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jocyvondoom's review
3.0
The book had too many ups and downs for me to give it more than 3 1/2 stars...
stewie's review
4.0
Joseph Nassise delivers a very solid sequel to Eyes to See, with more action, more victims, and more of those things that go bump in the night. You can read my full review at HorrorTalk.com
drey72's review
3.0
Now a wanted man, Jeremiah Hunt hides out on one of Dmitri’s properties – along with Dmitri and Denise. His options are a tad limited now, what with his (lack of) eyesight, and oh, being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. So, along with the peace and quiet, reflection and regrouping, Jeremiah has to figure out where to go from here.
Then Denise has visions of doom and gloom (or hellfire and brimstone), and the three are on the way to New Orleans to investigate. I loved that Jeremiah drives, by the way. I mean, the dude’s blind for crying out loud!
King of the Dead is dark and not very kind to our protagonist, or his friends. As Jeremiah et al race around trying to identify the threat – and its resolution – it’s hard to not cheer for them. But it is hard to stay involved with them. I mean, I like the three just fine, but I don’t feel like I know them any better now than I did before I picked up King of the Dead.
Good thing that the story’s pretty interesting. How could it not be, with the King of the Dead playing a role (albeit silent) and nightmarish Sorrows slurping souls? It makes up for the slower-than-ideal pace that waits between the pages. The three are on the lam, after all – even if the FBI doesn’t know anything about Denise (yet). And they’re on the clock (see “race around” above) too. Which is why it gets a bit annoying when the hero indulges in a bit of angst at meeting people (i.e. men) Denise knew pre-Hunt.
And while I enjoyed meeting a new face (Simon Gallagher in New Orleans) or two (Agent Doherty in the FBI), I never really got to know them. I did wonder how the FBI fared after that anti-climactic save-the-world meeting in the cemetery, but not enough to actually care if Robertson or Doherty made it out in (relatively) one piece. All in all, this was not what I’d hoped the follow up to Eyes to See would be – it’s not pulse-pounding, supernaturally-shining, truly-end-of-world-worthy, nor dramatic. *sigh*
I’m holding out hope for another installment though, because I’m curious enough to want to know what happens next.
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
Then Denise has visions of doom and gloom (or hellfire and brimstone), and the three are on the way to New Orleans to investigate. I loved that Jeremiah drives, by the way. I mean, the dude’s blind for crying out loud!
King of the Dead is dark and not very kind to our protagonist, or his friends. As Jeremiah et al race around trying to identify the threat – and its resolution – it’s hard to not cheer for them. But it is hard to stay involved with them. I mean, I like the three just fine, but I don’t feel like I know them any better now than I did before I picked up King of the Dead.
Good thing that the story’s pretty interesting. How could it not be, with the King of the Dead playing a role (albeit silent) and nightmarish Sorrows slurping souls? It makes up for the slower-than-ideal pace that waits between the pages. The three are on the lam, after all – even if the FBI doesn’t know anything about Denise (yet). And they’re on the clock (see “race around” above) too. Which is why it gets a bit annoying when the hero indulges in a bit of angst at meeting people (i.e. men) Denise knew pre-Hunt.
And while I enjoyed meeting a new face (Simon Gallagher in New Orleans) or two (Agent Doherty in the FBI), I never really got to know them. I did wonder how the FBI fared after that anti-climactic save-the-world meeting in the cemetery, but not enough to actually care if Robertson or Doherty made it out in (relatively) one piece. All in all, this was not what I’d hoped the follow up to Eyes to See would be – it’s not pulse-pounding, supernaturally-shining, truly-end-of-world-worthy, nor dramatic. *sigh*
I’m holding out hope for another installment though, because I’m curious enough to want to know what happens next.
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
drey72's review against another edition
3.0
Now a wanted man, Jeremiah Hunt hides out on one of Dmitri’s properties – along with Dmitri and Denise. His options are a tad limited now, what with his (lack of) eyesight, and oh, being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. So, along with the peace and quiet, reflection and regrouping, Jeremiah has to figure out where to go from here.
Then Denise has visions of doom and gloom (or hellfire and brimstone), and the three are on the way to New Orleans to investigate. I loved that Jeremiah drives, by the way. I mean, the dude’s blind for crying out loud!
