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A review by kevinwkelsey
Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover
2.0
This was my first Urban Fantasy novel, and I’m pretty sure that this genre just isn’t for me. I don’t really like the idea of writing a whole genre off like that, but I’ll get around to explaining my reasoning a little later.
The world building was well thought out, and I really appreciated the unique take on trying to explain the usual mythological creatures from a biological angle, but the story was just so generic, the characters pretty see-through, and the writing merely competent.
It’s one of those books where you can read the first 3-4 chapters, flip to the back and read the last 2 and call it done. It started out with some pretty fun wish fulfillment, moved on to a romance that never felt organic, and then there were three quick action sequences with a whole lot of waiting around in between. Meanwhile, the characters explain the plot to each other quite a lot. So if you’re into Urban Fantasy, it’s probably a totally okay series to read. It’s occasionally kind of fun, but never really much better than serviceable.
The reason I say that urban fantasy may just not be for me, is that I am usually willing to forgive all of these shortcomings in a novel if there are concepts about the story, or world building that are really interesting to me. I overlook bad prose or a generic story all the time in Science Fiction novels, because there’s some cool thing going on the background, or I’m really into the setting, etc. I don’t think I can do that with with Urban Fantasy because I just don’t care enough about demons or vampires or zombies, etc to read a boring story.
If there is some Urban Fantasy with outstanding prose, or a really killer story, or ridiculously good characters, point me in that direction and I’ll check it out.
The world building was well thought out, and I really appreciated the unique take on trying to explain the usual mythological creatures from a biological angle, but the story was just so generic, the characters pretty see-through, and the writing merely competent.
It’s one of those books where you can read the first 3-4 chapters, flip to the back and read the last 2 and call it done. It started out with some pretty fun wish fulfillment, moved on to a romance that never felt organic, and then there were three quick action sequences with a whole lot of waiting around in between. Meanwhile, the characters explain the plot to each other quite a lot. So if you’re into Urban Fantasy, it’s probably a totally okay series to read. It’s occasionally kind of fun, but never really much better than serviceable.
The reason I say that urban fantasy may just not be for me, is that I am usually willing to forgive all of these shortcomings in a novel if there are concepts about the story, or world building that are really interesting to me. I overlook bad prose or a generic story all the time in Science Fiction novels, because there’s some cool thing going on the background, or I’m really into the setting, etc. I don’t think I can do that with with Urban Fantasy because I just don’t care enough about demons or vampires or zombies, etc to read a boring story.
If there is some Urban Fantasy with outstanding prose, or a really killer story, or ridiculously good characters, point me in that direction and I’ll check it out.