I generally enjoyed this book. It has little to stand out from the general crowd but it does a decent job within the status quo.

It features wonderfully jaded and disillusioned main characters and a world of grey instead of black and white at first.
Things can go wrong. No talking is a free action. Bad things happen. People die. You are not always on time. No turning back the clock. Decisions between a rock and a hard place have to be made. Suffering and sorrow leave convincing mental scars.
It gave me this feeling of a differentiated, real, and believable world but halfway through it just collapsed into the same old corny patterns.
Us vs them aka tribalism, black and white, never give up, always hold to your morals and all that crap, save the world, and so on and so forth.
It completely compromises the jaded and grimdark characters and world that have been so carefully and painstakingly constructed at first.
Not only that but then it goes on through the entire suite of bad action movie tropes. Splurging competitive boasting about how capable and badass each and everyone and all their cool toys and gadgets are. Then the cringeworthy bonding scene because we are all practically a family. And together with the power of friendship, we will save the world. Normally this doesn't bother me too much anymore. It's generally not something I want to read about but I am somewhat resigned to the whole thing. In this case, the beginning promised so much more but then just didn't deliver what I expected. That is kind of my own fault I guess, which is why I still gave it 3 stars even tho my enjoyment plummeted to a low 2 star at that point. What I am trying to say is that it only bothered me so much because this change in tone shattered my expectations.

Another annoying flaw was the subtly and conveniently adjusting limits around the almost completely unexplained magic to fit the current plot progression requirements. I am fine with leaving magic unexplained. Half-assed explanations go horribly wrong more often than not. But at least keep to the few rules you set especially if you are already in easy mode.

Something I enjoyed and found refreshing in this book was the love interest.
I really liked the incredibly powerful and pitiless daemon succubus with this innocent and pure insecurity around love and friendship suffering from crippling loneliness. I have never seen this done before with a male mc POV in this way. It worked for me and I found it really cute. It's an interesting dynamic with potential imo. In this case, it's sadly leaning heavily towards shallow insta-love which is, again, a pity.
There could have been something more here. Wasted potential like this infuriates me. It's probably the main reason I write most reviews. ( )

This one’s a winner! It was also the last in my absolutely-no -stakes-but-somehow-still-very-important-to-me 2021 book challenge on the Outlander Book Club forum—Read 12 books that have been hanging out a long time on your TBR pile. Woo! Celebrate, world!

I bought this ages ago based on a GR friend’s favorable review. It’s the start of a series that is definitely worth throwing it into the rotation. It’s not quite stop-everything-and-chain-smoke level for me, at least not yet. But the only reason it didn’t get five stars is a very silly sex scene (that I thought was probably also impossible) and one rather cartoonish character. I’m hoping she grows on me as I read more in the series.

There are definite echoes of Dresden Files in the structure, but it’s 100% its own thing. Besides being constantly pummeled by baddies and trying to save everyone, Daniel is still pretty different than Harry, and this series starts out darker, I think. I would certainly recommend it to Dresden fans. It’s an impressively strong first installment—original, creative, and unpredictable. I love Daniel’s style of magic, the Vegas setting, the tough guy talk, and his found family. I’m looking forward to knowing them better. Bonus points for quoting from Much Ado About Nothing! ( )

Very interesting descriptions of places . Interesting story in the Dresden style, but with plenty of unique perspectives. ( )

The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer and narrated by Adam Verner is an intriguing fantasy story that takes the reader down a crazy magic road. There is the main character, Daniel, who is a sorcerer and is asked to do a job. A girl is murdered and the cops are just blowing it off. An old man that is like a grandfather to the girl knows who killed her. This job leads to more than Daniel expected. Lots of ritual magic, demons, unleashing the end times if he can't stop it. Very exciting! Loved the characters! Stopped half way through the book long enough to buy several more of these in the series!
The narration is excellent! Female, males, creatures...all done wonderfully! ( )

Just discovered this new series thanks to Kindle First's offer of the #1 book in Schaefer's Harmony Black series (and the reviewer who mentioned the new series had spoilers for this one). Yay!

I like the Daniel Faust guy - he's got flaws but they aren't annoying. The plot moved right along, and while fantasy plots are meant to be impossible it was believable as fantasies go. By believable I mean no characters were 22 and completing doctoral dissertations in archaeology while on the run from the mob, plus working amazing freelance gigs. Faust is down and out, but not destitute. And smart enough to make fairly decent choices in everything except maybe his love life.

Moving right into book #2. ( )