Review: A worthy second installment to this series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2013
I enjoyed "Embustero" nearly as much as Pale Boundaries.  I say nearly only because the scope and location was not quite as immense and varied and of course this book suffers from the usual problems of mid-term novels.  This novel focused more on developing the characters, introducing some detail, and weaving together some of the strands of the plot to convey the story forward.Cleveland has an excellent touch with characterization- I found myself  able to easily understand and picture the characters with only a few sentences.  This was one of the most pleasurable aspects of "Embustero", although I felt that the main character, Terson, was not shaping up well during his sojourn on the ship.  There were some plotting problems.  For example, repetition in the love subplots for both male leads, and a certain kind of "teen angst" that felt out of place in a novel featuring adult characters.  Forced marriage is not a good plot device, nor is death of a loved one, faked or real, a good solution.  Cleveland's female characters are little more than interesting victims- hopefully he will learn to incorporate women into his stories as full partners.But Cleveland still has his remarkable grasp on pure adventure.  The entire salvage operation in space was exciting, detailed, graphic, and fun- just as space opera should be.  Eagerly looking forward to the next book.