Originally posted on www.csdaley.com

Dave Hooper is having a very bad day. Mind you, not as bad as his fellow co-workers who are just going about their business of drilling oil out of the Gulf of Mexico when some nasty creatures crawled through a portal and ate them for lunch. Not just ate them but gorged on them. Ripping them apart in some sort of zombies would run in horror buffet. Dave wanders into the horror show and suddenly fines himself the unwanted hero cleaving beasties in half and generally making himself a giant pain in the ass.

This is the type of book I should have loved. Eaten up like popcorn and gone back begging for refills. The monsters were nasty and horrific. Dave is a smart ass and it is quite possible that I might have a few things in common with smart asses. He uses a splitting maul as his main form of dismembering the monsters from below. He names it Lucille (that is full of win). There are nasty ninja like creatures called Sliveen trying to end Dave. I loved the Sliveen. They were my single favorite creature in the book. Lots of action. Tons of horror. Boatloads of gore.

Despite all this, I didn't love the book. I liked it. I finished it. I wasn't tempted to put it aside. I just didn't love it. I had two main problems. I really didn't like Dave that much. Don't get me wrong. I don't have to like main characters to enjoy a book, but for some reason Dave really annoyed me. I feel like Birmingham was going for a slightly unlikable hero who would morph into something more. It just didn't really click for me. The second problem I had was I was not a giant fan of Birmingham's writing style. It didn't flow real smoothly in parts. The books pacing felt off. The first half of the book dragged in places but would then be punctuated by some great action scenes. It didn't stop me from reading but I didn't fly through it like I do with a book that completely captures me.

Now, the things Birmingham did that I liked. He can flat out write action and the last 25% of the book is a giant roller coaster ride of action. The monsters were great and I even liked the sections written from their point of view. I loved a lot of the supporting characters and I thought the plot was a fun one.

If you are already a fan of Birmingham this book is going to be a treat for you. If you like action packed monster movies (which was especially true of the 2nd half of this book) than enjoy the brain candy.

I am fairly certain this book will not be for everyone. The language can get crude and it reads like a summer blockbuster in some place (in particular it hammered some of the normal cliches you get in those blockbusters). However, if a quick read summer blockbuster is what you are looking for than buckle up it's going to be an explosive ride.



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Review copy provided by Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey Spectra ( )

I see why this series is marketed towards people who love Kevin Hearne and Jim Butcher -- it's paranormal, it's fast-paced, in some ways it's a guys book.

However, _I_ love Kevin Hearne and Jim Butcher because they write smart-ass, funny, dialogue, and their heros, while flawed, are also inherently lovable. They are always trying to right the wrongs, whether they caused them or not. I find Dave to be sardonic and self-hating, and I can't really fault him for that, because he's quite unappealing. I suspect that if I was willing to power through the first book he might gain some character, but I'm a couple hundred pages in and I have better things to do.

Advanced readers copy provided by edelweiss. ( )

Upon reread, I'm changing the review score to 3 from 4. There are hints that the author might be racist-ish and definitely a rightwinger. I just can't get behind that shit. ( )

This is certainly an unusual book, whilst it has a common theme with other books, namely monsters fighting with humans, the execution puts it a step ahead, or perhaps outside of regular fiction. I found it to be closer to Pierce's Ass Goblins of Auschwitz than your regular fiction book.

Is that a bad thing? For some readers perhaps, they may find it to be coarse and/or offensive, however I found it to fit the style of book and story telling quite well. It's certainly different to the writing seen in the Without Warning (The Disappearance) series, which was exceptional by the way, but again not necessarily different in a bad way, more laid back, fun and relaxed than the more formal writing in the aforementioned.

Overall, a fun entertaining read if you're not bothered by some coarseness and graphic scenes. ( )

This is a fast action military urban fantasy. Dave, a safety officer on an oil rig becomes an unlikely hero with an ax against monsters coming out from the deep to eat everyone on the rig. Dave isn’t hero material when we first meet him nursing a hangover from partying away his bonus on hookers and blow instead of trying to keep up with bills and taxes and taking care of his kids with his soon to be ex wife. But when he grabs an oversized ax and hits a lucky blow on one of the monsters something happens. Dave gets an info dump on everything about the monsters and somehow the ax becomes enchanted. He gains powers but they come at a disadvantage of constantly needing to eat. Things end with a battle that Dave stops by using some of his new knowledge to challenge the leader to one on one combat. The book a quick fast read and the plus for people wanting to know what comes next is the next tow care coming out in quick succession.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss ( )