This is my first experience with a self-published e-book, available via Amazon (and a few others sites) for only $1 (buy now and get a penny back!). I must say that I like the idea -- giving aspiring authors the chance to get their material out there bypassing the potentially cut-throat standard publishing world, while giving readers a wider range of choice and at cheaper prices. There are problems associated with this, of course, such as a lack of quality control, but I applaud the idea nonetheless.

So how does Hounds of Heaven, by first time author Cole Drewes, hold up? Well, there are problems, some big, some small. But buried within this book, I feel, is a good story trying to get out.

Let's see how well I can sum up the plot: Centuries-old werewolf extraordinaire Dom leads a strike team (the titular Hounds of Heaven, though not all are werewolves) as part of an underground resistance against a society of vampires and demons ruling a post-apocalyptic Earth led by the Anti-Christ. Yes, indeed, there are quite a lot of genres covered by this story -- we have primarily Urban Fantasy mixed with Military SF, with varying degrees of religion, history and heck, even some environmentalism thrown in. All-in-all, in the grand scheme, the story holds together pretty well despite the range of themes, which is pretty impressive.

Where the book falls apart, though, is in the details. This book really needs professional editing. There are a variety of grammatical issues throughout (incorrect homonyms used, some entire words missing here and there -- pretty much any issue that wouldn't be caught by a spellcheck), but the lack o' editing problems go deeper than that.

I feel that a good editor could have helped clean up the inconsistency in the writing considerably. Random things are brought up once but never again, such as the apparent effect of werewolf saliva on vampires (and vice-versa), or the types of drugs that Dom's team apparently needs to take when being sent on a mission several hours away. Dom is taunted by an enemy at one point about the new woman in Dom's life, when said enemy wouldn't have had any way of knowing about her (or if the enemy did, that would/could have been commentary worth pursuing, but it wasn't). The rules governing the werewolves aren't well explained -- they seem really powerful, such as Dom and a wolfy compatriot able to tear through a bunker door that all of their modern weaponry could hardly scratch, and yet for reasons unknown, Dom spends little time in wolf form. It's like different parts were written/described because they seemed like cool ideas to throw in at the time, without regards to the bigger picture. They're not bad ideas -- there just needs to be some uniformity.

There is also an issue with the dialogue. For this, there is actually too much consistency, as many/most characters talk with effectively the same voice. It doesn't read naturally (to me, at least), and makes most characters feel rather one-dimensional.

Another issue was that the book was written in present tense. I've commented on this in the past, and I don't like it. Perhaps others do, but I find it incredibly distracting. This, in particular, is a stylistic choice, and not a problem with the book, per se... just a problem that I had.

Still, there are good things about Hounds of Heaven. The action scenes are, for the most part, quite fun to read (and I'm betting fun to write). One could easily picture in one's head what was going on whilst reading. And as the book is written from Dom's perspective, there are times when we are taken deep within his thoughts, perhaps as he is still haunted by memories of a battle centuries past (the Crusades, for instance), or when he wanders the main city and contemplates the state of the human race. These introspective portions didn't always work for me -- they seemed a little too random at times -- but I could tell what the author was going for, and it did add an extra layer to the story.

Bottom line -- I can't really recommend this book. The inconsistencies and lack of editing are just too apparent. But there are some good aspects, and definitely some good ideas that just aren't well executed. Like I said, buried within is a good book wanting to get out. Still, there are worse ways of spending $1 on a vampire/werewolf story (such as, I dunno, buying 1/10 of a Twilight book). If you go into it without expecting the level of polish found in most published works, you'd get your dollar's worth.

   -- K. Burtt