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fantasyfunk's review against another edition
1.0
Just didn't do it for me.
The main character was just not that likable to me. He is and isn't a complete jerk and basically the difference was whether or not he was around female characters. I can handle the snarky smart-ass cliche, but the misogyny was just too much eye-rolling for me. Plus I didn't really understand what the internal struggle was for Dollar. Lots of things happened to him or were happening around him, but other than trying to stay alive, he almost seemed involved because he had nothing better to do. Yes not dying is a good reason to do things, but it's not a super interesting character motivation.
Ohhh how I wanted to love Caz especially when every introduction of her got over the initial school girl costume. I wanted her to be the strong female demon opposition to Dollar. I wanted her to kick ass (even if dressed as a school girl) and just live up to her potential to be a great villain. Instead she completely seems to forget her introduction as a bad ass to go from one terrible abusive relationship to the next with lots of sex in between.
The plot seemed to happen mostly in the background since Dollar accidentally winds up in the middle of something he knows nothing about. The book was a lot of him trying to find things out but never really finding anything useful (just going to different places and meeting different characters) until at least midway through. Then we get a bit of reveal of things that might be wildly important and may or may not have anything to do with the big mystery of the beginning. Finally some more struggle to find things before everything is just tidily wrapped up together at the end. Or not so tidily as it seems like there's a lot left to be answered but at least we finally get to see that everything is related.
1 Star. I would have put it down if I didn't have a thing about finishing books and I wasn't trying to slog through with a friend.
The main character was just not that likable to me. He is and isn't a complete jerk and basically the difference was whether or not he was around female characters. I can handle the snarky smart-ass cliche, but the misogyny was just too much eye-rolling for me. Plus I didn't really understand what the internal struggle was for Dollar. Lots of things happened to him or were happening around him, but other than trying to stay alive, he almost seemed involved because he had nothing better to do. Yes not dying is a good reason to do things, but it's not a super interesting character motivation.
Ohhh how I wanted to love Caz especially when every introduction of her got over the initial school girl costume. I wanted her to be the strong female demon opposition to Dollar. I wanted her to kick ass (even if dressed as a school girl) and just live up to her potential to be a great villain. Instead she completely seems to forget her introduction as a bad ass to go from one terrible abusive relationship to the next with lots of sex in between.
The plot seemed to happen mostly in the background since Dollar accidentally winds up in the middle of something he knows nothing about. The book was a lot of him trying to find things out but never really finding anything useful (just going to different places and meeting different characters) until at least midway through. Then we get a bit of reveal of things that might be wildly important and may or may not have anything to do with the big mystery of the beginning. Finally some more struggle to find things before everything is just tidily wrapped up together at the end. Or not so tidily as it seems like there's a lot left to be answered but at least we finally get to see that everything is related.
1 Star. I would have put it down if I didn't have a thing about finishing books and I wasn't trying to slog through with a friend.
cameronkc's review against another edition
4.0
Bobby Dollar is the man...and an angel. I liked the whole setup for this book and enjoyed the characters. There is a lot left unexplained in this story, but the story is intriguing anyway. Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demons, a giant beast and the battle for you soul.
rotterm2317's review against another edition
5.0
Tad Williams a long time mainstay in my arsenal against boredom hits another one out of the park. I hope he has another couple of Dolorial stories up his sleeve.
ericbuscemi's review against another edition
4.0
Despite growing up reading all the fantasy novels I could get my hands on, and Memory, Sorrow and Thorn being a very well respected and popular fantasy trilogy from that time, I had never read any Tad Williams before this book -- which I will have to remedy in the near future, at the expense of my ever lengthening to-read shelf.
This book, and the forthcoming series, is not the sword-and-sorcery type of novel that Williams cut his teeth writing, but a modern, urban fantasy. But where most urban fantasies gravitate toward vampire, werewolf and other similar mythologies, this book substitutes Judeo-Christian mythology -- angels, demons, and other denizens of the underworld -- borrowing from [b:Paradise Lost|15997|Paradise Lost|John Milton|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309202847s/15997.jpg|1031493] instead of [b:Dracula|17245|Dracula|Bram Stoker|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347251549s/17245.jpg|3165724]. But don't be mislead, this isn't simply Jim Butcher's Dresden Files rewritten with religious substitutions, the world-building here is very organic and well done, and their depth make the story that much more compelling.
I won't go into the plot, for fear of spoilers, but the tone was a perfect blend of seriousness and humor, with a snarky first-person narrator reminiscent of a noir detective novel. That narrator, earth-bound angel Bobby Dollar, is the singular highlight of the book, and the chance to revisit his character is enough to have me looking forward to the next book in the trilogy, [b:Happy Hour in Hell|13519596|Happy Hour in Hell (Bobby Dollar #2)|Tad Williams|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|19079485].
