The Bookwyrm's Review of Tales of Heaven by Scott Reichek

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Rating: 10/10 Stars

Synopsis

A Demon, a Vampyr, and a Werewolf walk into a bar, and if you're looking for a good time, you should follow them. Where do you go to unwind after a long day of pretending to be human? In Houston there's a place where everyone is welcome, if you can find it. It's an establishment unknown to most ordinary people, and internationally famous to others; a place called "Heaven." There is only one rule: "No Harm Within These Walls." 

When the regulars overhear the owner, an honest, hardworking man named Dave, receive a call telling him his daughter has been kidnapped, and threatening her murder if he fails to pay, or contacts the police; they are unanimous that this is a very foolish thing for someone to do. They also set out to impart this lesson as only such beings can.So begins the first of the Tales of Heaven, a compact, fast-moving urban fantasy told from the perspectives of several characters, each carrying a piece of the tale, and drawing you, the reader, into a new and more exciting version of the world you already know. The doors of Heaven await your pleasure.

Review

I've been a huge fan of urban fantasy for many years. Authors like Mike Resnick, Jody Lynn Nye, and Jack Chalker got me started, and Authors like Jim Butcher, James Hunter, John Hartness, Faith Hunter, S.M. Reign  and C.T Phipps have really expanded where urban fantasy could go. Who knew that a wizard from Chicago and a redneck monster hunter from Georgia could be equally great characters, showing just what a creative author can do. This book is another example of outside the box thinking that just really works well.

The world building is only typical of urban fantasy as it pertains to a magical society existing underneath the mundane world. In this case, the story is centered in Houston, Texas, which is a big city, with lots of history, but is not one of the usual places most authors would think to set an urban fantasy, but it really works. The centerpiece of this hidden world is Heaven, a bar that has one rule: Harm none within these walls. For a viciously violent society of "monsters", having neutral ground that you can kick back and not worry about being murdered is a godsend. This center point of contact for the various characters creates some great situations throughout the book, giving a natural look into the various characters.

The characters really shine in this book. The book has several POV characters of various supernatural types. These include Easy, a demon who has been on earth for millennia since the fall, who is now a private detective of the catch cheating spouses variety. He's not evil, and has a lot of regrets about that whole rebellion in heaven thing. He also gets missions from on high occasionally when God wants a message sent that can't be seen to come from his hand directly, since he is out of the direct smiting business. His demonic abilities come in particularly handy for these missions, and for his everyday work as well.

Mia is another of the POV characters. She is a Lamia, a Greek woman with a snakes lower body, who runs an underworld forgery/documents service, including work for the government. Work so good it can pass in any time or place as real ID, able to withstand any scrutiny. She has built up a lot of enemies, including foreign governments looking to either capture or eliminate her, she's just that good at her work. She's quirky, but powerful and deadly if necessary.

Connie is one of my favorite POV characters. She is a succubus who has been around for centuries, and decided to blend in more in this time by going to college for a business degree, and is in a sorority. She protects her sorority sisters, and any other woman she can, by feeding from the predators that prey on women. You guessed it, the date rapers who slip drugs into women's drinks. Well, lets just say she's an expert at diverting their attention onto her, and she'll be the only one that comes out the other side of the encounter still breathing. If she can feed off the sex energy of low life raping scum, so much the better.

The final two POV characters are Georgi, a Russian immigrant vampire turned during WW1, and who meets up with Dave, the owner of Heaven, and becomes the inspiration for the bar as he explains how the supernatural world works to Dave, and Fjodor, the alpha of the local Weres, and very much not the creature you want to mess with. These characters are just so well written, and so fully realized that you can feel as though they are real, people you would meet walking the streets.

There is also a section of the book that involves the president and VP elect, getting their first brief into the world of the supernatural. It is set up like a realistic reading in of any top secret information, with plenty of briefings with experts, including the new president and VP actually meeting a werewolf scientist, and finding out that supernatural creatures work for the government in many capacities, from the aforementioned scientist to military spec ops teams that are more special than most. These politicians reactions are priceless, and adds yet another layer of realism to the story.

I think that this is a book that has a bright future if people give it a chance. It has all the elements of a great urban fantasy: Engaging characters, magic and monsters, a fast paced plot that has some excellent twists and turns, and humor in all the right places. This is now one of the books I will recommend for any one who wants a good starting place getting into urban fantasy. I give this book my highest recommendation, and it will be in my top 5 books of 2023 list at the end of the year.