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A review by cjblandford
The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
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.