This book, and the forthcoming series, is not the sword-and-sorcery type of novel that Williams cut his teeth writing, but a modern, urban fantasy. But where most urban fantasies gravitate toward vampire, werewolf and other similar mythologies, this book substitutes Judeo-Christian mythology -- angels, demons, and other denizens of the underworld -- borrowing from [b:Paradise Lost|15997|Paradise Lost|John Milton|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309202847s/15997.jpg|1031493] instead of [b:Dracula|17245|Dracula|Bram Stoker|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347251549s/17245.jpg|3165724]. But don't be mislead, this isn't simply Jim Butcher's Dresden Files rewritten with religious substitutions, the world-building here is very organic and well done, and their depth make the story that much more compelling.
I won't go into the plot, for fear of spoilers, but the tone was a perfect blend of seriousness and humor, with a snarky first-person narrator reminiscent of a noir detective novel. That narrator, earth-bound angel Bobby Dollar, is the singular highlight of the book, and the chance to revisit his character is enough to have me looking forward to the next book in the trilogy, [b:Happy Hour in Hell|13519596|Happy Hour in Hell (Bobby Dollar #2)|Tad Williams|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|19079485].
elizpeace's review against another edition
3.0
It's a 3.25. There were parts that were really good, and others that left me shaking my head. My curious to read more about Bobby Dollar, but don't know if I want to continue. I did listen to this book, and the narrator did excellent!
heathermb's review against another edition
4.0
Source: MELcat (print hardcover)
So – this took me FOREVER to read. Not because I wasn’t interested…it was just hard to sit down and read again. I didn’t take time and then I was tired… There was a part where I thought that it was me, but maybe things slow down about 3/4 of the way through…
I am super fascinated by Williams’ view of heaven and earth – of angels and demons. And that was why I was reading it – to get a different view and thoughts. If exploring these topics is interesting, I would recommend this book. It’s apparently part of the “urban fantasy” genre, which I didn’t realize was a thing before picking up this book.
There is a second, that I will probably read at some point. However, I must read some things on my own shelf.
So – this took me FOREVER to read. Not because I wasn’t interested…it was just hard to sit down and read again. I didn’t take time and then I was tired… There was a part where I thought that it was me, but maybe things slow down about 3/4 of the way through…
I am super fascinated by Williams’ view of heaven and earth – of angels and demons. And that was why I was reading it – to get a different view and thoughts. If exploring these topics is interesting, I would recommend this book. It’s apparently part of the “urban fantasy” genre, which I didn’t realize was a thing before picking up this book.
There is a second, that I will probably read at some point. However, I must read some things on my own shelf.
kadomi's review against another edition
4.0
After ruminating over this rating for quite a bit, I have come to the decision that it's a 3.5 stars for me. Initially, I thought it was higher, due to the rush of reading another new Tad Williams. I still love him, and his writing is sharp. The style is very similar to the Dresden Files. First person view, a loner angelic attorney who doesn't trust his superiors and investigates a case on his own.
Bobby Dollar is really Doloriel, an angel who works as attorney, meaning that he pleads the case to be sent to Heaven whenever someone in his area dies, with a demon attorney from Hell trying to get the recently deceased sent down to suffer. Only one day a soul they're supposed to handle has disappeared, something that is not supposed to happen. Bobby Dollar tries to find out what happened, and why he is involved, and finds out that some angels and demons have their hands rather dirty.
The book is very fast-paced, you don't really get any breaks. Whereas Tad Williams usually does 1000 pages of exposition, here you just get thrown into the action with very little prior explanation. The tone is more mature than the Dresden Files. Bobby Dollar, angel that he might be, is not the nice guy Harry Dresden is. He also has filthy sex that is described in large detail, and left me entirely as cold as I imagine the Countess of Cold Hands to be.
I liked reading the book well enough, but especially today with me just having started another Dresden book, I finally have to admit that Harry Dresden > Bobby Dollar. I had crazy-high expectations of Tad Williams, and am vaguely disappointed, but I will read a follow-up for sure. I would love to find out more about the power structures of Heaven, and the story is entirely open-ended.
Bobby Dollar is really Doloriel, an angel who works as attorney, meaning that he pleads the case to be sent to Heaven whenever someone in his area dies, with a demon attorney from Hell trying to get the recently deceased sent down to suffer. Only one day a soul they're supposed to handle has disappeared, something that is not supposed to happen. Bobby Dollar tries to find out what happened, and why he is involved, and finds out that some angels and demons have their hands rather dirty.
