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extrasmallburger's review
2.0
This book was really good at times, but could have shaved off 50-100 pages. It needed some tightening. If it had been that way I probably would have given it 4 stars hands down. The world building was insanely interesting, and I loved the characters from both heaven and hell. Bobby Dollar I enjoyed 50% of the time. There was something about him that felt frustrating to me, like he was full of it but didn't back it up with any substance of character. He also talked a lot about how he trusted his gut, and his gut continued to prove to be the last thing he should trust. I found it to be annoying, but understand that it was done to move the plot forward.
sleightholme's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jmoses's review against another edition
5.0
This was a superb read. Plot, characters, setting, writing, everything.
mantissabolt's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Bobby is a hard boiled detective and advocate (lawyer). He drinks too much, fights too much, has too much sex and is in love with the femme fatale , all the type of stuff you would expect from a noir detective novel. Tad Williams does a good job writing noir urban fantasy detective novel but the idea that Bobby was angel in the endless battle between Heaven and Hell was a bridge to far for me.
tani's review against another edition
4.0
Felt like a mystery novel, which is good, but maybe not what I was expecting? I don't know, I struggled with this one, and I honestly think it's just life issues that gave me so much trouble, but it's hard to separate these things out from the book that you're reading.
webjoram's review against another edition
2.0
El principio del libro es realmente interesante y el autor hace un buen trabajo desarrollando toda la mitología en torno al personaje principal, su función como ángel, sus motivaciones y su carácter. Este primer tercio de la novela me gusto muchísimo.
Esta novela es planteada como inicio de una serie, de hay toda la parte introductoria, y para mí ese no es un problema siempre que el "caso" que se resuelva en cada libro sea interesante, y ese es precisamente el problema de este libro. Después de un inicio potente el desarrollo de la novela flojea muchísimo, el autor pierde en ocasiones el hilo de la historia obsesionado en abrir subtramas y en presentar a muchísimos personajes secundarios.
Es evidente que antes que desarrollar una historia el autor busca dotar a Dollar de un entorno rico en personajes e historias de las cuales pueda tirar en sucesivas novelas. El problema con este planteamiento es que la historia principal de este libro se vuelve insulsa y acaba resolviéndose de forma precipitada y deja al lector con pocas ganas de leer una posible continuación. Por lo menos esa a sido mi sensación.
Desconozco si esta novela ha tenido continuación pero desde luego no tengo ningún interés en continuar con su lectura.
Esta novela es planteada como inicio de una serie, de hay toda la parte introductoria, y para mí ese no es un problema siempre que el "caso" que se resuelva en cada libro sea interesante, y ese es precisamente el problema de este libro. Después de un inicio potente el desarrollo de la novela flojea muchísimo, el autor pierde en ocasiones el hilo de la historia obsesionado en abrir subtramas y en presentar a muchísimos personajes secundarios.
Es evidente que antes que desarrollar una historia el autor busca dotar a Dollar de un entorno rico en personajes e historias de las cuales pueda tirar en sucesivas novelas. El problema con este planteamiento es que la historia principal de este libro se vuelve insulsa y acaba resolviéndose de forma precipitada y deja al lector con pocas ganas de leer una posible continuación. Por lo menos esa a sido mi sensación.
Desconozco si esta novela ha tenido continuación pero desde luego no tengo ningún interés en continuar con su lectura.
defaultnamespace's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
fantasyfunk's review against another edition
1.0
Just didn't do it for me.
The main character was just not that likable to me. He is and isn't a complete jerk and basically the difference was whether or not he was around female characters. I can handle the snarky smart-ass cliche, but the misogyny was just too much eye-rolling for me. Plus I didn't really understand what the internal struggle was for Dollar. Lots of things happened to him or were happening around him, but other than trying to stay alive, he almost seemed involved because he had nothing better to do. Yes not dying is a good reason to do things, but it's not a super interesting character motivation.
Ohhh how I wanted to love Caz especially when every introduction of her got over the initial school girl costume. I wanted her to be the strong female demon opposition to Dollar. I wanted her to kick ass (even if dressed as a school girl) and just live up to her potential to be a great villain. Instead she completely seems to forget her introduction as a bad ass to go from one terrible abusive relationship to the next with lots of sex in between.
The plot seemed to happen mostly in the background since Dollar accidentally winds up in the middle of something he knows nothing about. The book was a lot of him trying to find things out but never really finding anything useful (just going to different places and meeting different characters) until at least midway through. Then we get a bit of reveal of things that might be wildly important and may or may not have anything to do with the big mystery of the beginning. Finally some more struggle to find things before everything is just tidily wrapped up together at the end. Or not so tidily as it seems like there's a lot left to be answered but at least we finally get to see that everything is related.
1 Star. I would have put it down if I didn't have a thing about finishing books and I wasn't trying to slog through with a friend.
The main character was just not that likable to me. He is and isn't a complete jerk and basically the difference was whether or not he was around female characters. I can handle the snarky smart-ass cliche, but the misogyny was just too much eye-rolling for me. Plus I didn't really understand what the internal struggle was for Dollar. Lots of things happened to him or were happening around him, but other than trying to stay alive, he almost seemed involved because he had nothing better to do. Yes not dying is a good reason to do things, but it's not a super interesting character motivation.
Ohhh how I wanted to love Caz especially when every introduction of her got over the initial school girl costume. I wanted her to be the strong female demon opposition to Dollar. I wanted her to kick ass (even if dressed as a school girl) and just live up to her potential to be a great villain. Instead she completely seems to forget her introduction as a bad ass to go from one terrible abusive relationship to the next with lots of sex in between.
The plot seemed to happen mostly in the background since Dollar accidentally winds up in the middle of something he knows nothing about. The book was a lot of him trying to find things out but never really finding anything useful (just going to different places and meeting different characters) until at least midway through. Then we get a bit of reveal of things that might be wildly important and may or may not have anything to do with the big mystery of the beginning. Finally some more struggle to find things before everything is just tidily wrapped up together at the end. Or not so tidily as it seems like there's a lot left to be answered but at least we finally get to see that everything is related.
1 Star. I would have put it down if I didn't have a thing about finishing books and I wasn't trying to slog through with a friend.