The Dirty Streets of Heaven: Volume One of Bobby Dollar [NOOK Book]

This is a Rip-Roaring Trip through the fields of Heaven with a

This is a Rip-Roaring Trip through the fields of Heaven with a quick detour across Purgatory back to the gritty side-streets of Earth. Tad Williams still remains one of my favorite authors and he doesn’t disappoint with this foray into urban fantasy. The first thing I was surprised at was the number of pages in this book. Not the typical Williams storyline but still had the descriptive elements that I’ve come to enjoy. It’s these exact elements that really help me jump into the story and get to know the people inside. Bobby Dollar is one of the characters you wish you could have a drink in a pub with and really listen to what he has to say. The human qualities are really striking and mask the fact that he really is an Angel.
The take on Heaven and Hell and everything in between was mind-bending and I especially liked Hell’s Prosecutors.
All is not what it seems and this is a common theme throughout the whole story.
Dollar is always on the run from the next baddie or Hell-beast while somehow invoking human emotions and concepts such as love, doubt, and passion. He can’t seem to get a break from demons, hellbeasts, angels, or spirits, makes you really feel for the guy and root for the underdog.
There are a lot of otherworldly visitors and that never ceases to fascinate me. Everything you thought was real is turned upside down, inside out and sideways. When you think you get an answer, another question pops up.
I would recommend this to urban fantasy fans. There are action scenes, love scenes, and surreal moments. It is what I always look for in a book and sometimes have difficulty finding. It really is a complicated case of Good vs Evil and you begin to wonder whose side you are on. The grey area between doesn’t seem so wrong.
I give this book 5 stars for the complex array of supernatural elements, human emotions, and action packed scenes that keep you turning the pages and running through the book with Bobby Dollar.

13 out of 14 people found this review helpful.

When I started this book, I was reminded strongly of the Dresden

When I started this book, I was reminded strongly of the Dresden Files; first person narrative, supernatural slant, etc. However, Tad Williams has always been known to turn a genre on its ear, whether it is epic fantasy, fairy tales, or urban fantasy. The Dirty Streets of Heaven is a story with a few predictable elements, more than a few harrowing chases, and lots of twists.

I never judge a Tad Williams series based on the first book alone. You never get the full, grand picture of things until later on. Then you wonder what you missed in the beginning and want to read it again (and again). I like this first offering in the Bobby Dollar series. The book stands on its own, but promises so much more. I can't wait to find out what lurks inside Tad's devious mind.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Fun and sexy, with added snark and explosions!

This book is about a guy who lived and died and is now an angel. His name is Bobby Dollar in the corporeal (earthly) world, and he is known as Doloriel in the Heavenly world. His job is to advocate for the souls of the newly deceased towards their entry into Heaven against the opposition, the minions of Hell. In this case, “angel” is more of a team designation than a character reference, because Bobby is far from angelic in demeanor or action.

Bobby is cynical and snarky, and not a stranger to some distinctly un-angelic behaviors. These traits are shared, to one degree or another, by his co-workers, the other advocate angels assigned to the region centered on San Judas, a fictional city located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. And like his co-workers, Bobby does NOT remember anything about his actual life before he became an angel.

It starts off like any other day for Bobby Dollar – he’s called to the scene of a death to advocate for the soul of the deceased against a prosecutor from Hell in front of a judge. Bobby is ready to expound on the deceased’s good qualities and the things he’s done to help his fellow human, and the Prosecutor is ready to enumerate all of the evils perpetrated by the deceased that should consign him to Hell. Then the judge, after hearing both arguments, decides which way that soul would go. Yes, it’s classic opposing sides vying for points a.k.a. souls. But then things go very sideways. The soul, in this case, disappears. Simply vanishes. That has NEVER happened during the entirety of this timeless struggle.

As if that’s not bad enough, the Prosecutor that was Bobby’s opposition in this soul-disappeared case? He’s murdered, and the last person known to have harsh words with him was – you guessed it, Bobby Dollar. Bobby becomes a major suspect to both sides, and he has to figure out what really happened before he is permanently decommissioned by Heaven while trying to survive elimination attacks from the minions of Hell. (Oh yes, angels and demons can be destroyed forever.)

There’s action and intrigue and sex, and a sense of humor that is recognizably Tad Williams. Things get blown up. And there’s a twist at the end that I totally did not see coming.

Author Tad Williams brings up some very interesting question about what forms a personal identity. How does a person really know who s/he IS without any knowledge or memory of his/her actual life? That, in and of itself, is a bold place to couch a protagonist. But it’s also lots of fun, because we readers get to witness the self-discovery journey with Bobby Dollar. I’m very interested to see where Mr. Williams’ goes with this character.

