So after a lot of manipulations from Lillith and some
very bad decisions on James’s part – he is now Master of the City
And there’s a lot of people, not least of which the
global vampire council. And while James would probably be willing to step down,
there is no abdicating – just death. Which means, just as all of his friends
have stepped back away from him, James finds himself defending his life by
defending a title he didn’t ask for.
So Jimmy is now master of the city. And some of this I
really like
I like how he walks the moral tightrope. After all, the
last book saw Sabrina leave him because she couldn’t tolerate his ruthlessness,
she refused to accept his willingness to fight, hurt and even kill people. She
thought he had gone to the dark side.
To a degree she’s correct – he is much more ruthless than
he was. He does fight and hurt and kill. He leaves a swath of destruction in
his wake and it does worry him. He does worry about what he’s become
At the same time he isn’t apologetic because he knows he didn’t kill when he could have and it’s a bit more complicated than just descent into darkness
Especially when we look at his proposed replacement as
Master of the city who is very much in favour of killing everyone who
challenges him, not acknowledge humans as people and generally willing to leave
a pile of bodies in his wake. Jimmy gives second chances, Jimmy enforces his
rules and is even a strict, iron fisted ruler – but without killing and, if he
can, without violence. Jimmy is certainly not a good guy in this book, but he’s
way better than the alternative. This moral quandary is one of the best parts
of the book
I’m less thrilled with him suddenly spawning major combat powers which allowed him to enforce his reign by simply beating any challengers. It felt like a too-easy cop-out. Equally, him inheriting a super-efficient, all knowing and loyal-from-the-get-go butler also feels like a lazy cop out. Let’s face it, Jimmy was grossly unqualified to become Master of the City – he’s fairly unqualified to become master of a relatively small gaming club. To have him assume the position and then just drop these two major crutches on him feels… too convenient. And, really, it’s a waste. Him being grossly underqualified and having to learn quickly, fail, struggle, appeal for help and succeed because people saw something worth following in him? Hey, that’s a plot line! That’s several books of content right there! Him stepping up, being unqualified and then getting super powers and an extremely useful sidekick is not.
This book is one long action sequence. And I kind of like
that. I’ve said before that it’s something of a guilty pleasure of mine to read
a book which has lots of blood fizzing action. Yes, it’s the same part of me
that likes explosion and a good action film
And this book is definitely full of lots of action
moments, lots of excellent, fun fight scenes and lots of Jimmy slicing and
dicing his way to Masterhood. He is in charge now and he’s willing to defend
that title with speed, fists and great big magic sword…
…but, there’s a difference between liking the odd action
movie with fun explosions and fight scenes and, say, watching a Michael Bay movie
which is all explosions and fight scenes. So I enjoyed the first two fights we
had with Jimmy, the new side of him, how he was settling in and how everything
was working now he was master. The next fight was decent as well... and then I
skimmed. Because so much of this book just jumps from one fight scene to the
next to the next to the next with only brief intervals in between. The plot is largely
“Jimmy fights”.
Which goes right up to the grand fight scene at the end –
and the terrible deus ex machinae which ended this book. Literally divine intervention
swooped down. Ok, the way it was done was nice, I liked the way Jimmy invoked
and caused this – but still
Sadly Gregg and Sabrina are also largely missing from
this book – and I get that is an important transition moment for Jimmy in much
the same way that this book is a transition book in the greater series. His
friends leaving him was a conscience, wake up call for Jimmy. It was necessary
- but that could have been worked into this book more than just so many fight
scenes.
So I can understand why the interaction that made me love this series so much is missing – I do understand it and even approve of it, but it was something else missing from this book I generally enjoyed. Abbie and servant Butler guy don’t really make up for that. I also really hate how Lillith has been treated in the series in general and certainly in this book – she could have been more.
Without Sabrina we’ve lost on of the most notable female
characters in the series- though she will return next book – and Abbie
certainly doesn’t fill that void. While the vampire council of the world was
racially diverse, they literally appear in two conference calls and there’s not
a lot of other racial diversity either. There were no LGBTQ characters, there
were no disabled characters.
In the end, it was a fun book. It was also a transition
book taking Jimmy from his old storyline to a whole new context and position
promising a very different direction for the whole series. But it could have
been done so much better.
