Review: Fun Characters, Supersonic Fast Story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2012
Just under 3 stars, rounding up.Figg is a bartender at a beautiful pub situated in the worst part of town for a bar. The problem isn't the crime - the problem is there are no customers, and that seems to be the way her boss, Lian, prefers it. Strange people come to see him, then a dead body is found, and all of a sudden Figg finds out that the world she knows and the "real" world are two different things. There are zombies, necromancers, lots of Voodoo, and werewolves. It is a good thing that Figg likes her guns as much as her designer shoes.The world is pretty interesting and has enough left to be discovered for future books. I did think more than a few times that I wanted more descriptions of the world, especially from Figg, the "outsider." That we could have been shown more of what is happening.The best part about this book for me has to be the characters. The narrative switches between Figg and her mysterious boss Lian, so we get to see the action from both POVs. The book starts off strong, and each character has a distinctive voice, but by the end of the book, it became harder to distinguish them. I wish that more time had been spent showing their interactions, especially as their relationship heated up. They are still fun characters, though, and I think there is potential there.Biggest problem for me was just that it was too fast, too many bad guys who aren't really fleshed out, and a confrontation at the end that seemed out of place, but perhaps if the villains had been explored more it would have made sense. And then it was done. I like fast-paced books, but this one felt supersonic. I wanted to slow everything down.There is enough interesting stuff that I will get book 2, but I do hope that the story, characters and world feel more grounded.[I received a copy of this book to review.]