Here is what is wrong with this series — and not just with the two books in question:
- John’s third eye and the powers that come from it are a huge deus ex machina plot device. I don’t think there is any way around it though since Hell to Pay is the 7th book in the series!
- The prose is repetitive. Each place is the worst place on earth. It is always so bad that sane people avoid it like the plague. The same is the case with all the villains that show up. Really bad and scary but John still manages to one-up them. And then there are all the sexual fetishes. Nightside is all about gratification. We know that. But the descriptions of the less than civil proclivities of its denizens and tourists are becoming one big blur. For instance, the way all that naughtiness that happened in Hell to Pay was written made it seem like a rehash of a previous book — the one with the nightclub singer, Raven.
- Time travel and the confusions/paradoxes associated with it.
- Suzie Shotgun. I dunno what to make of her. The way John tells it, she would sell her own mother if it served her purpose. So what is it that attracts him to her? Why does she stay with him?
- The previous books were all preparing us for the big event. The showdown between John and his otherworldly parent — well one of them — Lilith. She was ultimate world-ending bad news. I’ll even buy that he managed to defeat her and save the world. Now what? Everything seems paler in comparison now that Lilith was taken care of. It seems like the author intended for the series to end after the 6th book but couldn’t make it stick.
- Which villain will the next few books be setting us up for? Oh right, the devil. Doesn’t seem too original though, does it?
- The mysterious people who controlled Nightside were exposed to be ordinary obscenely rich men with inflated egos and no clue about the kind of bad news that Lilith could prove to be. How is that even possible?
- And now that they are gone, Walker just takes over and easily replaces them. Not buying it, dude!
Why do I keep reading you ask? Because of the humor! It is funny as heck and the saving grace in face of all the problems I have with the series. Will I be reading the next book? Yes, I will!
Originally published at midureads.wordpress.com on February 28, 2018.