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Bobby Dollar, an angel who has taken part in the long battle between Heaven and Hell, must figure out why there are suddenly an unprecedented number of souls missing from both sides and who summoned a Babylonian demon to kill him.Tags
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LongDogMom Another urban fantasy about angels. Remy has given up being an angel to live on Earth as human but when the Angel of Death goes missing his former colleagues come to him for help.
30
al.vick or the whole Dresden series.
LongDogMom Freshly escaped from Hell, a living soul who should never have been there in the first place, looks for those who put him there. A little darker but a similar feel and probably would appeal to the same audience.
LongDogMom Noir and gritty in a similar tone, Even though it's a series about a vampire instead of an angel I think readers who enjoy one would enjoy the other.
LongDogMom A book set in the Nightside, the secret, magical heart of London, and a search for something called the Unholy Grail with angels who are scarier than many of the monsters that inhabit P.I. John Taylor's strange and gritty world.
12
LongDogMom A human lawyer and a group of angels work as advocates in the Celestial Court for their dead clients, solving their murders along the way in a lighter, cozy mystery way.
LongDogMom Good urban fantasy about angels who aren't so angelic
Member Reviews
The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
I'm giving this book high marks, but they are high marks that come with a qualifier. If you like this type of book, you will like this book in particular. The problem is finding the right shelf for this type of book. Urban fantasy? yes, that's part of it. But something of the mystery genre mixed in, specifically the noire detective novel. But with a supernatural twist to it too. Supernatural noire mystery. Ya, it's a pretty small bookshelf.
Jim Butcher's 'The Dresden Files' were previously the only other volumes filling that slim shelf. And I love those books. And as quickly as Jim Butcher births those slim volumed paper babies, there's still time between them. And like the addict that i am - show more the junkie addicted to first-person wise cracking detectives who don't play by the rules and always get the dames - I've been itching for a new one.
The Dirty Streets of Heaven fills that niche nicely. Starring Bobby Dollar, the angel with a few bad habits who doesn't trust anyone and throws out one-liners so bad they make the entire English language weep, this story has all the right ingredients. You've got your convoluted mystery that our hero is pulled in to, your cast of colourful characters both heavenly and hellish, your sub-mystery that may or may not have something to do with the main mystery, and you literally have a "and then she walked into the room" moment.
Williams gets all these things right. It's hard to believe this is the first novel he's written like this. I only have two complaints.
The first is the pacing near the end of the book. I might have been set up for this one. Someone had warned me that the chase scene near the end of the book seems to drag a bit. So maybe I was anticipating it. But I'm going to have to agree. Without giving anything away, there's a segment where our bad ass angel is being chased by badder-asser things. It seems to fall into this roving cycle of "hey we've got you, there's no way out" and then "ha ha, i found a way out, you're chasing me again!". The pacing just felt a little off here. It didn't ruin the book by any means. But in a story where pacing is so important it definitely stood out.
My second complaint would be the ending. It wasn't bad, but it was a smidge too much "tune in next time to follow the adventures of Bobby Dollar" for me. By this time I was hooked, so I will be picking up the next book. But still, a tighter, more complete ending would have made me happier.
In short, if you like The Dresden Files, or Noire mystery in general, you're going to enjoy this book. If you aren't sure, it's worth picking up and trying. It's a fun book, fast paced, and well written.
If you couldn't get into, or even disliked, the Dresden Files, you probably aren't going to enjoy this one either. show less
I'm giving this book high marks, but they are high marks that come with a qualifier. If you like this type of book, you will like this book in particular. The problem is finding the right shelf for this type of book. Urban fantasy? yes, that's part of it. But something of the mystery genre mixed in, specifically the noire detective novel. But with a supernatural twist to it too. Supernatural noire mystery. Ya, it's a pretty small bookshelf.
Jim Butcher's 'The Dresden Files' were previously the only other volumes filling that slim shelf. And I love those books. And as quickly as Jim Butcher births those slim volumed paper babies, there's still time between them. And like the addict that i am - show more the junkie addicted to first-person wise cracking detectives who don't play by the rules and always get the dames - I've been itching for a new one.
