Robert R Ricks

Meh. Juvenile despite the adult protagonist. I think it's attempting humour probably satire of the genre, but it doesn't really work on any level.

There's a magic cat, beautiful angels, trusty demon friends, oracles, Councils et al, but no balance, empathy or characterisation. I wasn't impressed when it opened with a moonlit garage. Garage's are enclosed spaces you can't see the sky from anywhere. It didn't really improve after that. A 45 year old coder with a house full of knives and guns show more but no wife, suddenly discovers he's a demi-god as his unspecified but excessive powers manifest. He discovers that two of his coding team were actually demons sent by Lucifer to keep an eye on him, but his ex-girlfriend was an Angel ditto. His sudden sense of honour means that he and his new pals decide to hunt down the final 5 trump cards to complete the Oracle's deck of power. Strangely enough lots of other 'people' want this too.

Normal humans are completely ignored, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the world, there's no limits on the power, the magic is poorly described, and not very much of it makes any internal sense. There's no banter or tension between the characters, and you can guess how it all rolls along, there's not even any risk that anyone who matters will get hurt.

The stupid title doesn't help, although at least it's unique.

Plenty of better urban fantasy out there, go read War for the Oaks or something else instead. show less

I really enjoyed the Ethan's quest in this book as he went from place to place acquiring the items he was hunting. His group of allies was varied and enjoyable. I almost felt like I was on a D & D adventure. It was fleshed out very well and the pace was quick. He enemies were interesting especially Randy - very interesting character. I was completely caught off guard with the ending and the fact that there was a second book. I had totally missed the VOLUME 1 - REVELATION, now I am sitting show more here waiting to find out what is going to happen next. Very well written fantasy book. Easy and enjoyable to read. Great job - on to VOLUME 2! show less