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skepticcurmudgeon's review against another edition
5.0
Hilarious and thought provoking (if you enjoy eschatology), but light easy read.
karinlib's review against another edition
4.0
02/04/2018: Starting this again. I want to read the rest of the series.
09/30/2022: Read this one again.
09/30/2022: Read this one again.
dobbydoo22's review against another edition
2.0
I loved the first third or so--hilarious and very Vonnegut-esque. I felt like the narrative really deteriorated later on, though, and the plot got very crowded and messy and hectic. Didn't end up wanting to read the sequels.
misterjay's review against another edition
3.0
Occasionally, for a variety of reasons, it can take a while to get into a book. Mercury Falls is one of those books for me. It took me months to read the first half, and about a day and a half to read the second half. In this particular case, the reason stems mainly from wit versus action.
The first half of the novel takes its time laying out the characters and situation. Unfortunately, a lot of the characters are unlikeable and spout so much nonsense in the guise of humor that it took me a while to get to the heart of the story. Mercury, in particular, is a well-defined character, in as much as he is defined by being mercurial, which can be a lot of fun, but only in small doses. During the first half of the novel, Mercury is tedious and often just irritating. While this does a great job of pointing the readers' sympathies directly at the erstwhile heroine, Christine, it makes the read a bit of a slog at times.
However, Christine herself is the kind of protagonist we can all see ourselves in, and that, combined with steadily increasing action and explanations, makes the novel worthwhile.
The story is convoluted and has great fun poking away at preconceptions of the heavenly realm. The Heaven imagined in Mercury Falls is layer upon layer of red-tape and one well-meaning, rule-following, situationally incompetent bureaucratic angel after another. Hell is more of the same. In between these two realms is our mundane one, where the position of Anti-Christ is a prize given out in a contest and where the winner of such a contest is the most unlikeable human possible.
It all ties together neatly and satisfyingly at the end, but it's a bit of work to get there.
The first half of the novel takes its time laying out the characters and situation. Unfortunately, a lot of the characters are unlikeable and spout so much nonsense in the guise of humor that it took me a while to get to the heart of the story. Mercury, in particular, is a well-defined character, in as much as he is defined by being mercurial, which can be a lot of fun, but only in small doses. During the first half of the novel, Mercury is tedious and often just irritating. While this does a great job of pointing the readers' sympathies directly at the erstwhile heroine, Christine, it makes the read a bit of a slog at times.
However, Christine herself is the kind of protagonist we can all see ourselves in, and that, combined with steadily increasing action and explanations, makes the novel worthwhile.
The story is convoluted and has great fun poking away at preconceptions of the heavenly realm. The Heaven imagined in Mercury Falls is layer upon layer of red-tape and one well-meaning, rule-following, situationally incompetent bureaucratic angel after another. Hell is more of the same. In between these two realms is our mundane one, where the position of Anti-Christ is a prize given out in a contest and where the winner of such a contest is the most unlikeable human possible.
It all ties together neatly and satisfyingly at the end, but it's a bit of work to get there.
cortjstr's review against another edition
3.0
Fun goofy apocalypse book. Sort of like a less good Good Omens.
jopaez's review against another edition
5.0
Really funny book, throws any preconceptions away in the first page so you can accept anything to come in the rest of the book
adamrshields's review against another edition
4.0
Short Review: I enjoyed this book, it had some good humor, the plotting worked and I was engaged. But it is basically the same storyline as Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
My full review: http://bookwi.se/mercury-falls/
My full review: http://bookwi.se/mercury-falls/
branch_c's review against another edition
3.0
A fun read, polished and cleverly written, but of course variations on this story have been done before, notably by Gaiman and Pratchett with Good Omens. I gave that one four stars when I first read it, then bumped it down to three on a re-read years later. So I'll go ahead and say three for this one right away, although in some ways I liked this one even better than the Gaiman/Pratchett classic.
There were definitely some laugh out loud moments for me here, particularly the casual interspersing of trivial tips into the conversation by one cherub. Mercury is a great character, as is Christine - her exposure to the supernatural elements is nicely done. The plot is tight, logical, and satisfying.
Kroese's comedic voice here is as good as it was in the first book I read of his, The Big Sheep, but I still prefer that one for its originality. I know there are multiple sequels to this book; not sure if I'll seek them out just yet, but since this book pretty neatly wrapped up the apocalypse storyline, I might be interested to see what direction Kroese goes with it next.
There were definitely some laugh out loud moments for me here, particularly the casual interspersing of trivial tips into the conversation by one cherub. Mercury is a great character, as is Christine - her exposure to the supernatural elements is nicely done. The plot is tight, logical, and satisfying.
Kroese's comedic voice here is as good as it was in the first book I read of his, The Big Sheep, but I still prefer that one for its originality. I know there are multiple sequels to this book; not sure if I'll seek them out just yet, but since this book pretty neatly wrapped up the apocalypse storyline, I might be interested to see what direction Kroese goes with it next.
puzzled_pagan's review against another edition
2.0
This book desperately wanted to be a Christopher Moore novel, but had none of the wit, talent, or basic story structure to compete. Rambling in parts and under fed in others, and dripping with a forced sense of absurdity that makes it feel like the author got told one too many times that he was the funniest guy at church, and took that to mean he was a comedic genius.