Short Version: Imagine if Richard Rahl and Marla Mason got together to write a book.
Long Version: This book is urban fantasy. It takes place in our modern world, specifically New Mexico (well, mostly). The basic plot is that there are groups of extra-dimensional beings who feed on human emotion, particularly human suffering, and who are capable of using magic, trying to bring the world into a new dark age. The extra-dimensional beings can't work directly in our world very well, but they can win followers, who exchange their services for magic. One man, with the help of a traitorious extra-dimensional being and a neophite sorcerous, is standing against them. The main character, a man with no magic, joins thems in this story.
Yeah, it's a brief outline, but there's a fair number of plot twists that I don't want to ruin.
There are a few non-plot related reasons I enjoyed this book. First, the book is unabashedly atheistic. I have no problem with religion, I just find it refreshing to know that we live in a civilization which allows for a book to openly insult every god. Yeah, the book focuses on Christianity as the main bad god, but as Kentinis said, those extra-dimensional beings include "...every god you can name." The main character starts off a very religious man, and slowly, after seeing what the gods actually are, realizes that he no longer can worship them.
Secondly, the characters don't rely on leaps of logic the way Richard Rahl sometimes does. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Richard as much as the next TG fan, but the characters in this book are much closer to the way most of us actually think. They commit the same errors, and suffer the consequences. They achieve the same heights, and gain the consequent rewards. And none of them, not even Kentinis, has mystical knowledge of what's going on. This provides an air of despiratoin to some of the events--they can all be fooled, and that can result in tradgedy. It also provides some of the greatest moments. Logic is relentless, and hardly dispassionate, and those who merely pay it lip service can be destroyed when logic is weilded as a weapon.
None of this is ever pushed on you, however. This is a book that can very easily be read at a very shallow level. Most urban fantasy isn't worth delving into any deeper, and most urban fantasy readers won't do so. But there are hints of something more, some deeper meaning and more serious intent on the part of the author.
Unfortunately, it's the first book in the series. I'm waiting on the next, which should be out next month. Time will tell if the author decides to keep the novels shallow and, ultimately, a fun way to kill time, or if the author will delve into the deeper aspects he's currently hinting at.