King of the Dead is dark and not very kind to our protagonist, or his friends. As Jeremiah et al race around trying to identify the threat – and its resolution – it’s hard to not cheer for them. But it is hard to stay involved with them. I mean, I like the three just fine, but I don’t feel like I know them any better now than I did before I picked up King of the Dead.
Good thing that the story’s pretty interesting. How could it not be, with the King of the Dead playing a role (albeit silent) and nightmarish Sorrows slurping souls? It makes up for the slower-than-ideal pace that waits between the pages. The three are on the lam, after all – even if the FBI doesn’t know anything about Denise (yet). And they’re on the clock (see “race around” above) too. Which is why it gets a bit annoying when the hero indulges in a bit of angst at meeting people (i.e. men) Denise knew pre-Hunt.
And while I enjoyed meeting a new face (Simon Gallagher in New Orleans) or two (Agent Doherty in the FBI), I never really got to know them. I did wonder how the FBI fared after that anti-climactic save-the-world meeting in the cemetery, but not enough to actually care if Robertson or Doherty made it out in (relatively) one piece. All in all, this was not what I’d hoped the follow up to Eyes to See would be – it’s not pulse-pounding, supernaturally-shining, truly-end-of-world-worthy, nor dramatic. *sigh*
I’m holding out hope for another installment though, because I’m curious enough to want to know what happens next.
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
Then Denise has visions of doom and gloom (or hellfire and brimstone), and the three are on the way to New Orleans to investigate. I loved that Jeremiah drives, by the way. I mean, the dude’s blind for crying out loud!
King of the Dead is dark and not very kind to our protagonist, or his friends. As Jeremiah et al race around trying to identify the threat – and its resolution – it’s hard to not cheer for them. But it is hard to stay involved with them. I mean, I like the three just fine, but I don’t feel like I know them any better now than I did before I picked up King of the Dead.
Good thing that the story’s pretty interesting. How could it not be, with the King of the Dead playing a role (albeit silent) and nightmarish Sorrows slurping souls? It makes up for the slower-than-ideal pace that waits between the pages. The three are on the lam, after all – even if the FBI doesn’t know anything about Denise (yet). And they’re on the clock (see “race around” above) too. Which is why it gets a bit annoying when the hero indulges in a bit of angst at meeting people (i.e. men) Denise knew pre-Hunt.
And while I enjoyed meeting a new face (Simon Gallagher in New Orleans) or two (Agent Doherty in the FBI), I never really got to know them. I did wonder how the FBI fared after that anti-climactic save-the-world meeting in the cemetery, but not enough to actually care if Robertson or Doherty made it out in (relatively) one piece. All in all, this was not what I’d hoped the follow up to Eyes to See would be – it’s not pulse-pounding, supernaturally-shining, truly-end-of-world-worthy, nor dramatic. *sigh*
I’m holding out hope for another installment though, because I’m curious enough to want to know what happens next.
drey’s rating: Pick it up!
vailynst's review against another edition
3.0
Mini-Review:
This story was less polished than the first. The flaws that were minor bumps in the first book were like huge cracks in this one. The characters and overall action felt detached. Too many narrative sequences were aimed at the reader for various info dumps. I did not look for a "mystery" when I started this series but the book became too cookie-cutter predictable.
The romance feels like a plot device more than a natural event. I can take Jeremiah falling for the first female that he interacts with after years of fruitlessly searching for his daughter. He's been alone for a long time and cut adrift from everything he knew. Yet, the actual interactions and exchanges between them have been in stressful situations. No real indicators for a relationship. Meh.
This story was less polished than the first. The flaws that were minor bumps in the first book were like huge cracks in this one. The characters and overall action felt detached. Too many narrative sequences were aimed at the reader for various info dumps. I did not look for a "mystery" when I started this series but the book became too cookie-cutter predictable.
The romance feels like a plot device more than a natural event. I can take Jeremiah falling for the first female that he interacts with after years of fruitlessly searching for his daughter. He's been alone for a long time and cut adrift from everything he knew. Yet, the actual interactions and exchanges between them have been in stressful situations. No real indicators for a relationship. Meh.
reader_fictions's review
2.0
Sequels generally fail to live up to their predecessors. To be fair, they're under a lot of pressure. They need to refresh readers who read books out of order (a ghastly affair, I say) and to set up the following book, assuming there is one (which there usually is, duology's not being especially popular). Unfortunately, I feel like King of the Dead had some real issues, and was not as powerful as Eyes to See, however, the ending was jam packed and left me wanting more.
