The Operator by Kim Harrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Poor Peri got out of the interpersonal hell of the previous novel and quit her job without ever wanting to look back, and who can blame her? Not me.

Of course, when powerful people want something and resources are on the ebb, they always seem to find a way to drag a poor girl back in. And office politics were never quite as nasty as this.

I'm skipping a lot of the huge plot points because I'd rather not dim people's enjoyment of this novel, but I can very easily say that this second book in Kim Harrison's SF series has improved upon the characterizations of all the side characters by leaps and strides. It feels as if she's really gotten into the swing of things, now.

There isn't quite as much of the horrible interpersonal reversals, either, because I think Peri is probably never going to be as trusting again, and in her case, that's a very, very good thing. Her ability to have short time-reversals in reality at the cost of her memory isn't quite as pronounced, now, either, because of Bill's little invention, but if we can learn anything at all in this series, every advancement or advantage comes at a truly serious cost.

I loved Michael and Helen and Harmony. I missed having more women in the previous novel, and these two were a real delight. And Michael? There's truly nothing more interesting than having an antagonist that's close to our hero's in ability, if not disposition. It worked extremely well.

All in all, I liked this one much more than the first one, and I liked the first one a lot, so that's saying something. It has a different feel, too, and these little bouts of madness are very, very interesting. :) You could say that it's an improvement on her life after everything that happened, too. At least they're not *always* out to get her. :) Just mostly.

I am glad that I re-read the first book right before tackling this one, but I realize now it wasn't that necessary. The author is an old hand at throwing us back into the thick of things gently and interestingly enough that we don't get whiplash, even if the first book was dense with those reversals. This one is a bit more streamlined and I appreciate it. :)

I can't wait for the next! I'm really hooked!

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