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Book Review: Bishop’s Crossing, by Don Mewha

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I received a copy of Don Mewha‘s Bishop’s Crossing through Netgalley. bishop's crossing

The dark streets of New Orleans come to life in this riveting Urban Fantasy! Fans of Jim Butcher, Constantine, and Tales from the Nightside will adore Bishop’s Crossing!

A failed priest gets pulled back into the occult world that he left behind when his daughter shows signs of mystical ability. He reconnects with his former team to track down the missing daughter of the Voodoo King of New Orleans while he’s hunted by a fanatical member of the Church.

my review

I’m almost 100% sure that this is a first book in a series. In fact, I’m almost 100% sure it’s Mewha’s debut book. I say almost because it feels SO much like it isn’t. I cannot tell you how many times I returned to Goodreads checking and re-checking there isn’t a previous book. A large part of the plot is basically getting the gang back together. And it felt SO much like I should know the gang that I was completely thrown off and out of the story.

Outside of feeling like not a first book, I generally enjoyed this. I liked Bishop and his merry band of misfits. I liked the mystery and the world Mewha created. I did think things felt a little sketched out, with lots of running here and doing this or that, but not a lot of getting to really know characters or settling into a complex plot. Threats seemed to pop up and disappear, only to be replaced by another feeling equally as random.

I read an ARC, so I can’t speak to editing. But the writing is quite readable. This might not top a favorites list, but I’d be happy to read another in the series.

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Book Review: The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman

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I picked up a freebie copy of the Audible dramatization of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

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When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus—the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination—is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools” that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence. As the multi-threaded story unspools, The Sandman descends into Hell to confront Lucifer, chases rogue nightmares who have escaped his realm, and crosses paths with an array of characters from DC comic books, ancient myths, and real-world history, including: Inmates of Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum, Doctor Destiny, the muse Calliope, the three Fates, William Shakespeare, and many more.

my review

I have a kind of middle of the road feeling about this. I fully admit I’m not a big reader of graphic novels (or surely I’d have read this before now). This means I didn’t have any preexisting connection to any of the DC characters that popped up or underlying love of the Gotham world. And, in listening to it, I found I much prefer a regular old audiobook to a dramatization. (Obviously this is what it is because there’s no novel to narrate and it’s very well done.) My point is that, unlike a lot of readers, I didn’t come to this predisposed to love it. I liked the idea of Morpheus a lot and I’ve read several Gaiman books I enjoyed (though not all of them), but I was a fairly blank slate.

When the story settled into a single narrative arc for a while I enjoyed it quite a lot. I like Morpheus and his crew. I chuckled frequently, even amongst the grimness. But most of the individual, single episodes bored me. And there were more rapes and women being menaced in alleys (and such) than I felt necessary. Though I acknowledge that this was first published in or about 1998, and that seems to have just been the norm of the time. (Still is, honestly, though I think we’re at least becoming more aware of it as problematic.)

All in all, I’d probably listen to volume II if I could get it from the library. But I don’t think I’d buy it. I do plan to watch the Netflix show though, and that’s why I listened to this in the first place.

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Other Reviews:

REVIEW: Audible’s “The Sandman”

http://brockstargaming.com/neil-gaimans-sandman-audible-review-simply-brilliant/

https://theaudiobookblog.com/2020/07/16/review-the-sandman/

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Book Review: Shadow Shinjuku, by Ryu Takeshi

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I accepted a copy of Ryu Takeshi‘s Shadow Shinjuku for review.

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The streets of Tokyo are different at night. There is darkness behind the glitter and the neon lights, and people who prefer to stay in the shadows, to dwell in the underworld – whores, gangsters, the homeless, the lost. People like Sato. He’s part of this world, he always has been, but a feeling of change is lingering in the heavy air of the bustling city. A feeling brought to life by fateful encounters of solitary souls.

my review

I have very middle of the road feelings about this book. Some aspects of it I really liked. I thought Sato was an likeable main character. I liked a lot of the quirky side characters. There’s an interesting, if light, magic world. I enjoyed the twist at the end. You see it coming, but it’s well played. I especially appreciated the last page. Kobayashi coming in like a boss! A boss, not the boss—a distinction that is important in context.

I know it’s a little cliched to say a supernatural book about Yakuza, set in Tokyo would make a great anime. But I honestly can see this working really well as one. But I also think it was purposefully written in such a style.

However, while some of the writing was very pretty, I thought it a little plebeian at other times— especially in the dialogue which tended toward clunky. Far too many characters chuck “My Dear” into conversation to flow well, for example. I also thought some of the psychosocial or metaphysical musings never really coalesced into anything concrete enough to have real meaning to the reader. And about halfway through it feels like Takeshi went, “You know what? I need to make this grittier.” So suddenly Sato was visiting prostitutes and sexual sadist villains popped up out of nowhere and I just thought, “Oh, how disappointingly predictable.” Not only because such things have been so over used as to lose emotional impact, but because it really didn’t fit the tone of the book up to that point…or after, really.

All in all, I thought this an interesting (if somewhat flawed) read and was happy to follow it up with the short story Abalone (unrelated to the events of Shadow Shinjuku but involving some of the same characters) which I also enjoyed.

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Other Reviews:

Readers Favorite: Shadow Shinjuku Review

https://www.bestsellersworld.com/2021/08/shadow-shinjuku-volume-1-by-ryu-takeshi/