The first problem with King of the Dead I referenced above. Authors writing the second book of their series have two basic options: rehash the plot so that people who skipped book one won't be lost or launch straight in and hope that people are smart enough to go back to book one if they're confused. Nassise chose the former option, which might have been okay with me had I not read Eyes to See less than a week ago. With a strong knowledge of the plot, I could appreciate just how poorly the information dump was handled. One sentence, just a descriptive one about how inanimate objects take in emotions, he even reused verbatim in this book. If you're going to repeat the infodump, at least do me the favor of writing something new, especially since I wasn't a huge fan of that sentence in book one, which is why I recognized it.
Much as that annoyed me, though, it's a fairly common problem, and the repetition is dispensed with in a couple of chapters, so it's really not that big an issue. The larger problem was how the plot meandered for most of the book. Where Eyes to See started with a bang (Jeremiah performing an exorcism), this one only has a brief vision of Denise's to get us moving. Apparently, the vision means they need to go to New Orleans for some mission wholely unrelated to Hunt being wanted by the FBI. Alrighty then.
Thankfully, I do feel like the plot did come around to being a bit more overarching towards the end, bringing in a mysterious figure from book one. The last third or so of the book has a lot of action, death, and battle, so I got really into it at that point. There was one questionable moment in the battle's climax where I question Hunt's ability to take out the opponent, but hopefully the powers he uses then will be explained later on. Otherwise, not cool.
Hunt continues to be a delightfully odd hero, in that he's not especially heroic. He doesn't really want to save people and he's really not that useful a lot of the time. He gets them caught by doing something stupid, and he has to hide in the corner during battles, because he lacks any sort of fighting prowess. His most useful skills are his ghostsight and the fact that he's really good at the harmonica (soothes ghosts and three-headed dogs). Personally, I find this refreshing, because most people don't get to be the badass hero in their own lives.
King of the Dead had some issues, but I certainly recommend it with some reservations. Given the intense ending, I do plan to continue with the series myself and only hope that Nassise will ease the transition into book three and try to space out the action a bit better, like he did in Eyes to See.
The first problem with King of the Dead I referenced above. Authors writing the second book of their series have two basic options: rehash the plot so that people who skipped book one won't be lost or launch straight in and hope that people are smart enough to go back to book one if they're confused. Nassise chose the former option, which might have been okay with me had I not read Eyes to See less than a week ago. With a strong knowledge of the plot, I could appreciate just how poorly the information dump was handled. One sentence, just a descriptive one about how inanimate objects take in emotions, he even reused verbatim in this book. If you're going to repeat the infodump, at least do me the favor of writing something new, especially since I wasn't a huge fan of that sentence in book one, which is why I recognized it.
Much as that annoyed me, though, it's a fairly common problem, and the repetition is dispensed with in a couple of chapters, so it's really not that big an issue. The larger problem was how the plot meandered for most of the book. Where Eyes to See started with a bang (Jeremiah performing an exorcism), this one only has a brief vision of Denise's to get us moving. Apparently, the vision means they need to go to New Orleans for some mission wholely unrelated to Hunt being wanted by the FBI. Alrighty then.
Thankfully, I do feel like the plot did come around to being a bit more overarching towards the end, bringing in a mysterious figure from book one. The last third or so of the book has a lot of action, death, and battle, so I got really into it at that point. There was one questionable moment in the battle's climax where I question Hunt's ability to take out the opponent, but hopefully the powers he uses then will be explained later on. Otherwise, not cool.
Hunt continues to be a delightfully odd hero, in that he's not especially heroic. He doesn't really want to save people and he's really not that useful a lot of the time. He gets them caught by doing something stupid, and he has to hide in the corner during battles, because he lacks any sort of fighting prowess. His most useful skills are his ghostsight and the fact that he's really good at the harmonica (soothes ghosts and three-headed dogs). Personally, I find this refreshing, because most people don't get to be the badass hero in their own lives.
King of the Dead had some issues, but I certainly recommend it with some reservations. Given the intense ending, I do plan to continue with the series myself and only hope that Nassise will ease the transition into book three and try to space out the action a bit better, like he did in Eyes to See.
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