Book Review - The eye of the moon

The Eye of the moon - Anonymous

 

I read the “book with no name” a number of years ago.  At the time of its release there was a very clever marketing campaign. The book was written by a mysterious author (Anonymous) and who ever read the book later died.

It was more than enough to get me interested. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t the crazy, enjoyable romp full of witty dialogue and cool set pieces I got. Think “from Dusk til Dawn” meets “Sin City”. When the “Eye of the Moon” was announced I snapped it up immediately. I have a bad habit of purchasing books the minute they are released and then not actually getting round to reading them until much later (sometimes when they are released in paperback – which irks me as I could have saved myself loads of money). I don’t know why I do this but suffice to say I have only just got around to reading, “the eye of the moon.”

The Blurb:

In this, the sensational follow-up to "The Book With No Name", those who miraculously survived the blood-soaked conclusion to the first novel are back in town for another massacre to remember. Young lovers Dante and Kacy, hapless bartender Sanchez, Peto the Hubal monk and the mysterious Jessica - each will be drawn into the violent vortex surrounding the Bourbon Kid, the supernatural killer who is himself now being hunted. Hot on his heels are several vampire gangs, the US Secret Service, a couple of werewolves, some corrupt cops, and the Dark Lord himself, and none will rest until he is dead. But the Kid has vengeance of his own to wreak...

I am one of the few people that is not a fan of Steven Erikson’s Malazan series. Now I know what you are thinking, (apart from, “what the hell as Erikson got to do with anything?”) even if I didn’t like Erikson’s series surely I do not have the audacity to compare it with this book. Bear with me please.

The two main problems I had with Erikson’s “Garden of the moon,” was 1) it was unnecessarily hard to follow (some people like overly complicated plots and I do as well but only to a degree – it has to maintain my interest) and 2) it seemed every other chapter a new “cool” character was introduced that was even more badass then the previous incarnation and so you never got a sense of the order to the world.

I mention this digression, as this is exactly the same problems I should have with, “the eye of the moon.” The plot makes no sense in places and random characters are introduced who seemingly have no relation to the story. The difference is that Anonymous writes such enjoyable dialogue and with such humour that I didn’t care.

The book hurtles along at a frantic pace; the author leaves it up to you to decide who to root for as none of the characters are particularly nice and the thing is the manic plot makes sense in the end.

We also get an insight into the Bourbon Kid’s past. Well at least enough to know what made him so angry at the world.

All the other surviving characters from the first book return and we learn why the hapless Sanchez was spared by the Bourbon kid as well. The new characters are all enjoyable, especially the Shades. Dante’s attempt to infiltrate them is highly amusing.

As you may have guessed I loved this book. It shouldn’t work but it does. At the end of the book, although the plot threads are mostly resolved there is enough unfinished business to imply there will be a third book. You can bet your bottom dollar I will be there.

My rating 8.3