Revenge-aroni takes place after the world has ended and restarted several times. After foiling the plans of the evil Walt Sidney, the Norse god Thor finds himself being hunted for revenge. Also, there’s robots, clones, gods from nearly every mythology, and a giant mutant squirrel. What I’m trying to get at is that this book is pretty nuts.
“People were even looking into purchasing honest-to-goodness real estate since it was starting to look like houses might have a real chance at still being houses come the end of the year. People like Queen Victoria XXX and Chester A. Arthur, the last surviving clones of their respective namesakes, created by a German sausage manufacturer for bloodsport entertainment, before earning their freedom and becoming mercenary heroes. They’d even managed to save the world a couple times.”
The absolute insanity of this book is what makes it entertaining. Most of the jokes are really funny and the fight scenes are fun to read. It’s worth continuing to read just to see what kind of thing Gumeny is going to throw at you in the next chapter.
The biggest problem with it is it’s a little too insane. In the sense that it feels unfocused most of the time and it piles on so many characters and plot threads, I found myself lost several times. For most of the book, I had no idea Thor was supposed to be the main character, for example. The summary I gave at the beginning of this review is the best I can muster for it. If I tried to explain the plot in any more detail, I’m afraid my brain would soup up and leak out of my ears.
It’s probably unfair to criticize the book for that. This book is the fourth in a series. I might have been able to follow everything better had I read the series from the first book on. However, the book was given to me by the publisher as if it stood alone. It does work well enough on it’s own, if you’re willing to treat it like a head trip of a book. I don’t think that was the author’s intention though.
A part of it is that it’s just too long and bloated. Even though it doesn’t crack 300 pages, it feels much longer than it is. The book feels like it drags it feet, especially in the middle. Gumeny seems like he was aware of this, naming the last few chapters things like “Chapter Does It Really Matter At This Point?” instead of numbering them. This is another strength in the book. Every attempt at meta-humor works really well without being a distraction. Take, for example, this note at the end of a chapter where Thor and several other gods gather in a Denny’s while stoned and praise the food.
“The preceding chapter has been paid for by Denny’s. Denny’s: ‘If you’re stoned and starving, and manage to avoid the food poisoning, we’re actually not all that bad.’”
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