Friday, 27 June 2014

Depths (Southern Watch 2) by Robert J. Crane


This is the second in the Southern Watch series, a whole new ball game for high fantasy and urban fantasy author Crane.

It is darker, more risqué and offers scenarios that can push the boundaries. It just depends on what those boundaries are for each reader.

On a side note Crane seems to have it going on in the whole erotic scene creation. He has got the soul-eating, sorry soul-sucking by Gideon down to a fine art. Demon ejaculation 101 that’s all I’m saying.

However that also seems to be whole point of his existence and thereby is his storyline, which means his scenes ultimately always end in self-gratification. Gideon isn’t just your standard garden variety demon. He happens to be a the serial killing, rapist type of demon with sadistic tendencies.

Plays on Shakespeare’s Shylock not withstanding, in this second book the characters are well-developed and the series is beginning to show a lot of potential.

I liked the way the demon hunting team led by fellow demons Lerner and Duncan gave Hendricks a wee lesson in good guy/bad guy criteria. The scenes with that particular trio were quite witty. I can actually see Lerner, Duncan and Hendricks being a great spin-off series.The triumvirate of demon hunters with a penchant for philosophical debates, discussions on the validity of religion, faith in conjunction with the religious theme of hell and relationship advice of the self-help guru kind.

Then there is the unknown factor called Starling. Dibs on her being some sort of demon of the ancient variety, perhaps something like The Source.
Seems as if something wicked this way comes is the theme for the third book. Not sure if the greater worry is Starling or the complete surprise reveal at the end of the book.

One more thing: less jizz and more jazz.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author.

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