Finally finished INFERNAL last night. I agree with some of what Aphew and the others have written. I'm going to try and organize my thoughts here. No guarantee they'll be coherent. I'm pretty tired.
1. I didn't mind the lack of fix-its. I enjoy the RJ novels with a more paranormal/horror/conspiracy bent so I thought the general plot of this one was great. The (non)resolution of the Arab storyline didn't bother me. I think it was normal for Jack to botch it up. He was too personally involved because of his dad, working with someone else when he normally doesn't do that, and practically in a panic state because of The Stain. If he'd pulled off "the fix" with no problems, that would have been over the top IMO. I think this part of the story was handled well. Joey's final words were spooky and definitely food for thought.
2. FPW did a bang-up job writing Tom as a total asshat. Unfortunately, because he remained an asshat throughout the entire book, his actions at the end didn't seem too likely. I think it would have been more believable/powerful if Tom had softened up enough to fall in love with Gia and then taken The Stain from her. Also, I was not buying the "trick the Lillitongue" stuff. That seemed a bit of a cheat. :confused:
3. Floating Lillitongue. The "dead" spot around it in the sea. Bermuda Hole Girl. Creepy magic book. Lyle and Charlie. The idea of The Stain. Jack's "final goodbyes" with Abe. The opening sequence in the airport! :eek: All of those were wicked good. This is what keeps me reading FPW.
4. I am getting a little tired of hearing how wonderful, perfect, amazing, spectacular, beautiful, kind-hearted, uber-talented, morally spotless, blonde, beautiful, lithe yet voluptuous, motherly yet sexy, down to earth yet radiant, flirtatious yet incredibly loyal, lovely, beautiful, 6 months pregnant with her second child yet miraculously symptomless, etc etc blah blah blah Gia is. And this time we had to hear it from BOTH Jack and Tom. I get that she is a beautiful fantabulous specimen of womanhood, okay? Sheeeeesh.
Seriously, it is a tad overdone. Sometime I would like to see her do something stupid or selfish or not-very-nice, just to prove she is human.
5. I think the introduction of the 16th century characters might have worked better much closer to the beginning of the book. So far into the story, they sort of come out of nowhere and gave me a big "WTF" moment.
That's all for now... which I'm sure is quite enough.
Lisa