Was waiting for a hook to keep me interested in and it just never was there. Once I finished there really is no draw to pick up the second book. Characters felt one dimensional and throw away to fill a role for a chapter or two. ( )

It was ok. The 2nd half was better than the first. I felt some of the banter was forced and that some of the "I am monster" message got old. I will probably give the 2nd book a chance and see where it goes. Butcher, Green, Briggs, F. Paul Wilson all do it better. ( )

Loved this first book in the Cal Leandros series! I'll be recommending this to all my friends who are Jim Butcher or Supernatural fans. The brothers are great, and I sure hope Robin Goodfellow will be such a prominent character in the other books. Good stuff. ( )

I am in love.... with this writing!!! I simply could not put this book down. Now I am a bit particular when it comes to urban fantasy and truth-to-tell had yet to read one written by a male author other than Butcher. Butcher is amazing but Thurman? Just plain awesome. I liked his characters and I loved his twists on "classic" monsters (aka trolls elves ect) and adored his sense of humor.

So if you want something a little different than your so-called butt-kicking strong female lead (which few can actually pull off imho), give this series a try. ( )

Nightlife is a bog standard urban fantasy book that has a lot of common genre elements such as vampires, werewolves, banshees, psychics and such, but also some unique elements like in universe grendels which are basically robots whos only program is "do while(true) kill;".

Unfortunately, the book focuses a lot on rambly internal monologue of the protagonist. The banter between him and his brother is great but after a while you notice its the same jokes. The world building and supernatural elements I mentioned before are interesting -- but there's not enough meat. I think this is intentional, as it may be a potential setup for what I think is future books plot strings, but this leaves the main plot not quite enjoyable because the more interesting parts are in the background.

For instance, the vampire lady sub plot is interesting, but so much of it was told so dryly. It wasn't shown but rather told to me -- and although I don't have enough literary expertise under my belt, when the author just tells us a characters backstory instead of actually showing it I find it a cop out of exploring the character and actually diving in. Another example of this is the main characters ~2 years trip to grendel hell, which was told posthumously and consequently felt boring squared to the googol-th power.

However this isn't why I settled on 3 stars, being upset some characters didn't get their limelight is nonsense as it is deliberately told in a single characters perspective (except banshee switcheroo at end). It's just average. The good parts are met equally with bad or boring parts. Perhaps the following books in the series would do this series more justice, but there are better urban fantasy books out there and I am unlikely to explore this universe before them. ( )