The book is very fast-paced, you don't really get any breaks. Whereas Tad Williams usually does 1000 pages of exposition, here you just get thrown into the action with very little prior explanation. The tone is more mature than the Dresden Files. Bobby Dollar, angel that he might be, is not the nice guy Harry Dresden is. He also has filthy sex that is described in large detail, and left me entirely as cold as I imagine the Countess of Cold Hands to be.
I liked reading the book well enough, but especially today with me just having started another Dresden book, I finally have to admit that Harry Dresden > Bobby Dollar. I had crazy-high expectations of Tad Williams, and am vaguely disappointed, but I will read a follow-up for sure. I would love to find out more about the power structures of Heaven, and the story is entirely open-ended.
cjblandford's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Not my favorite Tad Williams book. The Dirty Streets of Heaven is a noir urban fantasy where Heaven and Hell battle for souls in a court-like scenario right after a person's death. Our MC Bobby Dollar, as noir a name as you can get, is an angel advocator. Basically he argues for the good in a person, in an attempt to win them over to heaven instead of Hell. The rules are slightly different than we think we know in our various religions, and Bobby, being a low-level angel, doesn't even know half of how Heaven works. When we visit Heaven in the book, we view it through Bobby's cynical point-of-view, so it doesn't seem as wondrous or heavenly as it might be from someone less cynical. When souls start disappearing, Bobby takes it upon himself to investigate, partially because the first soul disappeared on his watch, and then Hell sent agents after him to try to kill him, so he figured the two must be related.
Bobby was okay as an MC/narrator, but he's not the best character. He's a bit of a misogynist, though he probably doesn't think of himself that way. He's afraid of commitment with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Monica, and completely blows her off after a booty call one night. He then falls for a demon named Caz, the Countess of Cold Hands, a woman we come to learn later in the story, had been horribly abused by multiple men in her life, including her husband, who she eventually killed, which sent her to Hell in the afterlife. Bobby, of course, does little to comfort her, not entirely trusting her, since she is a demon, but that doesn't stop him from sleeping with her. The whole relationship left a bad taste in my mouth because it could have been more nuanced and interesting. Not what I typically expect from Tad Williams.
The story moved along a bit slowly, and the revelation at the end wasn't all that surprising. The story also ends with numerous unfulfilled plot lines, presumably to continue in the next book. I will probably read the next book, but hopefully it will be better than this one.
Bobby was okay as an MC/narrator, but he's not the best character. He's a bit of a misogynist, though he probably doesn't think of himself that way. He's afraid of commitment with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Monica, and completely blows her off after a booty call one night. He then falls for a demon named Caz, the Countess of Cold Hands, a woman we come to learn later in the story, had been horribly abused by multiple men in her life, including her husband, who she eventually killed, which sent her to Hell in the afterlife. Bobby, of course, does little to comfort her, not entirely trusting her, since she is a demon, but that doesn't stop him from sleeping with her. The whole relationship left a bad taste in my mouth because it could have been more nuanced and interesting. Not what I typically expect from Tad Williams.
The story moved along a bit slowly, and the revelation at the end wasn't all that surprising. The story also ends with numerous unfulfilled plot lines, presumably to continue in the next book. I will probably read the next book, but hopefully it will be better than this one.
ari__s's review
4.0
This rating is reflective of how entertained I was while reading this book in the midst of travels and a busy work schedule. It was just snarky, fast-paced, and unique enough to hang on to my attention and keep me engaged in the beautiful escapism that reading this type of story provides for me. That being said, the more I engage my higher-level thinking/critique, the more I pause and think "well...I might have some problems with that, actually." So for the light and fluffy, entertainment seekers, I would recommend this book, because I did find it quite enjoyable. From a more critical standpoint, I do have some reservations. I'll stick with the 4 star rating, though.
(Sidenote: The reviews I've read about the sequel are so dismal that though I was entertained enough to feel intrigued to continue onward with the story arch, I have, at this point, been successfully deterred from actually picking up book two).
(Sidenote: The reviews I've read about the sequel are so dismal that though I was entertained enough to feel intrigued to continue onward with the story arch, I have, at this point, been successfully deterred from actually picking up book two).
dylanrostek's review against another edition
5.0
This review is somewhat biased.
I absolutely love Tad Williams. His stories and the way he writes is amazing in my opinion.
That being said this book isn't written like anything else I've read of his.
I'm going to skip the synopsis as you can read that on your own (that and I finished this a little while ago and am working on distant memories.) I will, however, expand upon what the book is and why that makes it different than most Tad Williams.
