Necessarily Evil

I'm always looking for unusual books and this one definitely fits the bill.
I first came across Necessarily Evil in a very positive and enthusiastic review from a blogger who had also liked my work, so I figured there was a good chance I'd like it too, especially considering the author's clever name. My expectations were thus pretty high, and I ended up not disappointed, but certainly overwhelmed.

Necessarily Evil features quite the whirlwind of characters, locations, mythologies and plots, crammed with references ranging from the religious, historical, fantastical, legendary, mythological, satanic, cultural, popular and obscure, all with a dash of D&D added into the mix. Reading it was like listening to all my favourite tunes at once. It was too much at times and it just became noise. It often reminded me of Monty Python. I loved the cleverness of it, but the presentation and delivery always put me off. I couldn't watch it for more than 5min before getting a headache... It's too loud, too hectic, the sound effects too jarring. I was invested in the story and wanted to know what would happen next but the narrative is so dense, I actually had to take several breaks and read something else before returning to the book. The formatting of the ebook doesn't help things either. Even just a few more paragraphs here and there and an adjustment in line spacing would have worked wonders at making the experience easier. (Just to make it clear, this is more a criticism of me as a reader than the narrative itself. And I still enjoy Monty Python... only in small doses ;) )

For the first time, I understand what my readers might feel when they say there's too much to take in. Compared with this, my humble mishmash of mythologies, fantastical creatures and androids is pretty straight forward!

I appreciate the potential of this story and all the work put into it, and I think I'd probably have enjoyed it more in audiobook format. The author has several other books published already and, thanks to his recent promo, I downloaded them all. I intend to read them, likely at leisure, one chapter at the time with many breaks in between.