Review by Booklist Review
Coop and company are back for their second supernatural adventure (after The Everything Box, 2016). This time, they're facing a reanimated mummy bent on world domination (and finding his old girlfriend) while Coop gets acclimated to his new role in DOPS. There are inept suburban animal-rights activists, a crooked used-car salesman, machinating DOPS agents, a possessed museum guard, crooked old mystics, a professor transformed into a cat trapped in a television mounted on a tentacled robot, a forgotten department in the bowels of DOPS with a strange box in it . . . Kadrey fans have plenty of his signature ridiculousness to sink their teeth into: Douglas Adams meets Clive Barker in a James Ellroy setting. This is smart, witty, and biting comedy. There's a bit of a sophomore slump: the stakes of the conflict are lower than its predecessor, and the side characters feel somewhat perfunctory. Still, all the elements come together and work well, and Kadrey at slightly less than his best remains one of the best out there. This new series remains worthwhile.--Keogh, John Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kadrey's follow-up to 2016's fantasy-caper romp The Everything Box strives for the same charm as its predecessor but ends up feeling flat. Mystical burglar Coop is on the receiving end of a mummy's curse after a job for the Department of Peculiar Science (DOPS) goes awry. While the mummy, Harkhuf, attempts to resurrect his lover and an army, Coop and his friends race against the clock to save humankind. Meanwhile, various colorful characters in and out of the DOPS continue assorted illegal shenanigans, and it's in those scenes where Kadrey's dialogue uncharacteristically falters: in his attempt to imbue every exchange with wry, cynical sarcasm, Kadrey ends up making his entire cast speak in the same voice. To his credit, his plotting is as deft as ever, weaving eight broad story arcs into one overarching narrative that's entertainingly unpredictable (and somewhat impenetrable for new readers, as previous plot points, such as Coop's immunity to magic, are glossed over). Especially entertaining are two forgotten DOPS employees whose steady descent into delusional paranoia is only marginally less amusing than the vaguely-defined horrors lurking in their office, but sheer quirkiness isn't enough to save this sequel from sophomore slump. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Coop is a thief with an immunity to magic who works for the Department of Peculiar Science (DOPS). Because he steals for the feds, Coop has lost some of his disrespect for authority, but girlfriend Giselle mostly keeps him on mission. Coop's job this time out is to remove a mummy from a low-rent Los Angeles museum of antiquities. But the mummy, once a powerful Egyptian sorcerer named Harkhuf, has plans of his own, starting with finding his mummy bride and enslaving the world. Kadrey, who began this series with The Everything Box, and who also writes the "Sandman Slim" series, gives readers a great tour of the seedier bits of L.A. VERDICT Some readers will find the nonstop barrage of quips, wordplay, and banter a blast, but Kadrey's story might have been better served by occasionally playing it straight. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/16.]-MM © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
