3 stars. Sorry, no more exciting - nor to be fair, disappointing - than that.



I'm filing this one in the category of 'it's not you, it's me': I think I would have given 'Oddjobs' a higher rating except that

a) location-based analogies and/or humour (note spelling btw) only work if you know the place (Birmingham? No, sorry, is that a city or just part of London?);

b) when I read that a book is 'laugh out loud funny' I expect at least one occurrence of a legitimate LOL experience, if not a very clos

3 stars. Sorry, no more exciting - nor to be fair, disappointing - than that.



I'm filing this one in the category of 'it's not you, it's me': I think I would have given 'Oddjobs' a higher rating except that

a) location-based analogies and/or humour (note spelling btw) only work if you know the place (Birmingham? No, sorry, is that a city or just part of London?);

b) when I read that a book is 'laugh out loud funny' I expect at least one occurrence of a legitimate LOL experience, if not a very close approximation to an ROFL event. A brief half-smirk or two do not count;

c) I'm sorry, but I've read several EXTREMELY SIMILAR books that made this experience - quite frankly - nothing unique.



On the positive side: this book reads smoothly and very quickly. Seriously, if you have a few hours and refuse to try and pronounce all the esoteric, other-dimensional names in your head, you'll be done in no time. The characters are sympathetic and its a well-rounded cast and goodness knows, the authors to not waste time getting things going. Now if you ask me in a week what the book was about - you know, protagonistically speaking - I doubt I'd be able to tell you beyond a few vague details. I think we're all doomed, but that's nothing new.



My impression based on what I've read before? This is at best 'The Laundry Files' fan fiction with no where near the complexity or sheer thrills you'll find in those books which are written on another level and most likely for a different crowd. Seriously, it's like Charles Stross has loaned out some ideas that have now come to pass with his latest book and these are the adventures of the wacky kids in Birmingham faced with the new reality of other dimensional beings now running things. Come to think of it: if you want, you can also let it be suggested that there is some vague similarity to Ben Aaronovitch's brilliant 'Peter Grant' books, but even then, only just. Maybe only really in the sense of 'there's an agency assigned to deal with this kind of thing...'



Personally, if I had to say 'this book is really quite like....' and mean it, from writing style to characters to how the tales eventually play out, I'd compare it to Jonathan Wood's 'Arthur Wallace' stories. Those weren't bad but they were pretty hit and miss sometimes. Even then, despite some mildly interesting twists and to be honest very few surprises, I'd rank 'Oddjobs' in 4th place behind all of these. Not bad, but not to be put on the top of any stacks of this ilk.



Put it this way: it was "free" (well, part of my Kindle Unlimited orders even though I maxed out this months orders a few days ago) and it was worth every penny. Will I RUSH out to read the 2nd book? Maybe. Maybe not. And I'm not sure I want to even start with the Clovenhoof books because there's just too many of those. OK, whatever, I think that's enough on my reaction, even I've stopped reading by now. Ciao.