Having read this first installment of Bobby Dollar’s adventures – yeah, I have questions about his past and his future. But his present is a heck of a lot of fun to read and I eagerly look forward to book 2!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Bobby Dollar is the angel Doloriel. He works as an advocate for

Bobby Dollar is the angel Doloriel. He works as an advocate for the recently deceased argueing their cases for getting their souls to heaven. Bobby Dollar is a grumpy angel full of doubts on everything. Things start to get bad for him whe a soul does not appear for his judgement.
This is the setup for a story that reminded me most of the hard-boiled detective novels by Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler as well as Good Omens the hilarious collaoration on the apocalypse by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Many reviews already pointed out that this is much faster and much darker than (and much much shorter) than "usual" Tad Williams story and they are right. But altough Williams takes a new direction storywise he holds to his salient talents: convincing world building (not being familiar with the Bay-area I only found out that San Judas where the scene is set is fictional when I looked it up on the map), convincing character development (which hopefully delves a bit deeper in the following volumes) and his brilliant sense for analogies and metaphors. Here's one that also shows why this is certainly an adult and no crossover story: "Meanwhile she was also doing her best to drive her knee up through my groin and into my chest, introducing my balls to my heart, a meeting that should never take place."
What I really liked was that the book has so many layers: beneath the detecive novel with all the chases, fights and funny dialogues it en passant raises major philosophical issues which can make you put the book down for a while to ponder ... or not as you won't want to stop reading ...
I highly recommend this book to those who like the classic noir detective novel as well as fantasy and scifi readers. Oh and those who enjoy the beauty of language should not miss it: hardly any author these days is a wordsmith like Williams - able to trigger casades of associations with just a one witty line. Can't wait for "Happy hour in hell" ... gimme more Tad!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

A Fabulously Entertaining Book!

THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN is a fabulously entertaining book. To delve into specifics too much is a little awkward in a review, as I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun of discovery for those who haven’t read it yet. The first-person narrative of earthbound angel Bobby Dollar is written in a style that brings the hard-boiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler to mind, but this is not just a copy or homage; it’s Williams’ own inimitable voice as a writer and his carefully crafted storytelling that make the work so enjoyable. For one thing, the book is FUN. Though at heart the story is a dramatic one, the hero’s wry and self-deprecating way of looking at the world, even while being chased by the demons of Hell, keeps the reader smiling and turning the pages to see what will happen next--and how it will be creatively described.

The book is written in a straightforward manner that makes it easy to dive into. There are no appendices or character lists at the end, and none are needed. Anyone can pick up this book and enjoy it, whether or not they know anything about it beforehand.

Whatever the forces of the universe are throwing at him, Bobby Dollar clearly loves hanging around in Williams’ fictionalized California Bay Area, and readers will too.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Tad Williams has been a constant fixture in the fantasy & sc

Tad Williams has been a constant fixture in the fantasy & science fiction genre for the past 25 years. His MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN series is often hailed as one of the finest post-Tolkien epics, and he has established a reputation for writing intelligent door-stopping, novels such as the OTHERLAND books (four volumes) or the SHADOWMARCH series (again, four volumes).

His new novel, THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN, however, is something of a departure for him, maybe even a career changer. It is the first of three (for now at least) planned volumes in this series called the BOOBY DOLLAR BOOKS, but each volume is self-contained and can be read independently from the others.

Doloriel is a rather ordinary low-level angel working under his earthly alias Bobby Dollar. He is an angelic advocate; on behalf of the recently deceased he argues for their immortal souls to be accepted into heaven rather than going to hell or even purgatory. He meets his fellow angelic advocates regularly in his favourite angel bar, but he is largely minding his own business and doing his job (which is a lot less glamorous than it sounds like), when suddenly immortal souls start disappearing and neither heaven nor hell seem to now why or how. Bobby Dollar´s life is suddenly at stake even though he does not really know why. However, he is quite sure that his heavenly superiors are not telling him everything and that if he wants to save his own immortal soul, he just has to find out what is happening by himself.
DIRTY STREETS starts out as a classic noir detective novel with overtones of Raymond Chandler rather than echoes of Tolkienian epic fantasy. Bobby Dollar is an engaging POV character whose distinctive, witty narrative voice drives the story forward at breakneck pace. He is playing against a colourful ensemble cast of angels, demons and other otherworldly beings. And while the books offers plenty of action and excitement, it is not all empty calories; there is some serious meat on the bones of this novel. A great, fun read that leaves this reader wanting more as soon as possible!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Top notch Tad

I am a long time reader of Tad Williams so I have plenty of things to compare his work to.
What I liked:
The characters. They are well developed and well named. You love the good guys, and it is obvious who the good guys are but they are not with out flaws themselves. The bad guys are really well created and are easy to identify but are not with out their appeal.
What I loved:
I loved that this is another one of his suck zone books! You open to the first page and you are sucked in! The story is so rich and fun that you get sucked in from the very first word! When I started to read this book my worst fear becomes...WHAT IF I DIE BEFORE I FINISH READING THIS BOOK? Truly for me Tad has once again created something new and fresh. There really is no comparison to any other book on the market, including his own. I know this because I have read everything that he has written. The best I can do is to say the feel of the flow of the story is similar to The War of the Flowers. The Dirty Streets of Heaven has a unique feeling to the story line. I love how he comes up with the new concepts and a fresh perspectives in his story telling.
I highly recommend this book to a scifi/fantasy reader, but due to cussing in the book I would say those over 17.
~Linna Drehmel

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Quite honestly one of the best Urban Fantasies I have ever read.

