The Long Way Down

Originally posted in A Reading Brit.

The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer is an urban fantasy set in Las Vegas with a main character of Daniel Faust, a magician with a shady past.

At first, I thought this was going to be like every other book of this type I'd read, and it started out very similar. I stuck with it, and it definitely became a thing of its own.

The characters are where this excelled for me. You've got the main character, Daniel Faust. I admit, with a name like Faust in a book with demons, I thought this was going to be some weird parody at first. The author obviously realises this though, and has the character poke fun at the irony of his own name, which did make me chuckle. He's a well-rounded character, he's got his issues, but he's got strengths too. I enjoyed reading this from his point-of-view.

The other character, and there were quite a few, all stood out. They all had their own personality and voice, and with as many characters as there were, I thought that was quite an achievement. Most of the time, I could figure who was talking based on how they were talking, rather than hunting around for a dialogue tag. That impressed me.

The one thing that's been left a mystery, is how the magic of this world actually works. And to be honest, I wish it wasn't a mystery. I'd like to know about the cards that Daniel carries around, and how they work. I'm curious about the restrictions and ability that magic has. This novel is very much on the soft side of magic, due to the lack of explanation, so I do wish there was a little more.

It's one of the better urban fantasies I've read recently, and for that I'm thankful!

There were some great descriptions in this. This one stuck with me:

The fingers of the desert sun stabbed around the edges of my curtains, shaking hands with my hangover.

Just thought this was a great way to set the scene, and give an insight into how the character was feeling, all in one sentence. I love it when there's things like this.

And this quote, was amongst my favourites, for a completely different reason!

“No rules, we can take what we want. Eat what we want. Eat your toes. Toes are the tastiest.”
Don't know why, but I got Gollum vibes from this, anyone else? This bit of dialogue had me laughing out loud. The last thing I expected was for toes to be tastiest, who'd have thunk it?

Would I read it again? I actually would consider re-reading. Especially if there's a gap before I read the next one.

Will I be picking up the next in the series? Yep, absolutely.

Would I recommend it? If you're into urban fantasy, yeah. This has some very dark undertones though, so it's not necessarily a light read.

Is it going on my Favourites shelf? Hmmm, maybe? I'm not 100% on this. I'm tempted though.

And, I've just discovered I've got another book by this author waiting for me on NetGalley. I'd been putting it off because it's got a while until publication, but I think I'll bump it up my list.