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A review by pjonsson
Back In Black by John G. Hartness
3.0
After having read the first book in this series I was rather undecided whether this was a read worthy series or not. I’m afraid I am still not entirely convinced.
The book has its moments, that has to be said. There are some funny dialogue, there are some charismatic characters and the story is not too shabby. The two fallen angels claiming to have sponsored two “champions”, said champions being Pol Pot and Hussain, to see which one would create the highest body count was rather funny actually.
The menagerie of magical creatures that Jimmy encounters are gradually expanding and, as the book blurb states, trolls and fairies are thrown into the mix as well as the odd dragon. Jimmy’s coop friend are back which I am quite happy about. She is a good and charismatic character. Of course there are a fair amount of magical action and mayhem as well. Overall, the story has quite some promise I would say.
Unfortunately for every good part there is a not so good part. One thing I am not to found of is the fact that, sometimes, Jimmy is so bloody stupid that it is not funny. I mean come on, even a Vampire should perhaps consider not trying to punch a stone gargoyle with bare knuckles? This plan of theirs to take on the previously mentioned dragon and which Jimmy calls a “solid plan” was just painfully nonsensical.
Unfortunately this kind of silly stupidness is fairly frequently sprinkled over the pages and is not exactly making me warm up to the series.
Then we have the fact that Jimmy is beaten up more often than not and are constantly told that he has not been taught properly, that he doesn’t known his powers etc… All of this implying that he can be so much more cool and powerful. Building up a person slowly is okay if you see some actual advancement at least but there is very little progress which I find somewhat frustrating.
Also, this author has the annoying habit of sprinkling woke bullshit in his books from time to time which doesn’t exactly elevates my appreciation of the book. I so wish authors could keep political agendas out their books.
Anyway, overall I’m not sorry that I spent time on this book but I’m still not entirely convinced either so I guess I keep at it for another book in the series and hope that Jimmy, gets a bit more clever and gets a grip on his powers.
The book has its moments, that has to be said. There are some funny dialogue, there are some charismatic characters and the story is not too shabby. The two fallen angels claiming to have sponsored two “champions”, said champions being Pol Pot and Hussain, to see which one would create the highest body count was rather funny actually.
The menagerie of magical creatures that Jimmy encounters are gradually expanding and, as the book blurb states, trolls and fairies are thrown into the mix as well as the odd dragon. Jimmy’s coop friend are back which I am quite happy about. She is a good and charismatic character. Of course there are a fair amount of magical action and mayhem as well. Overall, the story has quite some promise I would say.
Unfortunately for every good part there is a not so good part. One thing I am not to found of is the fact that, sometimes, Jimmy is so bloody stupid that it is not funny. I mean come on, even a Vampire should perhaps consider not trying to punch a stone gargoyle with bare knuckles? This plan of theirs to take on the previously mentioned dragon and which Jimmy calls a “solid plan” was just painfully nonsensical.
Unfortunately this kind of silly stupidness is fairly frequently sprinkled over the pages and is not exactly making me warm up to the series.
Then we have the fact that Jimmy is beaten up more often than not and are constantly told that he has not been taught properly, that he doesn’t known his powers etc… All of this implying that he can be so much more cool and powerful. Building up a person slowly is okay if you see some actual advancement at least but there is very little progress which I find somewhat frustrating.
Also, this author has the annoying habit of sprinkling woke bullshit in his books from time to time which doesn’t exactly elevates my appreciation of the book. I so wish authors could keep political agendas out their books.
Anyway, overall I’m not sorry that I spent time on this book but I’m still not entirely convinced either so I guess I keep at it for another book in the series and hope that Jimmy, gets a bit more clever and gets a grip on his powers.