Michael Marshall addresses his favorite theme -- Ordinary Joe has the scales ripped from his eyes, and confronts the Powers of Darkness, which have been hiding in plain sight for years/decades/millennia -- again. Whether you like this depends on how much you like Michael Marshall (Smith).
I like Michael Marshall's writing a lot. Marshall's own "very particular set of skills" reminds me of Stephen King, at his best: the ability to create characters, even walk-ons and red-shirts, who feel like real people, who have backstories, dreams and desires, and who woke up that morning not planning to be crushed under the wheels of a fiendish supernatural conspiracy. Ditto, creating dialogue for said characters, major and minor, that sounds like the way real people speak -- even when, in the interests of the plot, they are having to recite info-dumps, or the biggest load of codswallop you have ever heard.
Marshall also has a nice sense of humor -- some of the info-dumps and codswallop is leavened by side-long verbal glances that say, to me, "yeah, I know. But we're all in this together. Have fun!"
So, I enjoyed this, and it was a great page-turner, and I can't promise you that I won't pick up another novel my Marshall, or his alter-egos Michael Marshall Smith or Michael Rutger, as soon as decency allows. However, I do feel that I'm beginning to feel diminishing returns from the "Ordinary Joe has scales ripped from eyes, and confronts the Powers of Darkness ..." playbook.
I like Michael Marshall's writing a lot. Marshall's own "very particular set of skills" reminds me of Stephen King, at his best: the ability to create characters, even walk-ons and red-shirts, who feel like real people, who have backstories, dreams and desires, and who woke up that morning not planning to be crushed under the wheels of a fiendish supernatural conspiracy. Ditto, creating dialogue for said characters, major and minor, that sounds like the way real people speak -- even when, in the interests of the plot, they are having to recite info-dumps, or the biggest load of codswallop you have ever heard.
Marshall also has a nice sense of humor -- some of the info-dumps and codswallop is leavened by side-long verbal glances that say, to me, "yeah, I know. But we're all in this together. Have fun!"
So, I enjoyed this, and it was a great page-turner, and I can't promise you that I won't pick up another novel my Marshall, or his alter-egos Michael Marshall Smith or Michael Rutger, as soon as decency allows. However, I do feel that I'm beginning to feel diminishing returns from the "Ordinary Joe has scales ripped from eyes, and confronts the Powers of Darkness ..." playbook.
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