The Man Who Crossed Worlds

I received "The Man Who Crossed Worlds" and "The Man Who Walked in Darkness" by Chris Strange through Librarything.com.

Oh wow these Miles Franco books are good. I read lots of Urban Fantasy and I would certainly tell you if these were not worth reading. Nitpickers will say, "Oh, Harry Dresden did this first.", "Felix Castor does that too.", "I saw that in Charles de Lint." and if you are going to read like that then perhaps you should stop reading Urban Fantasy because there are limits to where these books can go.

Miles is a fresh character and Tunneling is cool. Tunneling technology is framed to allow Mr. Strange to write as many books in the series as he has ideas. No need to visit the same world twice.

The complaints I have are show more grammatical, as always. Mr. Strange needs to work on his verb tenses (past of "to sink" is "sank", not "sunk") and his object pronouns.

And why do these guys all end up with supernatural dogs? Why not cats or monkeys or parrots? show less

These days it seems like the title of Urban Fantasy can be given out to anything that so much as involves a city somewhere. This book is Urban with a capital U; you can practically smell the stench of Bluegate, a city that’s fallen a long, long way from grace. There’s nothing remotely pretty about this story.

Miles Franco is a Tunneler, which means he can do entertaining stuff with reality and pop off to another dimension anytime he feels like it. But that isn’t too rare a skill in Bluegate. What’s unusual about him is that, unlike almost everyone else in the city, he honestly means well. He could’ve taken a well-paid job with one of the many city gangs if he didn’t mind too much about incidental things like morality. But he show more does, so he doesn’t, and ends up living pretty rough in an apartment barely better than a shed.

Being the only decent bloke also gets him into trouble. When a dangerous new drug seems set to hit city circulation, Miles is dragged into the mess that’s rapidly developing. Really, with the number of beatings Miles seems to attract it’s amazing he’s survived this long. All the more so given what a naive, easily manipulated chump he is. But he manages to be likeable in spite of being constantly duped.

This is a well-written story, very noir with a clear and diverting narrative voice. Miles’s sense of humour is enjoyable, and one of the most likeable things about him is that his sense of the ridiculous never fails, even when he’s in deep trouble. He’s got a line ready for all circumstances. Perhaps it’s the only defence this shrimp can manage to muster, albeit a poor one. Shrimp he may be, by the way, but he certainly doesn’t lack courage.

This story is full of twists and turns and Miles would do well to avoid trusting anyone too much. Most of the twists are well done, and kept me guessing until almost the end. The final one let me down a little when it turned out to be exactly what I was hoping wouldn’t happen. That aside, this was a really strong book and an entertaining read. I’m hoping Miles will grow a bit of a brain in time for the next book, though; maybe next time he won’t be duped by almost everyone. show less

Fans of the Dresden Files are going to find a lot of similarities between Miles Franco and Harry Dresden: personality, economic status, penchant for one-liners at inopportune moments, inability to deal with women (which I think is an incredibly ridiculous character trait, but there you have it). If you can get over the frequent sense of deja vu, you'll find an engaging story that isn't just a Dresden knockoff. Interesting world, interesting problems, interesting mystery and the start of some interesting characters. It all adds up to a story that's hard to put down, and leaves you eager for more from that world. And it's nice to see more urban fantasy that doesn't rely on werewolves, vampires or faeries!

Chris Strange is definitely an show more author worth watching in the future: I have this sense that it won't be long before he blows past more urban fantasy tropes and into something fantastically new.

[Disclosure: I received this book free as part of a Member Giveaway in exchange for a review.] show less

I received this book through LibraryThing's Member Giveaway in exchange for a review.

I enjoyed Strange's world building. It made for a unique urban fantasy. It was part noir, part dystopian.

Miles Franco is our protagonist with the ability to manipulate tunnels, which can be used to both travel to another world, Heaven, or distort our world's physics to work similar to how they work in Heaven.

Because of this gift, he's sought after by both the cops and the gangsters, but he works strictly freelance, until he's blackmailed by the cops to work for them to investigate a new violent and deadly drug hitting the streets.

Franco finds that all is not so simple, and with his wits, humor, and compassion has to get through some pretty terrible show more predicaments. And maybe save a few people along the way.

I look forward to reading more in this world. show less

I got this book for free from LT and am so glad that I did. The price doesn't affect my review, so believe me when I say that I truly enjoyed this book. Miles Franco made me laugh. I love that he never really took himself seriously even though he spends most of the book terrified. It was a little Urban Fantasy, a little Pulp, and a little Noir. Whatever it's catagory, it was well written and extremely entertaining. Other than making me laugh, two of the best things about this book were the world building and the twists that I didn't see coming (I usually spot plot twists from a mile away). I look forward to the next Miles Franco book.

I received this book in Member Giveaway in exchange for a review. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The book is really great. I liked everything - the main hero, whose a bit sarcastic and auto-ironic humor had me laughing a few times and reminded me a bit of Felix Castor, the plot, whose twists maybe were not totally unpredictable, but I enjoyed immensely, the genre, a bit of noir, science fiction and pulp, the dialogues, which were always a bit of fun but really realistic.

I can't wait to read about Miles Franco's other adventures.

I received this book for free in exchange for providing an honest review.
Miles Franco is a tunneller, he is able to transport people from Heaven to Earth through tunnels he is able to create. He is in business for himself and sometimes he walks a fine line between what is legal and what is not. After one of his not so legal trips he is arrested and forced into a deal with the cops that he is not exactly eager to accept. But it's better than jail time.
We have Miles our tunneller, a thirteen year old girl who wants to train for the same job, an old style cop and his beautiful partner, a mob boss with a beautiful wife and a new drug that could through the entire city into chaos. With Miles attracted to both women and his reluctance to do show more the job what could possibly go wrong?
I love this authors style of writing. He tells a story well and every now and then slips in a phrase that could have come from an old fashioned private detective novel. I'm not normally a fan of a book written in the first person but the author Chris Strange allows Miles to tell the story and tell the story well. This is definitely a author that I will now follow and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, show less