Craig Schaefer

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I started this book, but it wasn't what I got. I was expecting more science fantasy, since this can be described as a multi-world superhero book. Instead, the book felt more like a gritty crime noir story, with the first half of the book only barely touching on the superhero (or, more accurately, supervillain) aspects. The book always felt more focused on the detective angle than any SFF or superhero angle.

I hesitate to know how to talk about this book. If I had been at a bookstore and skimmed the first few chapters trying to decide whether to pick it up, I probably wouldn't have gone any further than that. This book is much darker and grittier than my usual fare. It's just not the kind of book that I will usually pick for myself. However, since someone else picked it for me, I did keep reading and I was fascinated by the concept. You could tell that there was a lot of depth to this book beyond what was shown on the page, and I found myself wondering more than once whether Schaefer had written / commissioned the actual Midnight Jury comic books to have as a visual reference.

The characters, for the most part, felt like comic book characters. (Which makes sense, all things considered.) Honestly, even the two main characters from the "real" world felt very frequently like comic book characters. And yet, for me, there wasn't much of a visual picture of the characters. The images that stuck with me were more about the characters' accessories than their appearance. (Except for Mr. Smith, who I couldn't help but picture as the Mr. Smith from the Matrix movies.) Roach had his homemade flamethrower. The Duke is a canvas for tattoos. Rumblebones has her teddy bear. But what do they look like? I'm not sure. (Though honestly, that feels very "comic book" to me, too, where the artists change periodically and the character appearances change with them but the accessories stay the same.)

I really enjoyed the (all too brief) discussion of the way authors create stories and some of the stories linger and create their own worlds that are populated by their characters. We got just enough of the creation stuff to move the main plot forward, though, and no more. I would have loved to see more of it, but that would have made for a slower book. This one was more focused on action, and that meant leaving the philosophical "what happens when we dream up other worlds" stuff for another time. We got enough of it in this book to understand why it was a plot point, but it stopped there.

When I got to "The End," I found that I had enjoyed my time with this book more than I expected to based on the opening. I don't know how many of my regular blog readers I can recommend this to, though, since I know that, like me, many of my regulars enjoy cozy books (which this is NOT). However, there are also some readers of this blog who like darker stuff than I do, and those of you who are looking for something interesting with great worldbuilding and more grit than is present in the kind of books I typically review might enjoy this book.

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I read this book as part of the judging process for the 3rd Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and I was provided a review copy for judging purposes. My opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of my SPSFC3 team or the competition as a whole.… (mer)

I generally enjoyed this book. It has little to stand out from the general crowd but it does a decent job within the status quo.

It features wonderfully jaded and disillusioned main characters and a world of grey instead of black and white at first.
Things can go wrong. No talking is a free action. Bad things happen. People die. You are not always on time. No turning back the clock. Decisions between a rock and a hard place have to be made. Suffering and sorrow leave convincing mental scars.
It gave me this feeling of a differentiated, real, and believable world but halfway through it just collapsed into the same old corny patterns.
Us vs them aka tribalism, black and white, never give up, always hold to your morals and all that crap, save the world, and so on and so forth.
It completely compromises the jaded and grimdark characters and world that have been so carefully and painstakingly constructed at first.
Not only that but then it goes on through the entire suite of bad action movie tropes. Splurging competitive boasting about how capable and badass each and everyone and all their cool toys and gadgets are. Then the cringeworthy bonding scene because we are all practically a family. And together with the power of friendship, we will save the world. Normally this doesn't bother me too much anymore. It's generally not something I want to read about but I am somewhat resigned to the whole thing. In this case, the beginning promised so much more but then just didn't deliver what I expected. That is kind of my own fault I guess, which is why I still gave it 3 stars even tho my enjoyment plummeted to a low 2 star at that point. What I am trying to say is that it only bothered me so much because this change in tone shattered my expectations.

Another annoying flaw was the subtly and conveniently adjusting limits around the almost completely unexplained magic to fit the current plot progression requirements. I am fine with leaving magic unexplained. Half-assed explanations go horribly wrong more often than not. But at least keep to the few rules you set especially if you are already in easy mode.

Something I enjoyed and found refreshing in this book was the love interest.
I really liked the incredibly powerful and pitiless daemon succubus with this innocent and pure insecurity around love and friendship suffering from crippling loneliness. I have never seen this done before with a male mc POV in this way. It worked for me and I found it really cute. It's an interesting dynamic with potential imo. In this case, it's sadly leaning heavily towards shallow insta-love which is, again, a pity.
There could have been something more here. Wasted potential like this infuriates me. It's probably the main reason I write most reviews.… (mer)

4.5 Stars

Clandestine paranormal agencies with women who are totally awesome gun-toting, magic wielding badarses? Sign me up!

What a cracking good read! It was creepily entertaining with suitably sinister dark forces terrorising towns by stealing children from their homes. I love the world Craig has created where witches, werewolves and demons, unbeknownst to most humans, live among us. When Harmony Black returns to her home town, Talbot Cove, she is forced to find the strength and power to destroy the demon that ruined her life many years ago.

Harmony and Jessi had such good chemistry and I look forward to reading the next in the series. The audiobook was brilliant and I thoroughly recommend listening to this story as the actor really brought the characters to life for me. I'm gonna need to buy more credits!

CW: kidnapping of babies/children, murder, suicide on page, gore… (mer)