Das war überraschend gut (dafür, dass ich Zombie-Bücher nicht mag). Spannend mit einem guten Schuss trockenem Humor. 4,5 Sterne ( )

City of the Lost
by Stephen Blackmoore
This book wasn't as good as the Eric Carter series but still interesting and exciting. I just liked Eric better😁. This has a thug, Joe Sunday, working for a crime boss as our main character. As explained in the blurb, he is turned into a zombie but with no user manual. His boss had sent him after a certain stone but he isn't the only one trying to get it! Twists and turns weaved along the way. Very strange and entertaining. I like different!
Great narration. ( )

The first novel by Blackmore is rougher than his later series but I am happy that I read it after the Eric Carter books - despite it probably sounding better if it was read earlier so one can see his development as a writer between the novels. Technically it is not in the same sequence - but it is in the same world (kinda) and is either a prequel (with the differences maybe explained with the change of narrator) or it was the first story in the universe that was then revised for Carter. But we do get the Bruja and Darius and magical Los Angeles. And that's why I am glad I read it after the series - had I read this one first, some of the big surprises in the follow up series would have fallen flat -- who is the Bruja or Darius for example. I think that it is supposed to be its own title - and I read it as such.

But back to the book.

One day, a robbery goes horribly wrong - in a way that should not be possible. Joe Sunday's partner is dead (well... kinda) and things just do not make sense. Before long, Sunday is also dead (kinda) and then things really start getting crazy. A few more corpses (some staying dead, some not), a few femme fatale characters, some magic and a few zombie dogs and LA is about to be destroyed. And all the mayhem is for the same thing -- what the robbery was all about -- a rock. And everyone wants it - including people that are supposedly dead and ones who should not know about the world of magic. And the race is on -- with more shifts and surprises than a short novel like this one should be able to support.

Joe Sunday is not your usual likable character - he is a thug and he does not make excuses about it. So his methods do not change when he dies - if anything, he is just in a better position now - as he cannot die. Or hurt. Although there is a price for it - and even Joe seems to balk on it a bit.

It is a mix of urban fantasy and zombie horror - and it works. It is also a fascinating world, laid on top of ours that then gets developed a lot more in the Eric Carter series. But it is also very gruesome and with adult enough language to require a warning or 3 - but then Blackmoore's style is like that.

If you plan to read the Eric Carter series, don't read this one until you finish at least the first 2 or even 3 of the series books. If you do no plan to read them or if you had already read them, have fun with this one. I wish Blackmoore had left this book as a full prequel - I would have loved to see Eric and Joe together - but one cannot have everything I guess.

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: City of the Lost Series: ----- Author: Stephen Blackmoore Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 225 Format: Kindle digital edition Synopsis: Joe Sunday, low life thug for hire, does a job and is killed because of it. He is resurrected by the man who killed him. What follows is a whole lot of pulp noir with magic. A wizard who wants to live forever. His scorned girlfriend. Joe Sunday, zombie PI and some do gooder of a witch who just wants to help all the poor little vampires who have bad diseases from feeding on other lowlifes. Everything revolves around a magic stone. Serious as serious can be. My Thoughts: The first 10% of this book was so filled with profanity that not only did I create a new shelf labeled "Profanity" but was about to dnf it. I don't need this kind of *&^%$#@! in my reading life! If you don't get that, please look up "irony" in the dictionary. However, after that 10% mark, it just dropped off. I have no idea why or what caused the initial vomital sludge but it did stop being an issue. It did set the tone for the book though. I am not a fan of pulp noir. Detectives and thugs who are as bad as the ones they are crossing are not the kind of character I really like to read about. I am also not a fan of urban fantasy [with a few exceptions], so this mash up was pretty much the worst of both worlds for me. It was engaging enough that I did want to know how it ended and I finished this. However, I'll probably be avoiding future works by Mr. Blackmoore on general principle. " ( )

A bloody fun whodunnit that should be the first in a series. I like that the "hero" was a bad guy. Fans of Anita Blake might enjoy this one.

I winced so hard at the protagonist's treatment of and thought processes around a sex worker that he encountered. That was very problematic for me. Same for another character who was extremely short. I'm also not a fan of the 20-something PYT being a prize at the end.

I was surprised at the above since I follow the author on Twitter, and he seems to be pretty socially aware. I'm not sure if it was just the character thinking like this (because there were other references that were more respectful), or if the author's own thought processes have changed. ( )