Friday, October 27, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Pride's Spell (Sin Du Jour #3) by Matt Wallace

Pride's Spell is the third short novel/novella (I'm treating these like Novels, but they're on the borderline) in Matt Wallace's Sin Du Jour series.  Sin Du Jour is a series following a catering company - the titular Sin Du Jour - that caters on behalf of a secret governmental agency for supernatural beings that live amongst us.  In Book 1 (Envy of Angels), they were tasked with serving an Angel for a banquet of demons; In Book 2 (Lustlocked), they were tasked with serving a wedding between a Goblin Prince and his human bride.  In Pride's Spell, their job is to serve something more horrifying:  a Hollywood Movie Release Party.

But well, it wouldn't be this series if things go according to plan, and as usual this is a book of crazy hijinks and utter absurdities, resulting in some pretty fun moments.  That said, the ending of this book really fell flat - the middle part of this book is an absolute delight, but the ending and resolution of the main plot didn't really work either plotwise or fun-wise.

One note before the jump: You cannot start the series with this book.  A commenter on my review of Lustlocked (Book 2) suggested that jumping in with book 2 didn't work for him, but that is definitely true of this book, which references heavily the events of the prior events int he series, and will fall even further flat if you don't have that backstory.  Start the series with Envy of Angels, don't jump in here.

More detailed review after the jump:


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the events of Lustlocked, Darren and Lena are in a spat over Lena's relationship with Dorsky.  Also, for reasons unknown to the rest of the crew (but not to the reader), Bronco has become less vocal and outgoing.  And that's when Bronco announces the crew will split into two: Dorsky and most of Sin Du Jour will cater to a NY Convention for Minotaurs and Centaurs, while Lena, Darren, Nicky, Bronco, and Jet will cater to a Hollywood Movie Release Party.  But while that sounds like a plum job for the Hollywood crew, they're about to find out that Hollywood producers are prepared to go VERY far to ensure a movie is a hit - including human sacrifice.

But things aren't all rosy for the rest of Sin Du Jour, as first the Acquisition team and then the rest of the crew at home are attacked by twisted version of Holiday Mascots, in extremely lethal fashion.  Will any of Sin Du Jour survive this attack by otherworldly forces, not to mention the evils of Hollywood?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While this is my least favorite overall of the Sin Du Jour series, the middle part of this book is maybe the best part of the whole series so far, with the acquisition team getting attacked by some pretty crazy bad guys.  The action scenes involved are totally over the top and loony and just puts forth the fun you really expect from Sin Du Jour when it's really at its best.  And until the end, everything else remains at least as fun as in the previous books.  

But the ending, which heavily references the previous books in the series, is in my opinion a misfire.  It's not really telegraphed at all (to be fair, the final chapter titles reference this problem because this series is if nothing else self aware), and features a bunch of drama that well...is pretty weak given that any reader who's read anything will see how the drama is going to end.  And then the very ending features a relationship forming between two characters which...I don't know, just felt random and unearned.  

I'm still planning on reading the fourth book in the series eventually (Idle Ingredients), but this is clearly a step back from the very fun and solid first two installments.  
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)