kblincoln's review against another edition
2.0
Markham returns to Seattle with his "chorus" of human souls to find Katarina, a woman who many years ago during an arcane ritual took a piece of his soul.
Armed with knowledge of arcane philosophy (and never missing a chance to pontificate about Crowley, religion, philosophy, alchemy, or the khabbalah) Markham tracks down a ring of alchemist/magic users intent on sucking the souls out of the Pacific Northwest to instigate the apocalypse.
Despite how much I enjoyed the flavor of the Pacific Northwest in this series, the spouting of philosophy in all times, in all places, and by every. single. character. was too much for me. Every character peppers their conversation with latin phrases and references to obscure philosphy, even the hard-bitten cop!
In the middle of a battle scene, the narrator's voice tends to think back on how such-and-such a philosopher said such-and-such about human souls and the nature of god and man before whalloping the bad guy.
Which was a shame, because there's some good stuff in this book. With some weeding out of the overly pedantic stuff, it could have been a good first novel in the series.
As a primer on arcane philosophy, I can totally recommend it. People looking for urban fantasy might not enjoy this one.
Food Designation Rating: Beef pot a feu with too much red wine for generally good contents overwhelmed completely by the overly rich philosophy. Tastes good in little bites, but a full meal makes you a little overstuffed.
Armed with knowledge of arcane philosophy (and never missing a chance to pontificate about Crowley, religion, philosophy, alchemy, or the khabbalah) Markham tracks down a ring of alchemist/magic users intent on sucking the souls out of the Pacific Northwest to instigate the apocalypse.
Despite how much I enjoyed the flavor of the Pacific Northwest in this series, the spouting of philosophy in all times, in all places, and by every. single. character. was too much for me. Every character peppers their conversation with latin phrases and references to obscure philosphy, even the hard-bitten cop!
In the middle of a battle scene, the narrator's voice tends to think back on how such-and-such a philosopher said such-and-such about human souls and the nature of god and man before whalloping the bad guy.
Which was a shame, because there's some good stuff in this book. With some weeding out of the overly pedantic stuff, it could have been a good first novel in the series.
As a primer on arcane philosophy, I can totally recommend it. People looking for urban fantasy might not enjoy this one.
Food Designation Rating: Beef pot a feu with too much red wine for generally good contents overwhelmed completely by the overly rich philosophy. Tastes good in little bites, but a full meal makes you a little overstuffed.
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