The Dirty Streets of Heaven fills that niche nicely. Starring Bobby Dollar, the angel with a few bad habits who doesn't trust anyone and throws out one-liners so bad they make the entire English language weep, this story has all the right ingredients. You've got your convoluted mystery that our hero is pulled in to, your cast of colourful characters both heavenly and hellish, your sub-mystery that may or may not have something to do with the main mystery, and you literally have a "and then she walked into the room" moment.
Williams gets all these things right. It's hard to believe this is the first novel he's written like this. I only have two complaints.
The first is the pacing near the end of the book. I might have been set up for this one. Someone had warned me that the chase scene near the end of the book seems to drag a bit. So maybe I was anticipating it. But I'm going to have to agree. Without giving anything away, there's a segment where our bad ass angel is being chased by badder-asser things. It seems to fall into this roving cycle of "hey we've got you, there's no way out" and then "ha ha, i found a way out, you're chasing me again!". The pacing just felt a little off here. It didn't ruin the book by any means. But in a story where pacing is so important it definitely stood out.
My second complaint would be the ending. It wasn't bad, but it was a smidge too much "tune in next time to follow the adventures of Bobby Dollar" for me. By this time I was hooked, so I will be picking up the next book. But still, a tighter, more complete ending would have made me happier.
In short, if you like The Dresden Files, or Noire mystery in general, you're going to enjoy this book. If you aren't sure, it's worth picking up and trying. It's a fun book, fast paced, and well written.
If you couldn't get into, or even disliked, the Dresden Files, you probably aren't going to enjoy this one either. show less
While this book is entertaining enough and mostly well-paced, it fails to rise above that for me. Sure, it's a fun noir involving angels and demons instead of just cops and robbers and we get plenty of deep-conspiracy talk; this would indeed make for a watchable series on Netflix or such. But for a Tad Williams novel, it is neither particularly original, fresh, nor subversive. There are plenty of books like this and this one doesn't do enough to stand out. Williams has demonstrated throughout his career his ability to take a genre or a trope and totally stand it on its head; that just did not happen here. It's a tough-guy detective story with heavy-hitting bad guys and a big-ol' Maltese falcon mcguffin, like we've never seen all this show more before and it really doesn't break far from that. The most disappointing bit for me was the climactic bit right before the end which devolved into a drawn-out sequence of running, shooting, screaming, more shooting, and a deus-ex-machina resolution.
Bottom line: this works as a summer read, for a vacation day that's rainy and you want to stay in and relax. But borrow this instead of buying. show less
Bottom line: this works as a summer read, for a vacation day that's rainy and you want to stay in and relax. But borrow this instead of buying. show less
The Dirty Streets of Heaven Bobby Dollar is an angel who isn't particularly angelic. He's cynical, swears a lot, gets into epic bar fights, tells the occasional untruth, pines after demonic women and questions the existence of god and Heaven. Usually, writing a book in first person can get dull - only having one perspective can make you want to rip your eyes out if the character has less personality than trigonometric functions. Luckily Tad Williams' character Bobby is a pretty cool guy. He's funny, quite charming in a "I can't believe you have the audacity to say that" way and too curious for his own sake. It's Bobby's curiosity that gets him into trouble really. His angelic duty is to act as a heavenly lawyer and defend dead souls show more when they are judged to go to Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Unfortunately, Bobby's life becomes violently chaotic when a dead soul magically disappears and he decides to investigate; it doesn't help that Hell thinks that he's stolen the soul! Despite the whole Heaven and Hell thing, the story is not at all preachy. There's no preference towards a particular religious order (thereby neatly avoiding offending anyone). Through Bobby's eyes we see that Heaven isn't quite as perfect as it is made out to be and not all of Satan's servants are crazy evil. It's impressive that Williams managed to pull off moral ambiguity despite the black and white nature of the stage his story plays out in. I really can't wait for the next book, especially as (part of) the story will be set in Hell. As an aside I actually, quite embarrassingly, thought that the city Bobby lived in (San Judas) was a real city. The descriptions were vivid, but the main reason for believing in the existence of the fake city was the historical excursions the character made every so often. I guess my exceptionally poor knowledge of American geography is also a big factor.... show less
Tad Williams is one of my favorite epic fantasy writers. His Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is a classic of the genre, and rivals Tolkien for depth, development, and characters. So I was intrigued and excited by his latest - of all things, a mashup of noir detective fiction and urban fantasy with angels and demons. Guess what? It works, and works pretty well. The world is as well developed as ever, the plot's as noir as it gets, and the characters are his usual well-done. Now, it's nothing ground-breaking; urban fantasy's been done lots lately. But if you're looking for an accomplished example of how it should be done, I'd start here.