Tad Williams tells amazingly complex and woven stories throughout his multi-volume books. His previous endeavors (The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the Otherland tetralogy, and the Shadowmarch tetralogy,) are truly each one long story spread among multiple volumes. The single books barely tie up anything and instead leave the readers with a plethora of unanswered questions and simply stop at a lulled point in the story. This book, while part of a trilogy, isn't so harsh on the ending. There are still unanswered questions relating to the overall story but it feels like more of an ending than he usually does. Where it doesn't differ is in the fact that it is still an engrossing enjoyable story that never disappoints.
Another aspect of Tad Williams that makes him one of my favorite writers is his actual writing. He has an amazing ability to grow characters and get you invested in them. In most books this consists of hundreds of pages of growing the story and coming to know the characters by a slow, and to some, tedious opening. In The Dirty Streets of Heaven his character development is just as good but you aren't giving the long slow opening where you watch the character in order to get to know them; you don't have to, the character already knows themselves and just tells you what they think and feel (albeit this is somewhat skewed as what we think of ourselves isn't always our true nature, but we learn about the character through this aspect as well.) How does the character tell us? Well that leads to my next point of difference between this and other William's works.
One of my favorite things about Williams is his writing style. He has a great talent of making believable dialog full of slang and realistic speech yet his narration is incredibly precise in grammar and description and can borderline on prose, even surpassing that border at times, in the beauty of his words. This book offers plenty of the first and a lot less of the second, but it works fantastically. The story strays from his usual medieval-esque fantasy and sci-fi writings and is easily a modern day Noir mystery (only containing angels and demons, an intriguing twist,) and in staying with the Noir vain is narrated in first person. because of this the narration has to stay true to the voice of Bobby Dollar and it does this well. This doesn't mean there isn't any prose and beauty, Dollar has that side to him, but mostly it gives the story a grittier more intense feel that adds to the pacing and excitement of the tale and adds a new level to both William's writing and his ability to develop character.
If you're a fan of Tad Williams expect something different and yet very familiar but know that you won't be disappointed in the least. If you're new to Williams this is a great place to start. It's shorter and has a much faster pace than most of his works but still stands up as another great addition to his already stellar work.
I absolutely love Tad Williams. His stories and the way he writes is amazing in my opinion.
That being said this book isn't written like anything else I've read of his.
I'm going to skip the synopsis as you can read that on your own (that and I finished this a little while ago and am working on distant memories.) I will, however, expand upon what the book is and why that makes it different than most Tad Williams.
Tad Williams tells amazingly complex and woven stories throughout his multi-volume books. His previous endeavors (The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the Otherland tetralogy, and the Shadowmarch tetralogy,) are truly each one long story spread among multiple volumes. The single books barely tie up anything and instead leave the readers with a plethora of unanswered questions and simply stop at a lulled point in the story. This book, while part of a trilogy, isn't so harsh on the ending. There are still unanswered questions relating to the overall story but it feels like more of an ending than he usually does. Where it doesn't differ is in the fact that it is still an engrossing enjoyable story that never disappoints.
Another aspect of Tad Williams that makes him one of my favorite writers is his actual writing. He has an amazing ability to grow characters and get you invested in them. In most books this consists of hundreds of pages of growing the story and coming to know the characters by a slow, and to some, tedious opening. In The Dirty Streets of Heaven his character development is just as good but you aren't giving the long slow opening where you watch the character in order to get to know them; you don't have to, the character already knows themselves and just tells you what they think and feel (albeit this is somewhat skewed as what we think of ourselves isn't always our true nature, but we learn about the character through this aspect as well.) How does the character tell us? Well that leads to my next point of difference between this and other William's works.
One of my favorite things about Williams is his writing style. He has a great talent of making believable dialog full of slang and realistic speech yet his narration is incredibly precise in grammar and description and can borderline on prose, even surpassing that border at times, in the beauty of his words. This book offers plenty of the first and a lot less of the second, but it works fantastically. The story strays from his usual medieval-esque fantasy and sci-fi writings and is easily a modern day Noir mystery (only containing angels and demons, an intriguing twist,) and in staying with the Noir vain is narrated in first person. because of this the narration has to stay true to the voice of Bobby Dollar and it does this well. This doesn't mean there isn't any prose and beauty, Dollar has that side to him, but mostly it gives the story a grittier more intense feel that adds to the pacing and excitement of the tale and adds a new level to both William's writing and his ability to develop character.
If you're a fan of Tad Williams expect something different and yet very familiar but know that you won't be disappointed in the least. If you're new to Williams this is a great place to start. It's shorter and has a much faster pace than most of his works but still stands up as another great addition to his already stellar work.