10-16-09 When Shadows Fall by Brian Scott Smith – Fiction

2 – Garbage.  Not utter garbage or it would only rate a 1, but still garbage.  This book reads like a bad B horror flick.  Smith goes overboard on trying to make the bad guys really bad guys by pulling out all the Satanist clichés instead of giving decent back-story or information.  And his use of language is pretentious and sophomoric at the same time.  For example: “…it was their job to foil this cosmically diabolical plot and save the earth from accelerated ruin.”  I mean, really.  He uses animal and human sacrifice, spirit guides, mass murderers, demons, psychics, and zombies to try to make this scary but succeeds only in making the story messy because there is no back-story, no reason.  You don’t give a rat’s ass about any of the characters because they are shallow constructs.  Even so, some of the horror scenes are well written and the basic premise of the book is good.  The execution of the premise is what sucks.  I would suggest run screaming if you see this book.

10-12-09 New Tricks by John Levitt – Fiction

4 – I really like Levitt’s writing style.  The best word I can use to describe it is “easy.”  Not simple, but easy like smooth jazz.  The story just flows well and Mason, the main character, is likable.  Fun for jazz aficionados as well as fantasy readers because Mason compares his magic to his jazz guitar playing.  Each story (there are only two so far) moves steadily and smoothly toward an end so these can (so far) be read out of order but there are a few references to occurrences in the previous book.  Lou, a dog that’s not a dog (he’s an Ifrit), also has his own personality and is as likeable a character as Mason; these are almost but not quite buddy crime stories.  I look forward to the release of Levitt’s next Dog Days book.

I’m back & I’m better!

I feel much better now and will be posting 2 new reviews sometime tomorrow.  Yay familiarity!