anti-hero characters who didn't want to be thrown into the role of hero, so in that sense I've loved Shepherd from the beginning. It will be interesting to see what choices they end up making in Book 4.Īnd speaking of the characters, I've gotten to where I really love the core group in this series. There's a lot of double-crossing going on and characters are trying to figure out what side they're on. I did have a little bit of trouble keeping track of who was on what side and who had betrayed who, but this was apparently the intention. The reader finally gets answers to some of the questions they may have had throughout the series, but many of these answers only spawn new questions. The continuation of Gant's story in particular was something I totally wasn't expecting to see, but thinking back to certain details in the previous books, it seems so obvious and inevitable now. Most of my predictions were dead wrong, though - I truly didn't have any idea what was coming.

I confess to not being totally shocked by a couple of the aforementioned 'vicious twists' because once I actually reached them, I realized everything had been flowing so naturally toward the revelations that I was more satisfied than surprised. Characters who had previously been lone wolves - so to speak - were suddenly forced to form alliances and trust one another in order to face a common enemy, and I always love when that sort of thing happens. Gant and Weaver and Natasha's storylines were all on a collision course.

I was a little surprised to find that the book started out by introducing yet another character and story arc with Gant and his band of survivors, but after the way Defiance ended, I could tell this new arc was going to become relevant very quickly. If anything, it's just now actually beginning. The Heretic and Defiance brought us two separate stories with different characters, and Shroud slowly brings those stories together. The best example I could think of was a wishbone. I was lying awake last night brainstorming for this review (#writerproblems) and trying to think of a way to describe the structure of this series. It didn't take me long to discover that he wasn't kidding. After I finished Defiance at the end of January, a couple of conversations took place on various social media in which Bale informed me that Book 3 contained a couple more vicious twists and that I totally had no idea what was coming.

The Heretic by Lucas Bale