The Dirty Streets of Heaven

Angel Doloriel, sighhhhhhh.......never thought you can have an immortal(in a meat suit)be as boring as this main character, finishing this one just gave me more questions, I love stories like this(angels, demons and/or gods of any pantheon), ahhhhhh........I'm obviously reflecting the character's attitude, I'm perplexed, confused and generally bored......there I said it.

Angels and demons playing lawyers.....gotta love that part but aside from that......this book just didn't live up to my expectations, anyway two more books of this type, I hope it becomes better.....hey like what the Christian God did when He failed on His first children, He created another and another until....well you know how that went.......

Tad Williams takes the reader on a great modern paranormal adventure with some innovative takes on Noir in a Modern context. The main character is well portrayed; as a flawed angel, tasked with advocating for the souls of the dead, Bobby Dollar is both real and supernal.

In Noir fashion, our hero is dropped in the thick of the Cold War between Heaven and Hell when a soul disappears on his watch. What follows is a ride that takes Bobby D through the righteous underbelly of San Judas (Santa Clara), California, angering Angels and Demons alike.

While the mystery is solved by the end of the book, it leaves many questions unanswered and I eagerly anticipate the next volume of the Bobby Dollar series.

I'm a little lukewarm on this one, probably because I'm just not that into Noir stories. The characters were fun, and I do like Bobby Dollar by the end, but I've read/watched a lot of twists on the “Angels among us” theme, and this one just isn't my favorite. It's a nice, quick read if you're a mystery lover who also enjoys not-so angelic heaven and hell banter.

Executive summary: This book is alright, but nothing special. Certainly didn't live up to hype. I gave it 3 stars, but really it was 2.5 for me. I could have easily gone with a 2.Full ReviewThis is the first book by [a:Tad Williams 6587 Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1191183065p2/6587.jpg] I've read, so I can't compare it to any of his previous works.The best I can do is compare it to [a:Jim Butcher 10746 Jim Butcher http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1205261964p2/10746.jpg]'s Dresden Files or [a:Thomas E. Sniegoski 27140 Thomas E. Sniegoski http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238440776p2/27140.jpg]'s Remy Chandler books.The former being one most people who read Urban fantasy should be familiar with. The latter being another series I read that has a detective Angel for the protagonist.I don't think it's nearly as good as Dresden. It reminds me a bit of [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060], where the concept is intriguing, but the book itself is only so-so. However, unlike Mr. Butcher, this isn't Mr. Williams first book.I'd put it on par with Remy Chandler. I think the quality of the writing by Mr. Williams is a little better, but the quality of the plots seems to be about the same. I was pleased to see they both have very different takes on the Angel thing. While Remy fought in the battle of Heaven and Hell, Bobby is uncertain of many things, including his own past. Bobby doesn't seem to have any kind of super human abilities and is limited by his body. Remy can embrace his Angelic nature and become more powerful/scary.The book started out OK, but really went on to drag in the middle before picking up steam again at the end to finish alright. He does bring the mystery of the first book to a reasonable conclusion, while setting up some larger mysteries I assume he will address in the next two books.The other I guess minor gripes I have about the book were the humor and the sex. I don't mind sex in books. It's a large motivator in human (or in this case Angelic) actions.However Mr. Williams went into a lot more detail (across several chapters) than I thought was necessary. This will likely be popular for the 50 shades of gray/Paranormal Romance crowd, but for me, I just skimmed through it to get on with the actual story. The sex was important to the story, but could have been less detailed without losing any of that.Humor is very subjective. I love Jim Butcher/Harry Dresden's sense of humor. I didn't really care for Tad Williams/Bobby Dollar's. I could tell some of the places he was trying to make jokes and they just didn't do it for me. He did have 1 or 2 others. It didn't spoil the book by any means, but it just fell short in my eyes.Overall it was an alright book, and I'll probably try to read the next 2 books in his initial trilogy, but won't be in any rush to do so.

A noir urban fantasy tale about an angel working as a defence lawyer for the souls of the dead, this is a pretty original concept. Not entirely without parallels, of course (what is?), but even when one thinks of Dogma, In Nomine, or Dead Like Me, none of those are really quite the same thing. Of course, gritty urban fantasy is hardly new, but this is an original touch on it none the less (at least to me).

It reads quite a lot like a private detective novel. Technically, the hero isn't one, but he might as well be given the sorts of situations he gets into, and the number of times he gets beaten up. It's set in a parallel version of San Francisco, and I'm told there's lots of references to that city that are great if you actually know. Never having even been on the same continent, I have to confess they're lost on me... but I still got a feel for the place all the same.

There's a great cast of supporting characters, including a cursed were-pig and an entity from Japanese folklore. The plot is suitably complicated, without overdoing it, and involves a number of sinister characters (many of them demons, although some of the angels are a bit shifty too), an appropriately deadly femme fatale, and an interesting set-up.

Given the premise that even Heaven may be corrupt, and that God is very clearly an absentee landlord, it's possibly not an ideal book for those with strong religious convictions (depending on what those convictions are, admittedly), but as a piece of atmospheric gritty urban fantasy with a twist, it's good stuff.

Mixed feelings. The story, which is about one of several earthbound angels trudging through his daily grind in his post-life job when the usual order is upset, isn't bad. And as he figures out what's going on, it becomes pretty intricate. But the writing is mediocre, the protagonist is pretty two-dimensional, and the few unnecessary sex scenes aren't just bad, they are extended. The ending is pretty unsatisfying, too – not much is really wrapped up. First in a series, we'll see about reading more.

EDIT: We have seen about reading more, and the answer is no. Dropped a star to better reflect my feelings about the book.

Well-plotted, well-executed UF, really, really well-written–great quotable lines, more than it's fair share of dazzling sentences. And I just didn't like it.

Why? Because the angels aren't all that...angelic, for lack of a better word. Honestly, the demons aren't terribly demonic, either. Demons are pretty much your typical UF bad guys, just ugly, and we're told really, really evil; the angels act almost identically to them, but they're prettier. Amoral, promiscuous, substance abusing...and honestly, not that powerful aside from their ability to see the recently departed and each other's supernatural natures.

If we can do vampires that aren't that human, lycanthropes that aren't terribly human, why do we have to have angels that are? Sure, coming up with heroes that are wholly (holy?) good–and keeping them interesting is challenging. But it can be done. If Williams had done that, I'd have been all in. But, ugh. Bobby Dollar and co. are nowhere close–and I'm all out.