Climbing Mount TBR

I read this trilogy in a bit over a week.  This usually means it was great, I'm upset it ended and I'm looking for other books by the same author.  Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.  I will be looking for other books by these authors but I'm likely to stop reading after book 1 if its a trilogy.  The high level ratings

The Relic - This is Great!

The Reliquary - Well okay then

The Cabinet of Curiosities - WTF did I just read

Looking up to make sure I checked the spoiler box, yep I did because there will be spoilers.

The Relic was an awesome read.  I loved the way the story is told through multiple points of views.  I'm also a sucker for the up through the ranks, says it like it is cop.  Add in a couple of strong female characters and I'm all in.     I could believe there was a monster in the basement of the NY Natural History museum.  That place is huge, who knows whats down in the deepest basement.  They made the science believable.  I have no expertise in genetics, other than understanding there's a great deal of data to compare when working with it.  There was actually a significant delay for computer processing when doing DNA analysis and you needed someone trained to read the results.  Yes this is real world not the usual I hit enter 2 seconds later the info scrolls past and the with it 12 year old nerd can read the results crap.  

Through hard work and planning the monster is vanquished and our heroes win the day.  Not without some significant collateral damage but hey these things happen.  I was even looking forward to book two what with Greg swiping some of the monster making plant fibers for his own work.

The Reliquary - a frequently frustrating read did make me want to research underground New York.  Seriously its very near water how much usable underground can there be?  I did like the symmetry of the police diver Snow at the initial discovery and at the rescue.  Pendergrast gets the whole gang back together including pulling Frost out of retirement.  They have a whole new set of Museum bureaucrats but they aren't central to this particular story, instead we get a view of the corrupt police/city government and the homeless problem.  Smithback continues to be an idiot who can't think past the possibility of the "big story"   

Our boy Greg has figured out how to grow the monster plant and has been editing the DNA to avoid that eating the plant turns you into a monster problem.   He also discovered its a drug and has been selling the stuff to support his sciencing habit.  Really!   Well he was selling it before he got all the monstery bits edited out and that's how you get wrinklers.  Semi reptilian people that live in the lowest, deepest parts of underground NY and have been leaving behind beheaded corpses much like the museum beast did.  Which is why Pendergrast got the old gang together.   This all culminates in a massive Charlie Foxtrot where upper class New Yorkers are having a protest while the powers that be have decided to flood the underground tunnels using water from the reservoir.   Turns out the monster plants are growing in the reservoir (they are a sort of lily so makes since) and the new lead monster is counting on this since the virus in the monster plants will trigger a new evolutionary wave.  

Because big macho NY cops won't listen to Hayward (I needed more Hayward) you end up with angry homeless people popping out of manhole covers right in the middle of rich people march and a riot ensues.   I have to admit the mental image of hordes of the dispossessed popping out of manhole covers was magical.

Pendergrast and crew save the day in a less than believable way, but I am happy they survive except for Smithback.  Seriously, the dude should have consequences but no he keeps making it through scrapes and emerging relatively unscathed.

Cabinet of Curiosities 

And I'm still reading because I've read trilogies where the middle is meh but the bookends are wonderful.

Okay by this point I've decided that Pendergrast is a sort of Voodoo Batman Sherlock character, he just does what he wants and knows stuff.   The old gang has moved on, because seriously who wouldn't, except for Smithback who is still looking for that Pulitzer.  And I will point out I checked spoilers.  Some dude (who turns out to be Pendergrast's great-great-uncle) was looking for the secret to extend life in the late 19th century.  This turns out to be a side mission because the dude's ultimate goal is to destroy humanity because we're evil.   Insanity evidently runs in Pendergrast's family.  Imagine that.   Although I did like the walks through the memory palace and other conceits I read the last 100 pages of this thinking, how is he going to get out of this?  The only high point is Smithback finally gets consequences, almost deadly ones. Now I have to look up cabinet of curiosities because silly me I thought they referred to actual pieces of furniture containing things not entire buildings.

Now I'm going to read some nice soothing historical-fiction.