3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Raven's Peak by Lincoln Cole
Oh boy. First big review. What to say, what to say. How about a summary first? Crazy things are afoot in Raven's Peak. Abigail, a demon-hunter who has a long and troubled history dealing with the occult, meets up with Hatiim, a grad student who gets in way over his head when he gets targeted by an evil organization bent on unleashing supernatural evil. Abigail provides the firepower and holy water while Hatiim provides the "What's happening?" "What's going on?" "Just tell me what's going on." "How do you shoot a gun?" "Which way do I point the gun?" "I'm tired." "I'm hungry." and the two travel to Raven's Peak to see what in tarnation is going on.
This was actually a fairly exciting read, brimming with tension, demons, people's intestines being placed where they should not be (outside their bodies), gunfights, people's heads sitting where they should not be (away from their bodies), and Mortal Kombat with afore-mentioned demons (technically people possessed by said demons) who telekinetically hurl large dangerous objects at our protagonists, straight out of an epic video-game boss fight. We also have various characters, including Abigail, our demon-punching shotgun-wielding heroine, and Hatiim, who just reminds me of Justin Long's character from the film Live Free or Die Hard (just generally bumbling around having no clue what the hell is going on). Also, we have demons who are hell-bent on making sure that people's intestines end up in places where they should not be and generally just raising hell (heh!) like they're prone to do.
One weird thing I liked about this book was the characterization of the demons themselves. They're not just a bunch of nameless monsters like in zombie books and movies who generally seem to exist solely to feast on somebody's flesh, get blown away with a shotgun, and nothing more is heard about them. These demons have names. BELGATHOR. ABADDON, LORD OF HELL. Awesome! And they have personalities and history. There's a whole world (I guess it's the world of hell) that's existing on the underside of this story that we know is there but haven't got a real crack into yet. It opens up a lot of questions that this book doesn't answer but probably will (and should) in coming volumes, such as, why do the demons want to possess bodies so bad? What's so bad about being in hell? Where even is hell? A character in the story does say at one point that hell is simply "an idea." But what does that really mean? Hopefully, these will be elaborated on in future volumes, and I am interested to see if Cole takes a unique approach to answering them, or if he resorts to more scriptural theology on the subject.
The big question is, would I read this book again? Probably not, and that's more due to genre rather than any disliking I had of the book. This is a paranormal action-thriller, and although it contains plenty of themes related to faith, religion, and various supernatural entities, its strength is in the fast-paced and often creepy and horrifying narrative. My re-readable books (a fairly short list actually) are either comedies or books with a more scientific or philosophical foundation, with concepts and ideas that generally stick in my mind better than a pure action story. That being said, it's a great read, and I would not hesitate to continue on with the series.
One thing I didn't like... what is with all the "wincing?" It seems like every other line, a character is wincing over something. Is everybody just in pain all the time? Do they not have something for that, like Tylenol or Percocet, in these books? Come on guys. Get your wincing under control. Also, it seems like several times, when the action was really getting going, there would be a phone call between characters, with dialogue which would last forever and bog down the story. Just a bit. Just hang up guys. Go slay some demons.
I would give this book 3 out of 4 stars. Not 4, due to too much wincing and too much talking on the phone. Are those weird reasons to lose a star? I don't know. I think the wincing thing just reminded me of the first Wheel of Time book which I found terribly boring and contained about 1000 instances of people wincing. Also, some editing errors here and there (words missing now and again, some punctuation errors), but not to the point that it really detracted from the book. If you enjoy the paranormal, if you enjoy demon-slaying action, and if you enjoy a good ol' fashioned thriller with a pretty solid story behind it, along with a hefty dose of wincing, I feel like this book will be right up your alley. Or down your alley. Wherever your alley is, this book will be right there waiting for you.
******
Raven's Peak
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Astronomicus's review? Post a comment saying so!
