SpecMusicMuse Review—The God Killers by John F. Allen

The God Killers by John F. Allen brings Urban to Urban Fantasy. Set in both Chicago and New Orleans, Allen manages to breathe supernatural life to both cities in a believable manner without sacrificing the real world “feel” of the actual cities.

That being said, while the overall story was great; a good blend of action, character depth and complexity, and some pretty cool plot twists; it was a mixed bag for me in some specific parts. Some parts I loved. Other parts almost disrupted my suspension of disbelief.

Ivory Blaque, the main character, has a depth and complexity in her character that’s rarely found in the Urban Fantasy/Supernatural Romance subgenres. The only other character I’m aware of that can even compare, when it comes to character depth, would be Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville. But when it comes to sheer attitude and ass-kicking ability, Ivory has them all beat.

The absolute best scene in the novel is the Wild West style duel between Ivory and Johnny. In that scene Allen shows his ability to take a classic (and often clichéd) trope and give it a twist that would make Joss Whedon applaud.

But then there was those moments when POV got broken, like when the God Killers got referred to as the God Killers before Ivory would have known that’s what they were called. And then there was the nightclub scene when the short black woman was suddenly, a paragraph or two later, a tall black woman. Last but not least, it also felt as if Allen continued the story onward after this novel should have ended, and the last “cliffhanger” chapter would’ve been better off being the first chapter to the upcoming (I hope) second novel.

But in spite of the small, but glaring, nitpicks, I still enjoyed reading The God Killers and find Ivory Blaque to be a fascinating character who I would love to read more of.

Best to read while listening to: A little Midnight Syndicate (for all those vampires), some Metallica and Megadeth (for all those werewolves), with a little hip hip (preferably Ice T and some Ice Cube…actually, there’s only Ice T and Ice Cube, all the rest are Vanilla Ice-wannabee posers), and good old-fashioned Jazz. Oh yeah, definitely Jazz. And toss in a Detective Noir soundtrack and a dash of Aeon Flux theme songs for Ivory.