The NightDragon #4: O Mortífero by Scott Blasingame
Continuing directly where Book 3, "Simian", left off, the NightDragon is trying to escape with one of Simian's friends when he's confronted by the mystery-shrouded villain, Mortífero, and a band of gentically-engineered manimal monsters. For the first time, the NightDragon's martial arts skills, which were theoretically developed for self-defense against human opponents, just doesn't cut the mustard. He barely escapes with his life, but with a rematch looming in the near future, the question is: how will he fare in the next fight?
Blasingame's enjoyable writing style keeps the characters entertaining in between the vicious action sequences. I'm glad that Lei's character arc sees him overcoming the self-doubt that dogged him at every turn in the previous novel. Simian grows from careless manimal vigilante to a superhero in the making. The subplot involving Tao and the rival masters takes a few unexpected turns, as does the NightDragon's plan to defeat Mortífero.
The climax, which takes up chapters 8-10, is exhilarating. I hung on to every word. It starts off as a car chase, becomes a gun fight, takes a turn for the kaiju with what might be called a small-scale King Kong vs. Godzilla riff, and ends with kung fu vs. capoeira madness. Blasingame invests each fight with a forethought that an actual professional fight choreographer would give while working on an actual meeting. It's clear just how much planning goes on in his head before putting the characters' moves, blocks, reactions and counterattacks into prose. Great stuff!
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