Jonathan Wood (1)

Such a fun series, and this latest (and last) installment doesn't disappoint. It had me laughing out loud at times! The mix of characters are really unique and strongly drawn, especially the emotional entanglements. They are like a family... they hate each other, they care about each other, they resent each other, they have each other's back....they are a small secrets unit of the British government that fights supernatural threats. In this case, some Nazi era giant clockwork robot AIs, a show more death cult. parallel realities, unexpected pregnancy, and a new team member have the members of MI37 scrambling. A fun and creative series that will bring a smile to your face as you read! I am so going to miss this bunch! show less

No Hero is a fairly slapdash riff on the paranormal govt agency setting. Wood's heart is in the right place, but the weak characterisation and narrative contrivance, and lack of originality let the book down - especially compared to similar-but-superior books like The Rook.

Arthur Wallace's life as a detective is turned upside when he gets involved in a supernatural case, and is recruited into the shadowy MI36, dedicated to preventing eldritch horrors from crossing over into our world.

This show more book, the first in a series, deals with a particular threat, kickstarted by the prophecy that one of the team members will die. In many ways, the "prophecy" is representative of the broader problems of the book. The only reason it exists is to kickstart the story - as does the only other prophecy featured. There's no reference to previous predictions, no rhyme or reason to the nature of them; they exist in perfect narrative isolation.

This applies to almost every aspect of the helter-skelter plot you care to name. Things only happen when and because they need to, anything eyebrow-raisy can be explained away 'because MAGIC' - but the magic is so damned convenient. No Hero doesn't just have a Chekhov's gun, it has a Chekhov's Red Army, and watching the barrage is tiring as it rids the book of any sense of danger, and often surprise. It's hard to invest in a narrative where you know the author will do whatever is required to move the story where he wants it to go.

Unfortunately these errors are compounded by the characterisation, which is built on wafer-thin types that never grow into real people.

The whole thing just has a real thrown-together quality, as if Wood thought potential readers wouldn't care. I was mystified by the usually-reliable endorsement from Publishers' Weekly, as this is not a strong novel. Worse, for a book set in Oxford and populated by Brits, the actual locations are both super-anonymous, but the language and idioms are almost comically American. A British man calling for his "mommy" is just ridiculous.

No Hero isn't terrible, but it's very, very weak. The kind of book that would make a publisher keep an eye on the writer, but not lose money on. show less

This serio-comic take on cosmic horror exists somewhere in a triangulation between "The Laundry" stories of Charles Stross, the magical police procedurals of Dan Aaronovitch and the collected works of Douglas Adams. Is Wood quite as good as any of those other authors? Probably not; none of the other characters are quite as well done as Wood's put-upon Detective Arthur Wallace. I still look forward to reading more books in the series though.

Great story of a typical Joe doing his job as a police detective til one day he gets a sword through his torso after seeing a woman lop off a man's head and a squid like creature coming out of it! Holy cow, what a start! There is a newness to the story that makes it fresh and different in the genre. I can visualize Bruce Campbell playing Agent Arthur! Loved it, and am already buying the second book "Yesterday's Hero"! What would Kurt Russell do?? Run out and buy this book!