Reviews

The Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon

git_r_read's review against another edition

5.0

SIXTY-ONE NAILS was about Niall discovering the magical world and his place in it. THE ROAD TO BEDLAM is about family, specifically his daughter who is thought dead in an accident that happened at school, but she has really been taken by an agency to study.
Niall will do whatever it takes to rescue her as will the magical community, the good side of the magical community.
Niall is sent on another mission while something else is in play.

Plenty of action, misguided magical use, good intentions, awesome awesome, awesome! Cannot wait to read the next book.

meiko's review against another edition

3.0

Review note found from a note written 31 May, 2018

Every quarter through the book, I put it down and try to get over the fact that I'm mildly irritated.

Here we are, protagonist in his 40s, acting like Harry Potter the Man Child. Not to mention the capable, strong partner of his that somehow survived for 300 years prior but now that she's pregnant, all caution is thrown to the wind.

I mean, yes, there was a big, traumatic event, but it's like he just gets constantly sidetracked to the point he is just putting everyone and anyone in danger, and all these loose ends are not tied up.

And the author knows they are not tied up, so a couple of ridiculous dialogues between the main characters and other small time side characters are thrown in to attempt at tying the loose ends up.

I'm still intrigued by the story itself but the character is getting less and less likeable. Also, what's with that ending? This is not a long running TV series where you leave a cliff hanger to be tied up in the next book.

fryguy451's review against another edition

4.0

Nice work! Great ride.

texaswolfman's review against another edition

5.0

I liked the first book of this urban fantasy series, 61 Nails. Loved this second installment much more. The groundwork was laid out in the first book and this one just hit the ground running. Very good Dresden File feel!!!

eahaynes's review

4.0

I may have enjoyed this sequel more than the original. Fast-paced, original, and compelling, I love the idea of a hidden faery world that exists in a Cold War-like relationship with our own. A couple of scenes put this book in the adults only category, so not a bedtime read with the kiddos.

chappellmw90's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

thessilian's review

3.0

Generally enjoyable, but Blackbird seems to have changed her personality just because she's pregnant. Her actions don't make much sense, and seem a little tacked on and not integral to the story. Still, the universe is solid and I enjoyed the protagonist learning more about himself and his powers.

cupiscent's review

2.0

Not bad, just not really satisfying at all. I was looking forward to seeing the polish of practice smoothing out some of glitches that marred the first book, but instead they seem to have got worse, and many of the good elements of the first one were not repeated here. This is far less tight that the first one, and where Sixty-one Nails was pretty non-stop and pacey, this spends pages woffling about, as our narrator steps us through moral or mental processes, many of which had been discussed previously anyway. It felt like endlessly churning over the same space, not really moving anything forward. Like a car bogged in the mud.

Separately, both the girls-lost-to-the-sea storyline and the fate-of-his-daughter storyline are fascinating and have some really interesting material - and I can totally see the thematic link in there (I should, he beats us over the head with it explicitly) - but they were never really interwoven in the novel, making it feel more like the seaside story was shoved into the middle to make things longer - and Raffmir popping up at random to Be Portentious didn't help at all. And I was looking forward to some digging into Bedlam and the relationship of insanity to society (especially given the excellent work in the first one with arcane legal ritual and magic), but actually there was just a passing reference.

I am disappoint. Pretty mediocre. Won't be reading further.

fablejack's review

3.0

I wish I liked this more. I think I read it out of stubbornness because I read the first book. Like that one, there are some very cool concepts and moments, but in between, there is quite a bit of time spent on things that do not advance the plot as much as they should. For example, the protagonist is desperate about the situation with his daughter (omitted for potential spoiler-hood), but the urgency doesn't come through for hundreds of pages until that story picks back up.

woodge's review

4.0

Last October I read the first book in this series, 61 Nails, and I found it to be original and endlessly interesting and imaginative. The protagonist, Niall Peterson, lives in modern day London and suddenly finds out that he has part Fey ancestry and begins to learn of the world and powers that come with it. In this second book, Niall's teenage daughter begins to exhibit Fey powers of her own. She's kidnapped and Niall is initially duped into believing she's dead. Just as he learns she's not, some other complications enter into the Fey world. Like the first book, I found this one to be endlessly imaginative and a fun story to follow. I liked the unpredictableness of the plotting. It may not be rich in characterization, but the richness of the story makes up for it. I was particularly interested in the character of Raffmir too. An interesting villain.