Nighthawks at the Mission is listed under dark fantasy: And dark it truly is.
Dark in the sense that if killing, drinking, betraying friends, doing drugs, stealing, blowing things up and not caring much about anything excites you than, this is your book.
Once again I find myself in total disagreement with other reviewers over a fantasy book. And, the first one to give a one-star rating. Why? Well, I guess I look for different things in a book than they do. I look for originality in the storyline, characters I can relate to, understand and feel for, and events that lead (eventually) to some kind of a conclusion or point. (None of which this book had; except for a trite conclusion at the end that you could see coming miles away.)
What I don’t like is just throwing in whatever crap you can think of as your writing and call it a story. (Which is what this book consists mainly of.)
There is some originality to this story in the beginning. This would be where our MC, Sarah Orange, takes the Queen Mary out of Long Beach and sails off the end of the Earth and into the Off-World of Oberon. There ends originality and starts the let’s mention everything we’ve ever seen or heard in sci-fi TV shows, movies, punk, heavy metal, rock and roll, movies, steampunk, and on and on and on.
All this, while killing people (Including your friends), creatures of various types but not very well described, destroying everything in your path and blowing things up, healing the people and creatures you just killed or blew apart (So, why did you kill them in the first place? Search me?). Oh, and stealing as your primary source of income.
WOW! What a mouth full! But, that pretty much reflects how the story just rambles on and on and on making little sense. (Unless your drinking, a lot, and/or using drugs along with our characters. Even then, I doubt it will help.) (The two six packs of beer I consumed didn’t help me at all. Or maybe that’s why my review is so bad?)
I apologize for being so harsh. As an author I really want to be supportive and constructive in my reviews. But, I also have to be fair in my ratings. Fair to the other authors who expend effort to create a unique story, develop their characters, and make things believable. (Even in fantasy. Actually, especially in fantasy.) Very little of which I found here.
My rating: A real struggle to get through and make sense of and I question if it’s worth the effort.