Evan May

This was a tough one to rate.

On one hand, readers of the previous book to this one, May's The King In Darkness will be pleased that the writing massively improved in this one. Most of the telling that I complained about in that book is completely gone from this one. I was pleasantly surprised by the tone of this one.

On the other hand, other issues from the first book became magnified here. Simply put, May's protagonist, Father Alan Godwinson is not a scintillatingly engaging character. In the first book, May gave him a lot of other characters to play off, but still, he was essentially a sexless, aimless, insecure man that does very little beyond existing, and pissing off the friends he has.

In this, the follow-up novel, he has less people to play off, so that mere existence problem becomes more obvious. Adam is brought in to find some solutions, but beyond making a few calls and (again) pissing some people off, most of his time is spent questioning his worth, eating, or hanging out in a hotel room.

As for the rest of the characters, the reader begins to wonder if any of them have ever built up any sort of facility in talking to another human being, because each of them says incredibly dumb things to one another.

So, while the central premise is great, and even the set up is quite good, I felt the payoff was low. There was an excellent set-up for a cabin that the author returned to a couple of times...and...nothing.

This could have been a creepy slow burn of a horror novel, but it never quite caught fire.

… (altro)

I found this book both fun and frustrating.

Overall, the concept—a weirdly out-of-time book that starts as a bit of a mystery and eventually takes on supernatural stakes as big as the end of the world—is right up my alley, and it's what drew me to the novel itself. Well, that and having the great experience of actually meeting the author.

And along with that concept, there are times when the writing is wonderful, especially when the focus is turned on two supporting characters, Marchale and Alex. Marchale's curmudgeonly demeanor was a consistent joy, and Alex's ramblings due to his mental issues worked well.

Unfortunately, what didn't work for me was the author's constant insistence on three things, all of which likely could have been corrected with some judicious editing.

The first is the leading up to what needed to be said. As just a single example, the start of chapter 14:

Adam decided it was worth paying a cab to get to the hospital as quickly as he could. It felt important that Bones have his friends around him as soon as possible. It had occurred to him to call the other Guild members, but he would have had to look up their numbers. Jane would probably have them on hand.

"Hi Father," said Jane, as he came in the door...

Everything before "Hi Father" could easily have been removed with no impact to the story. This is the case at the start of the majority of the novel's scenes.

In conjunction with that, comes my second concern, which was the author's constant insistence to show you something, then immediately tell you about it as well. Consider this section:

"It's all right, Adam said calmly. "There's nothing wrong with a sense of humour at times like this, as long as it's in the right sense."

"Well, in that case, Freddie is going to have to be very quiet," Jane suggested sweetly.

"I was going to go and help Sophia with the coffee, but perhaps you two can't be left alone," Adam said firmly.

"No, it's cool, Father," Fred replied in a somewhat chastened tone. "Sorry, I'm just trying to lighten the mood, you know?" One thing that had always been a comfort about the members of the Guild was that their good intentions were never in question, and although they bickered occasionally, all of them understood that. (bold mine)

The author is constantly interjecting with these little helpful observations that could have come out through dialogue, instead of telling. As well as describing all the saids (firmly, sweetly, somewhat chastened).

Finally, there were large swaths of text that summarized important discussions that I would have rather experienced, instead of being told. It's kind of like having someone stand in front of the TV and describe what's happening. It ain't fun.

But, having said all that, I have to say, there were also moments of brilliance in here, and a decent story. Enough that I'll definitely read the follow-up novel.… (altro)