[Mrs. Y Reviews] "No Soul No Service" by Sean Erik

Book Cover via Amazon.com

In your entire life, have you ever had someone describe something to you that was so disgusting, you actually gagged? Have you ever in your whole life been thrilled by the thought of something terrible happening, and want to know why?

Well, my good friends, I received an enjoyable urban fantasy novel that I found to be very fun, but incredibly descriptive, and I think it’s time I review it and share it with you. 

So, get your best girl ready to ride, make sure your cracked phone is on vibrate, and whatever you do, and join me for a review of “No Soul, No Service” By Sean Erik.

Opinion

Full disclosure guys the author Sean Erik, he’s someone I talk to on Twitter often. That said, this is going to be an honest review, and no matter how much I like him or how cool he is, I’m still going to tell you what I think about this book.

It is rare that I’m somewhat stunned to silence when I read a hook, but I was immersed into the world of "No Soul, No Service" rather immediately.  The novel had a compelling first act to it that was unlike any other, and the way that the plot movement took place in such a fluid and fun way, was rather breathtaking.  In those four chapters, my active imagination feasted upon a jam-packed action sequence, detective tale, a fight with things that go bump in the night, and probably more puns than a CSI Miami Episode could stuff into it. The first act was amazing, and I feel like the best person alive to have read it.  

But the tone shifted when that was over, and we went into exposition and, that’s where the book changed. Now we have a story of redemption that is centered around a plot to find someone, a detective story, and the fact that the lore suggests that world we know is not what it seems.  

The lore of the store is vibrant, well detailed, very funny and one of the best examples of Urban Fantasy mythos I have encountered. Bright had nothing on the world building in my opinion because it was deeply rooted in what the world already is permeated with, a rich and deep feeling of good versus evil. 

This lead to some compelling storytelling and an interesting twist on the detective tales of old.

Now for some critiques, and as I often state with evaluations please again understand these are my opinions here, and it’s not meant to upset anyone but is what I feel about the book that could have improved the reading experience.

Regarding the copy I read, I had an ARC copy, the text that I have may or may not be what you end up with. I did check with Sean, and he informed me that the copy I had is the one that should be common to anyone on Kindle. I want to thank Sean for letting me read his ARC copy, not sure if you guys know this or not, but authors do not have to give out free copies of things for reviews. They do that out of the goodness of their hearts, and I for one am grateful.

With that in mind, if you have issues with the actual writing of something on a mobi copy of a book such as the text breaks, or shifts, or sentences stop in mid progression, this book might frustrate you. There are examples of these random line breaks and spacing issues between words, and if you are sensitive to that kind of thing breaking reading immersion, please know it’s there.

The next issue I found was proper page breaks at chapters or any sort of chapter marking delineation. Even from the table of contents, there are not any proper page breaks between chapters. You go right into the book, and there is no stopping it. Now, some may find that jarring, so I’m pointing it out because it is uncomfortable to read if you are looking to pause between chapters, or lose a bookmark.

Both issues combined, eh, it depends on you the reader. Do you find this kind of thing breaks your emersion in the story? If so, this will bother you. If not, you won’t notice it.

Let’s talk a bit about pacing, tone, and story criticisms. For me, I had a bit of whiplash from some of the things I read. “No Soul, No Service” tonal shifts are abrupt and with the very light setup.

The reader is thrust into things, and while that works for some things, it can be a bit dizzying when it keeps happening. For example, I went from an amazingly fun fight with frogs, to a fizzled out love scene, to a demoness that acts like one of the old mafia dons. Don’t get me wrong, all had their good moments, all made me laugh in different ways, but it was just a whipping of scene to scene.

The second issue I have has to do with info dumps. Every story has to have exposition, and that’s important, but there is an internal monologue in the form of a giant info dump starting around the second act that I felt probably would have worked better as the story went along in standard character exposition.

But let me talk about some positives. Once you get past the critiques, what you end up with is an exciting novel about the fantasy elements we all love, mixed with the modern world we all live in.

The highlight to me of the book is the fun I had with the frogs. I cannot stress how exciting the frog sequence is and I feel it should be noted highly. I want to know a lot more about a world with frogs like that.

Overall the story was a delight, it had a lot of puns, and I love puns. Honestly, this was making me laugh just as much as it invoked other emotions.  There is a great deal about a war of darkness and light, but mixed with it is all the other images and lore that a person can want in a fantasy book, but also in a modern contemporary book as well.

What I want to make clear, there is a lot of passion in this book, it makes me happy that I was selected to read it and I enjoyed what I read when it came to the actual story. It’s a perfect kind of book to read with a cup of tea and cold rain in the background. It gives light to darkness and a bit of shadow to the brightness in the world.

Score

So to summarize, I liked the story a lot. With the polish and issues of that note, this book gets a solid score and well-earned of 72/100. This is a good read, and it didn’t take me more than about 4 hours. I did enjoy this story, so please if you are on the fence, consider picking up a copy and reading yourself! I’m sure you will enjoy the tale as well.