Lana is a Reaper, her job is to transport souls from the
land of the living to Limbo city then across the sea to whichever afterlife
they belong in. She’s not very good at it – oh she’s competent enough, but she doesn’t
have a lot of respect for Limbo’s rules and can see clearly through the nice PR
of her boss, Grimm.
So when a promotion lands on her desk she is surprised to say the least. But as she sees more behind the curtain she sees how fragile the while system is. And she might be the only one able to keep it running; but she’ll have to fight through the Afterlife Council’s byzantine politics to do it.
This book is immense fun – and the best part is it never
ever forgets that. From start to finish it holds onto that no matter what
conflicts arise, no matter what complexities rise in the plots not even when
faced with dire problems and grief and even angst, the book remembers that it
is fun and it never stops being fun and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
I read much of this book with a broad smile on my face – it hits that right balance of being ever-so-slightly silly (Athena runs a dress shop! Archangel Gabriel is an alcoholic party boy slacker they keep around because he has such great PR in the mortal world!) without ever letting the silly get in the way of the world actually working and being coherent, the characterisation being consistent or the plot actually working
It’s silly and fun – but let’s the silly and fun work
with plot and characterisation not constantly get in the way of it or just
decide that silly fun is all you need in a book and the rest can just manage
without it. I like that, too many books that aim for zany only aim for zany
So we have a world with multiple afterlives and Lana and
her fellow Reapers ferry souls to those afterlives. Which isn’t as simple as it
sounds, Afterlives and gods have territory and power and political clout based
on the number of souls that they have (causing many odd alliances and
amalgamations) so there’s lots of pushes backroom deals and fudging of the
rules between the various factions, with the Reapers squarely in the middle –
and underneath it all. With no ability to quit but the threat of “termination”
hanging over them and generally considered beneath everyone else, Lana has no
illusions about where Reapers stand in the grand scheme of things – as
semi-pampered slaves at best. And she’s not unwilling when it comes to a little
rule fudging as well.
This is where that wonderful balance comes in. We have
the shops run by gods of various pantheons, Eternity city that brings new
souls, deities and various other notables together in a wonderful mishmash of
beliefs, mythologies and pantheons with some nice slants on various legends (poor
Holly Spirit) while at the same time coupling that with some devious plotting,
political intrigue, Reapers who are viewed as disposable tools and nephilim who
are relegated to an often disregarded servant class.
Lana is a wonderful reflection of that – positive and
with some moral illusions, but still very cynical. She is part of a system and
ensures she does what she must because she has no choice, but she’s not willing
to jump through too many hoops and has zero respect for the system when she can
clearly see the man behind the curtain. This combination of naive morality and
bitter cynicism makes for a very interesting character and even reflects in her
budding romance with Maalik (which I can’t say I was thrilled by since it
didn’t add much to the book for the time it took) as she initially puts him off
and assumes the worst because she knows where she stands in the grand scheme of
things – and that is beneath his notice, so he must have a more nefarious
motive to want to be with her (this means we do have a bit of the old “I shall
keep pestering you until you say yes” trope). It also makes for an excellent
interaction with her best friend and fellow Reaper Josie who is positively
eager to be the bestest Reaper she can possibly be. I like that they are
friends, they clearly do work well together even though they annoy the hell out
of each other more often than not. You can have strong female friendships even
if they do argue a lot – it works for them.
All of this leads us to the plot – and it’s a good plot.
It’s well paced, it’s mysterious without being convoluted, there’s action
without us losing the world, the characters or the tone of silliness. There are
major issues that work hand in hand with the sense of fun – rather than the fun
and the major issues being at war with each other but mainly the plot is there
and it’s interesting. Again, I have to say that most books that sell themselves
on humour or fun tend to be really really light when it comes to any kind of
serious or coherent plot – this book isn’t. The fun is there but it supplements
the plot and works with the plot – it’s not expected to replace the plot. In
fact, if the run were removed in some kind of strange, horrific experiment, the
plot would still be fascinating and the book still worth reading without it.
Towards the end I do get a little lost and confused by the odd little holiday
to hell which is stunning and fun but does feel a little like it has been
tacked on for… reasons? Probably to tie up the romance which I wasn’t
especially sold on in the first place
We do have a large number of POC, many deities from the
Egyptian pantheon, Meng Po from the Chinese pantheon, Maalik is Muslim, and
there are background characters from the Hindu pantheon as well – none of which
are white washed. Maalik and the Egyptians – Horus in particular – also play a
major role in the story, more so than any but Lana herself. Khadija, the first
wife of Mohammed, plays an extremely powerful role in the book – perhaps the
most powerful of everyone there. We also have an Asian Reaper who we spend some
time with (Asian in appearance, rather, since none of the Reapers are human or
from Earth) Racial inclusion is the norm here, it’s not blanket white with the
odd, much touted exception. Unfortunately there are no LGBT people.
This is an excellent book, it hits that perfect balance
between having a serious, well written plot while still having a fun and
slightly zany world, all layered with a nice sense of coherency some really
great characters I can’t help but support and a general setting that just makes
me want to know what happens next
