Attack the Geek

Excuse me, but SQUEE! More Ree Reyes! More Drake! More Eastwood and Grognard! Yes, more Geekomancy!

Michael Underwood is back with a delightful novella and if I have ANY complaints, it's that this is a novella instead of a novel. That's just because I am a greedy fangirl reader. The story itself is fully developed, and the novella is exactly the right format for it.

Attack the Geek definitely isn't the place to start in the series, as it relies on previous knowledge of the characters and the universe, but if you've read the previous novels, you will NOT want to miss this installment when it is released on April 9.

Now I'm left hungry for Ree Reyes #3, though!

Disclaimer: I received a eARC from netgalley in exchange for this review.

I love the Geekomancy series. Smartly written, filled with tons of pop culture (and geek!) references, each story is just a delight to read. And when I got to read this story I squealed. I knew we'd be in for a treat. And I was right, this “side quest” was fun.

I've seen other reviewers give this story weird and mixed reviews; saying that they didn't get this story or how it fits into the series. The key to understanding this narrative is in the description. “side quest.” Like a small interlude of a D&D campaign, Attack the Geek, gives us a rip roaring good trip through the world of Ray Reyes. The world in this tale broadens to include many of the other supporting characters. They all come together to snark, fight, and work together to defeat the quest's “big bad.” And Ree, Eastwood, Grognard, and Drake survive and manage to take it down.

However, like all side quests, this story does have it's twists and turns, and I wonder how the revelations in this book will play out in the greater series for Ree and her stalwart companions.

Bottom Line: Geeks rejoice. Crossing geek references and urban fantasy magic, Attack the Geek is a heck of a good story. Read it and smile along with the references for this side quest isn't just a short story!

Described, appropriately enough, as a “side quest”, this is a half-length book sitting between the second and third novels of the Ree Reyes geekomancy series. Unfortunately, compared with its too predecessors, it falls rather flat.

The problem is that there's very little plot. The story consists almost entirely of one long slugfest, albeit against a range of different opponents. The geeky references are still there in full force, and the characters that we see are well-written and generally appealing. But with nothing much to do other than fight things, they don't get any real depth, or, at least in the case of the main characters, any significant development.

Overall, it works well enough as what it's presumably intended to be, as well as serving as an intro the third novel (which is not yet out at the time of writing), but it lacks the variety to be truly interesting in its own right.

★ ★ ★ 1/2
It's a typical Saturday night at Grognard's Grog and Games – “V: TES tournament, half-priced Jaeger, and Grognard getting morose.” Ree's got her hands full serving the crowd, which happens to include our friends Eastwood and Drake. This is pretty handy because while things are still going strong, the bar falls under a pretty serious attack. They're able to hold it off for a bit, but before long, it becomes a night-long siege. It was only missing a few Uruk-Hai (or a reference to them) to be a veritable Helm's Deep. There's a bit more than just the siege, but I've gotta leave a little to you to find out for yourself.

On the one hand this is pretty much just one long-knockdown fight. But there's more going on – and not just because it's really a series of fights with strategic retreats to regroup, refresh, heal and strategize. But there's more than that – Ree seems a lot more certain in her abilities, confident and capable (although she should really have learned to carry spare batteries for her phone by now). There is a little character development, a little push toward the next novel, but mostly this is action. Which does make the small character moments shine a bit brighter – you expect them in a full-fledged novel, and while Underwood usually does these moments right, here they stand out more. Most importantly, the voice is there – Underwood's eye for action, Ree's snark, and the 17 pop culture references per inch of text are fully present.

Because the action is limited to the events of one night, a lot of the things that would be minuses for me, actually work. For example, Ree hits the same note of lament over her romantic situation too often for a book that takes place over a couple of weeks – but over a night? Yeah, we've all been there. A couple of Grognard's patrons don't act in ways that would work/wouldn't be suspicious over the long hall – but in the midst of a battle? Sure, absolutely.

Unlike a lot of .5 works, I don't know if this one can be skipped in your voyage from Ree Reyes #2 to Ree Reyes #3. Even if it turns out that you can (won't know until #3 releases – which I won't wait to read), you shouldn't. Grab something to drink and/or snack on and watch Ree and the gang open up a few cans of whoop-ass.