Harry Dresden eat your heart out

Man, oh man. Where has this series been? How had I missed it? This is one of the best Urban Fantasy series I have ever read. It just plays out so wonderfully, and the character of Yancy Lazarus is so compelling. I mean this series carries real weight, it has depth, and you will care about the characters more than you will believe.

Yancy gets depowered, and then must face some real inner demon type stuff; stuff that might just lead to him becoming a bad guy. A really bad guy. He ends up doing a walk about through alternate parallel tiimelines, and learns that sometimes the worst enemy you can have is yourself.

This series continues to improve with every book. The characterization grows with every page, and you do get to see growth and change occuring as things move forward. As I've said before, Yancy becoms more and more real, and his plight will become yours. I am not an emotional guy, but I did get choked up once or twice, and this is only the SECOND book!!!!

As Urban Fantasy goes this is stuff top shelf stuff. I pute it against Harry Dresden and Nate Temple without any qualms. What I really like is that it isn't strictly an action foward type of story. Yes it has action, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

If you love magic, Urban Fantasy, are a fan of the Dresden Files or John Constantine, then you will want to put this book in fron of your eyes and set to reading at once. If you don't then you are selling youself short of a great literary escape!

4 people found this helpful

Best narrator for Yancy

Yancy is clearly his own person despite working in the same kind of urban fantasy world as Dresden and Mercy Thompson, and has his own snarky brand of sarcasm/humor. The action is fast, the imagery extremely clear, and the characters certainly are. Each of the two books I've read are different and easily stand alone, but are so interesting that they are very hard to put down.
Charlie is PERFECT for Yancy!

2 people found this helpful

Noir Fantasy Fun

Thoroughly enjoy this series love the way noir weaves into the fantasy. Characters are rich and visible. Charlie Kevin is perfect for the voice of Yancy

1 person found this helpful

Yes...it's Good...Keep Reading!

If you have not seen my review on the first book I'll restate here that the ONLY reason I didn't give top stars in performance was I was still getting accustomed to the choice of Narrative style. Again, Charlie Kevin is a great reader- it was the Character that I had to grow accustomed to. IF you found that a problem in the first book then I urge you to keep at it, the Story is well formed and the Choice in "voice" is perfect.

Overall the continuation of the Yancy Lazarus story is growing to be addictive. It's a different look I can't wait to see more of.

amazing story. 10/10

love the story. I'm happy to say that the stories are interesting, the characters engaging, and overall is worth every penny.

I really enjoyed it. does the job.

If you like Dresden's smartass, stubborn dumb, kinda clever, and powerful magic and rate him a 10. And you like Reacher's no nonsense, former military, wandering badsss and rate him a 10. Just imagine that they somehow get together and have a love child thats a 6 or 7. That bastard child would be Yancy Lazarus.

Cant get enough !

First off, Charlie Kevin hits it out of the park as Yancy, without a doubt.
This series keeps getting better and better, and Charlie brings every single one of James' characters to life.
Do yourself a favor, get this series, and binge it all.

I love the lingo of Yancy Lazarus

Note: This is Book 2 in the series and can work as a stand alone.

Book 1 was good but this book is much better. It’s a bit darker, more gritty, some great secondary characters, awesome fight scenes, and some twisted fae. Yancy still fascinates me. He has his dated lingo and smokes like a chimney but his ideas of women aren’t dated (which is nice since it would have been embarrassing yet entertaining to see FBI agent Nicole Ferraro kick his butt).

Some of those background questions I had in Book 1 get answered here. We learn more about Yancy’s family and the reasons he left them. We also get to know more about the magic Guild Yancy was once part of through the Guild member James. There’s still plenty to learn about Yancy’s past but I like that we get a little bit more each book.

There’s plenty to do with the winter Fae and Old Man Winter in this story. It borders on epic fantasy because of the big sweeping implications of some of it but I liked that it stayed urban fantasy. That’s Yancy’s strength right now. There were some great messy scenes fighting ice dwarves and such. I also like Yancy’s take on using compulsion, even on evil fae.

Nicole is a great addition to the story. She’s got her own agenda and doesn’t take crap from Yancy. Yet she can play a role, keeping it cool, in order to blend in as well. She’s not all bite; she’s also a lot of brains. I really hope we see more of her in future books.

This is a fun, dark urban fantasy that wraps up the immediate mystery while leaving a few bigger questions for the series arc. Once again, it was the perfect companion to playing Titan Quest. 5/5 stars.

The Narration: Charlie Kevin was great once again. He’s the perfect fit for the gravely, snarky voice of Yancy. He also made an excellent Nicole, his voice being feminine without being ridiculous. I loved his voices for the various fae. He made them sound dangerous and deadly. All his character voices were distinct. There were no technical issues with this recording. 5/5 stars.

Ribs and Apple cobbler sound good right about now.

This was an awesome book and I wouldn't mind Listening to It several more times

A good series keeps it rolling!

I'm writing this review having completed all five books available as of this writing. Bottom-line: this is a good series, hits all the right UF buttons. It won't let you down.

This series likes to make the reader nervous. Only the second book and we're going to take away the main character's powers? But again, stick with it, it works and works well. More of Yancy's world begins to unfold, as does his bemusing love of similes. The story-telling is solid, narration excellent, and it moves along nicely.