Review: Lotsa action
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2014
I came away from this book with some mixed feelings.The Good: This book would make a terrific anime cartoon series. There's a lot of flashy color and fight scenes, lots of neat monsters, a bit of sex, and a pretty big cast of characters.The Bad:  What makes for a great anime is different than what makes a great book. As a book, I had a lot of trouble with this.There were several reasons. I wanted to rearrange the first few chapters to introduce Drean first, since this is really his story, and things didn't get interesting until he was introduced. The point of view was all over the place, which kept me from connecting with anyone and was often confusing. I also had a hard time with flashbacks, which weren't clearly defined all the time. And sometimes these creatures who are supposed to be hundreds if not thousands of years old, sounded like five-year-olds arguing. (Particularly the scene where they're driving.)In addition to those annoyances, I also felt like the world had no coherent rule system. There were a ton of different types of angels and demons and other things that I couldn't keep track of, and rules about free will and Inner that seemed to change whenever it was convenient. It reminded me of Star Trek and how whenever they get into a bind, they just pull some pseudo-scientific crap out of their behind. (Example--in a society that has sorcery and where the sorcerers are actually studying the half-breeds enough to make sophisticated armor based on their powers, why wouldn't the general public know about the demons and half-breeds? That made no sense to me.)All this aside, I can see this book appealing to YA readers or readers who love a good fight. As others have said, there are a lot of neat descriptions of the battles and the creatures fighting them. I also think that overall this was a cool concept. I think if I understood the rules of magic/Inner better towards the beginning of the book, then it wouldn't feel like things were haphazardly thrown in. Die hard readers of fantasy will probably have problems with the world building, but readers just looking for a good angel/demon fight book may not care. I would recommend this book for those just wanting a simple action fantasy.