I've always been a fan of Tad Williams, and while I loved his epic fantasy and loved his epic sci-fi more, I wasn't sure how I'd get into his take on urban fantasy. I shouldn't have worried. There were enough twists and turns in this noiresque to make it a gumshoe novel while the MC is actually an ex-special forces angel who has a shit job of a lawyer advocate for souls.
Actually, this was a tortured love story between a star-crossed angel and a grand duchess of hell, but who's quibbling?
The plot was fun and pretty much a wild ride. The action sequences didn't suck. The tropes aren't especially original, but how they were all pieced together was pretty damn fun. I always appreciated Mr. Williams for his craft, and his current metaphors show more were definitely thought-provoking and subtle in a way that reminded me of some of the best mysteries I'd read.
I'm looking forward to more. show less
Actually, this was a tortured love story between a star-crossed angel and a grand duchess of hell, but who's quibbling?
The plot was fun and pretty much a wild ride. The action sequences didn't suck. The tropes aren't especially original, but how they were all pieced together was pretty damn fun. I always appreciated Mr. Williams for his craft, and his current metaphors show more were definitely thought-provoking and subtle in a way that reminded me of some of the best mysteries I'd read.
I'm looking forward to more. show less
It has taken me nearly 6 weeks to finish this book. That is about 5 weeks longer than most books. Why? It's well-written and the concept is interesting but... well... it just lacks something. There is not enough suspense, and there is too much "battling" going on - every chapter has the main character in this book's version of a "car chase" where he escapes by the skin of his teeth, but the bad guy isn't stopped, just temporarily thwarted, so in the next chapter, the main character will have someone to chase him again.
I needed the story itself to move forward, and the character to grow or change a bit... neither really happened, and when there was a change or a growth, it was followed by yet another "battle" scene... I'm not a 14 year show more old boy who gets excited when a monster chases someone down a street, so having this happen so frequently did not engage me in the story.
And I think Bobby was the only one who hadn't figured out who was behind everything by the end of the book. show less
I needed the story itself to move forward, and the character to grow or change a bit... neither really happened, and when there was a change or a growth, it was followed by yet another "battle" scene... I'm not a 14 year show more old boy who gets excited when a monster chases someone down a street, so having this happen so frequently did not engage me in the story.
And I think Bobby was the only one who hadn't figured out who was behind everything by the end of the book. show less
This feels like a new kind of cross-genre book – detective story & adventure story all given a fantasy setting – and it makes for a fun read.
Bobby Dollar is an angel, but no ordinary angel. He lives on earth, he inhabits a human body and seems to have some very human vices and limitations. In short we can identify with him. He is a pretty average guy, good at his job, conscientious (well, fairly), and likes to hang out with his mates in a seedy drinking establishment called The Compasses.
Bobby’s job is that of advocate. When someone dies, he rushes to the scene and tries to make the case for the recently deceased soul to be permitted to enter Heaven; he will, of course, have to counter the arguments put forward by his Hellish show more counterpart – the advocate arguing for the soul to be sent to Hell. But one day, the soul in question is missing – and Bobby finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue which threatens his own eternal soul.
I haven’t read Tad Williams before, but I do read quite a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, so I approached this book with interest. It certainly has an unusual setting, but once you take that on board (as with any fantasy you simply have to go with the flow), it’s a fairly standard detective adventure, with an intriguing love interest thrown in for good measure. Bobby Dollar is an interesting and empathetic character; I found myself identifying with him and wanting to know what happens next – so I was certainly drawn into the story, and this is why I have given it 4*s.
However, I do agree with an earlier reviewer that there is a lot of exposition about Heaven, and a lot of it is merely telling you what Williams is NOT going to tell you – for instance, Bobby doesn’t know why angels don’t remember their past lives, and he doesn’t know why he prefers being on Earth to being in Heaven (isn’t heaven supposed to be where everyone wants to go???) – which gets sort of irritating.
I guess much of this will be explained in subsequent Bobby D adventures; and although this story does come to an ending of sorts, there are certainly plenty of plot lines left open enough to make the reader want to come back for the next instalment.
