Sequels generally fail to live up to their predecessors. To be fair, they're under a lot of pressure. They need to refresh readers who read books out of order (a ghastly affair, I say) and to set up the following book, assuming there is one (which there usually is, duology's not being especially popular). Unfortunately, I feel like King of the Dead had some real issues, and was not as powerful as Eyes to See, however, the ending was jam packed and left me wanting more.

The first problem with King of the Dead I referenced above. Authors writing the second book of their series have two basic options: rehash the plot so that people who skipped book one won't be lost or launch straight in and hope that people are smart enough to go back to book one if they're confused. Nassise chose the former option, which might have been okay with me had I not read Eyes to See less than a week ago. With a strong knowledge of the plot, I could appreciate just how poorly the information dump was handled. One sentence, just a descriptive one about how inanimate objects take in emotions, he even reused verbatim in this book. If you're going to repeat the infodump, at least do me the favor of writing something new, especially since I wasn't a huge fan of that sentence in book one, which is why I recognized it.

Much as that annoyed me, though, it's a fairly common problem, and the repetition is dispensed with in a couple of chapters, so it's really not that big an issue. The larger problem was how the plot meandered for most of the book. Where Eyes to See started with a bang (Jeremiah performing an exorcism), this one only has a brief vision of Denise's to get us moving. Apparently, the vision means they need to go to New Orleans for some mission wholely unrelated to Hunt being wanted by the FBI. Alrighty then.

Thankfully, I do feel like the plot did come around to being a bit more overarching towards the end, bringing in a mysterious figure from book one. The last third or so of the book has a lot of action, death, and battle, so I got really into it at that point. There was one questionable moment in the battle's climax where I question Hunt's ability to take out the opponent, but hopefully the powers he uses then will be explained later on. Otherwise, not cool.

Hunt continues to be a delightfully odd hero, in that he's not especially heroic. He doesn't really want to save people and he's really not that useful a lot of the time. He gets them caught by doing something stupid, and he has to hide in the corner during battles, because he lacks any sort of fighting prowess. His most useful skills are his ghostsight and the fact that he's really good at the harmonica (soothes ghosts and three-headed dogs). Personally, I find this refreshing, because most people don't get to be the badass hero in their own lives.

King of the Dead had some issues, but I certainly recommend it with some reservations. Given the intense ending, I do plan to continue with the series myself and only hope that Nassise will ease the transition into book three and try to space out the action a bit better, like he did in Eyes to See. ( )

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy
allthingsuf.com

The magical construction of EYES TO SEE was mesmerizing, and though I wasn’t swept away that book’s eventual resolution, I was eager to pick up KING OF THE DEAD to see where Nassise took me next. Nassise’s flair for the paranormal is back in full effect and the plot has a great balance between urban fantasy and an upside down police procedural (as it is our hero who the FBI is hunting).

KING OF THE DEAD starts a little slow, as Hunts sometimes pedantic narration is used to remind readers of prior events. People new to the series should have no problem jumping right in with KING OF THE DEAD. The rush of information made things a little dry, but once Hunt and his companions got to New Orleans, new events began to overpower old, fully engaging me in the plot. I loved the mix of realistic battle tactics and magical opponents, Nassise has a knack for writing riveting but accessible magic.

Unfortunately, even as the action grew more interesting, there were a few issues that kept me from wholly immersing myself in the story. Nassise’s style is a mix of deadpan recounting interspersed with exclamation points and adverbs where I least expected them. This meant that the characters’ emotional reactions seemed to be laid over top of the story rather than integrated with the action, things never felt quite in sync. As a character focused reader, the resultant difficulty connecting with Hunt and his companions was a big problem.

Perhaps exacerbated by my character issues, I had a hard time with some of the shifts in point of view. In addition to following the protagonist, KING OF THE DEAD offers some chapters from Denise’s and Agent Robertson’s points of view. This structure is a great compliment for the police procedural/thriller aspects of the book, but the tone wasn’t always consistent within these alternate points of view. I would be reading the story from Denise’s perspective, run into three lines that sounded like Hunt is thinking, then be back to Denise. Pair these narrative potholes with my existing character disconnect, and you have a book I never managed to immerse myself in.

A mix of police procedural and the occult, KING OF THE DEAD offers more of Nassise’s excellent mythologies. As much as I enjoyed the magic, however, I never connected with his characters beyond a superficial level. Fans of both fantasy and thrillers will enjoy this mix of genres, but character focused readers may be left wanting.

Sexual Content: None. ( )