Hell Spawn

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I read a lot of urban fantasy. So much, in fact, that the cliches are beginning to wear thin. The protagonists are invariably socially marginal with an undeserved reputation for shadiness or nastiness, while secretly they are paladins, but they can never ever admit that they are enlisted on the side of the Good. They are always loners, usually outcast from powerful organizations as to which they have benefits of access and support. There is a tendency in these books to treat good and evil as Team A and Team B with no real difference between them so that the hero can stay neutral but not morally ambiguous. In these books, the heroes play at being bad. If you've read enough urban fantasy, you can think of the books that meet this definition. (I will leave a link to my review of Richard Kadrey's “Sandman Slim” in the comments as a classic of the type.)

It is a cognitive dissonance stew.

So, it's very nice to run into this book. The protagonist, Tommy Nolan, is an indisputable good guy. He is on the side of order. He enforces the law. He treats the perps he arrests with dignity as essentially good but twisted by circumstance to the bad.

He is, in fact, a saint, and with that comes the graces to fight unredeemed evil in the form of demons who possess humans unwise enough to give them access. The graces he has been given include bilocation and the ability to smell the reak of evil. He has been given these graces just in time to face a demonic outbreak east Queens.

I enjoyed this book. I thought the pacing and plotting ripped along and kept me interested, which is fundamental for an urban fantasy book. In addition, I liked the New York setting. I am the kind of reader who, when he gets factual details like geography and history, puts the book down downloads online maps and streetside photos to learn something about the setting. So, I enjoyed the New York details, which most may fly past as irrelevant.

I also enjoyed the Catholicness of this book. I am a Catholic - a western Catholic one generation removed from Queens and Brooklyn myself - so I enjoyed some of the quips, remarks and customs that author Finn shares. Like Tommy chiding himself for feeling guilty about not stopping a demon from murdering a friend because “I'm Catholic. Guilt is a thing.”

Isn't it, though.

On the other hand, the villains are Catholic villains, including abortion doctors and the barely hidden largest of all abortion providers. Also, the main character goes into battle saying Catholic prayers. Without a doubt, this will set the teeth on edge of many readers, and not just those on the left, because it seems that we've been trained that it is uncouth or just not done to present Catholicism and Catholic values as real and good.

But that is a sign of narrow-mindedness, not open-mindedness. I've read many urban fantasy stories involving demon-fighting atheists or pagans. In such books, Catholic beliefs often are derided or written off ab initio, Certainly, it is never considered necessary to take Catholic beliefs as being serious in books about fighting demons, of all things.

So, consider this book as the balance on the scales. It seems refreshing in a book about fighting quintessentially supernatural evil entities to treat the idea of absolute Good as a reality.

But this book is not about my metaphysical musings. It's a ripping good tale.

Check it out.