Will I read more in the series? Probably. But I won’t be rushing out to get them. show less
Bobby Dollar is an angel, but no ordinary angel. He lives on earth, he inhabits a human body and seems to have some very human vices and limitations. In short we can identify with him. He is a pretty average guy, good at his job, conscientious (well, fairly), and likes to hang out with his mates in a seedy drinking establishment called The Compasses.
Bobby’s job is that of advocate. When someone dies, he rushes to the scene and tries to make the case for the recently deceased soul to be permitted to enter Heaven; he will, of course, have to counter the arguments put forward by his Hellish show more counterpart – the advocate arguing for the soul to be sent to Hell. But one day, the soul in question is missing – and Bobby finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue which threatens his own eternal soul.
I haven’t read Tad Williams before, but I do read quite a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, so I approached this book with interest. It certainly has an unusual setting, but once you take that on board (as with any fantasy you simply have to go with the flow), it’s a fairly standard detective adventure, with an intriguing love interest thrown in for good measure. Bobby Dollar is an interesting and empathetic character; I found myself identifying with him and wanting to know what happens next – so I was certainly drawn into the story, and this is why I have given it 4*s.
However, I do agree with an earlier reviewer that there is a lot of exposition about Heaven, and a lot of it is merely telling you what Williams is NOT going to tell you – for instance, Bobby doesn’t know why angels don’t remember their past lives, and he doesn’t know why he prefers being on Earth to being in Heaven (isn’t heaven supposed to be where everyone wants to go???) – which gets sort of irritating.
I guess much of this will be explained in subsequent Bobby D adventures; and although this story does come to an ending of sorts, there are certainly plenty of plot lines left open enough to make the reader want to come back for the next instalment.
Will I read more in the series? Probably. But I won’t be rushing out to get them. show less
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For me Tad Williams sits right up there with the very best fantasy story-tellers...
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Author Information
128+ Works 54,683 Members
Tad Williams Tad Williams grew up in Palo Alto, California. He didn't go off to college after high school, he was more interested in living on his own and supporting himself. Williams therefore began a long string of collectively bad part time jobs. He stacked tiles, made tacos, sold shoes, peddled insurance, collected loans not all at the same show more time and worked at other things in his free moments, such as writing, as well as, several years in a rock band, hosting a radio talk show, making commercial and uncommercial art, acting, and others DAW was the first to publish Williams, accepting "Tailchaser's Song," which became an big success. It never occurred to Williams that his books wold not sell and indeed they have not stopped selling since the beginning. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Dirty Streets of Heaven
- Original title
- The Dirty Streets of Heaven
- Original publication date
- 2012-09-04
- People/Characters
- Bobby Dollar (Dolariel); Sam Riley (Sammariel); Harrison Ely (Haraheliel); Temuel; Darko Grazuvac (Grassywax); Posie Walker (show all 46); Foxy Foxy; Monica Naber; Kenneth Vald (Eligor); Casimira; Jimmy the Table; Young Elvis; Chico; Walter Sanders; Silvia Martino; Iphaeus; Howlingfell; Xathanatron; Sweetheart; Nahebaroth; Yurath; Edward Lynes Walker; Urgulap; George Noceda; Weepslug; Cinnamon; Candy; Garcia Windhover; Kareal; Chamuel; Terentia; Anaita; Raziel; Moses Habari; Kool Filter; Jennifer Taccone; Betty Sollyhull; Doris Sollyhull; Gefen Rotwood; Orban; Edie Parmenter; Teddy Nebraska; Annie Pilgrim; Prince Sajatapandra; Adramalech; Caym
- Important places
- San Judas, California, USA; Heaven
- Dedication
- This book is dedicated to my good friend, David Charles Michael Pierce.
Dave loved stuff like this and I think he would of liked this book too. I hope someday we'll see each other again, and he can let me know what I g... (show all)ot right and what I got wrong.
Thanks for being my buddy, Dave. I miss you. We all miss you. - First words
- I was just stepping out of the elevator on the 13th floor of the Five Page Mill building when the alarm began going off-those nightmarish, clear-the-building kindlike the screams of tortured robots-and I realized I pretty muc... (show all)h lost any chance at the subtle approach.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Instead I drank my orange juice straight out of the bottle as I watched the bugs circle the little light in front of god's first house in San Judas, and I kept company with all my ghosts the old ones and the new.
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