REVIEW: Hard Day's Knight

Hard Day's Knight
Author: John G. Hartness

I enjoy urban fantasy with a touch of humor and  sarcasm. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Simon R. Green's Nightside books are on my list of favorites. But Green completed the Nightside series and Butcher is currently in-between books....so I went looking for something similar to fill the hole in my bookish heart.

Found it!

Hard Day's Knight is book 1 in the Black Knight Chronicles series. Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood are vampires. They aren't exotically sexy and they definitely don't sparkle. In fact, they are two geeky guys that just happen to be undead. Greg is on a quest to collect every vampire movie ever made. And Jimmy has a tendency to make bad pop culture references. Yea, dorks can be vampires, too. And it's delightful! This book had me hooked the minute Greg crashed through a ceiling, sporting skin tight black spandex over his 240-pound rotund frame. He fell to the floor with a loud thump, then proceeded to fight with his cape because it flipped up over his head. Lovably dorky.

Despite their dorkiness, Jimmy and Greg do make a great PI team. In Hard Day's Knight, they try to protect a teenager from a witch's curse, only to discover children have been disappearing. The missing children are tied to an ancient evil that will be released into the world on Halloween. Jimmy and Greg only have a few days to prevent the end of the world, so they call on their friends to help. The future of humanity depends on two geeky vampires, a fallen angel who runs a strip club, a priest they call Dad, a witch and a police detective.

I enjoyed the humor and banter between the characters in Hard Day's Knight. It reminded me a bit of the sarcastically fun feel of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. But....I do have to add that the writing in this first book is not on the level of Butcher, Hearne or Green. There are a few plot inconsistencies, some awkward grammar, and a few plot threads that were never resolved. But, despite a few rough edges, this story is still a fun read and I will be reading more of this series. I look forward to discovering the antics Jimmy and Greg get up to next! The jokes and interactions between the cast of characters in this first book make up for the few writing issues. My guess is that each book will get progressively better.

I read this book as part of Modern Magic, a collection of urban fantasy. The anthology gathers 12 first novels in a variety of urban fantasy series.

There are five novels in the Black Knight Chronicles series so far, plus several novellas. Hartness also writes the Quincy Harker Demon Hunter series. Discover more about the author and his books on his website: www.johnhartness.com