Review: Better than Potter or Dresden
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2013
I love the King Henry (KH) books.  Why?  Because King Henry is subversive, hates authority, and is a little b***head.  The Potter and Dresden guys are so vanilla, everybody's mom approves of them.  Also, both Potter and Dresden are into these cutesy sidekicks or allies with baby voices.  Ugh.  King Henry lives in a dirty underbelly among pimps and drug lords and child molesters, like the real world we all live in except his also has vampires, werewolves, and mages.  KH didn't have friends or a family like something out of a TV show.  He grew up fighting.  Mainly, KH has a serious attitude problem.Two stories are told in alternate fashion; 14-year-old KH and adult KH.  The story from when he's 14 is a series of tapes he had to promise to make for the school where he learned magic.  So, you keep seeing "Click" in the book that indicates he's turned off the recording machine.  The story from when KH is in school is about getting sent on a camping trip.  The adult KH story is about getting into a war with the werecoyote nation.  No spoilers in those descriptions.  I actually like to be told more about a story, but it seems that other people flip out if you tell more than what's in the book blurb.The writing is good.  A few typos or homonyms, great pacing although you want to yell sometimes when the story suddenly switches to the alternate story right at a cliffhanger.  Also, Raley tries to make KH speak in gutter-speak: 'Get me some of that..." and similar dialogue, which is sometimes distracting.  So, if you're a grammar perfectionist, you probably shouldn't buy it.  Otherwise, kick back and enjoy the show.