Quite honestly one of the best Urban Fantasies I have ever read. This story is phenominal with plentiful plot twists and characters you care about and love to hate. Tad Williams also takes a concept (angels and demons) and turns it into something much more than that with secret societies, treaties, cold wars and most of all advocates. In fact, that was one of the things I have so enjoyable in TDSoH. I felt that the concept of the main character being an advocate for souls was very cool, fleshed out and interesting. Now, this book is self-contained, but trust me after you read The Dirty Streets of Heaven you'll be like me, begging for the next book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A boring cliché of a book, sadly ...

A boring cliché of a book, sadly ...

Great book

Realy enjoyed it

Amazing

Great storyline, amazing writing. All you critics out there must have no life or imagination, this book was fantastic, I can't wait for the others to come out. Outstanding job Williams!

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Guest Reviewer - Michelle M:

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Guest Reviewer - Michelle M:

I have never really read a book about angels so I was definitely interested in reviewing this book. Although a little too detailed in some areas I did enjoy the story line. Heaven is a lot like our government in many ways and this is where I found there were too many details and I wanted to skip ahead. When a soul breaks away from the body it was in, an advocate from Heaven and Hell tell a judge the "good and bad" about this person so it is decided where they shall go following their death. This is where Bobby Dollar comes in.

Bobby Dollar is not your average angel, he cusses, drinks, loves women and is always getting himself into sticky situations. I honestly found him quite funny in a lot of the book and that was refreshing. The fact that he is an angel but in his "human" body and an average "bad boy" was a interesting concept. After a soul goes missing, Bobby questions the actions of both Heaven and Hell and it tends to bring some interesting characters to his door. You have his friend who can only talk while in pig form, a demon Countess that he is infatuated with and a guy that is a wanna be rapper/wanna be sidekick.

I tend to think of Urban Fantasy books as having a lot of action, this one didn't have as much as I would have liked. I would recommend this book to an Urban Fantasy lover and overall I give this book a 3 Skull rating.

A lot of little things that added up over time to making this one just okay for me.

I liked the main character and I liked the plot over all. There was just a lot of little things that added up over time to making this one just okay for me.

So the set up is that when a person dies, the trial is held in a little pocket dimension near where the death occured to determine the soul's final judgement. An angel and a demon are assigned to argue before a judge to determine which side gets to claim the soul. An interesting idea if it wasn't undercut by your options. Heaven seems to take "ignorance is bliss" to an extreme state, leaving you a blank slate with no memories wandering around blissfully in green fields forever. Hell at least lets you keep your memories and sense of self, but, you know... hell. Since the main character is an advocate angel, this part of the setting doesn't impact his character as much as say any number of the recently deceased he encounters, but it still kind of put me off getting behind his side fully.

The ending bothered me a bit more than the setting though. There are two mysteries that the main character is trying to solve over the course of the book. And in the end, it doesn't feel like the character solves them. Were in the middle of an action scene when something clicks for our hero, but whatever that was I missed it. It was like both the hero and the author decided at the same time who was going to be the guilty party, and then the guilty party revealed all the information necessary to prove guilt because neither the hero or the author had it available to them before hand. I can't say I'm a fan of mysteries where the vital evidnce to prove someone's guilt is only provided when that person reveals it as part of their confession.

At this time, I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next book in this series.

Inreresting but........

Good premise and storyline but it left alot of unanswered questions and left some unsatisfying answers. Would have loved to get more lessons as to hierarchy of the realms as the story's context allow for more interesting reading, understanding and exploration as opposed to cold academic or biased loony sites. I smell the first in a series, at least i hope i do.

Not Tad Williams Best Work

The Dirty Streets of Heaven was entertaining, but it doesn't rank up there with Williams best work. It a much shorter book than the ones in his Otherland series, so both character and plot development are sketchier than many Williams readers are probably used to. While certainly not identical to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens", there are enough similarities to make Dirty Streets of Heaven seem like a bit of a rip off. Not that people haven't been doing that to Tolkien for years, but because the two books were published within a couple of years of each other, this seems to really stand out. Avid Williams fans will undoubtedly consider this review heresy, but that pretty much would be in line with a book about a troubled angel. I'll probably continue to follow the series because the books are a quick read and entertaining. I just won't have any great expectations for entire new worlds or major contributions to the genre.

Very interesting

This was a very engaging story. I really loved the characters and can't wait for the next book in the trilogy.

Tad Williams gave something of a warning that this series would

Tad Williams gave something of a warning that this series would be more adult-oriented than his previous works. The series has no worse behavior than, say, the "Dresden Files," but that is a significant difference from Williams' other series.

I am a huge Williams fan, and this book is another example that he's good at what he does. The angels certainly didn't fit my expectations (Williams had similar fun in the Shadowmarch series). The underlying mystery is intriguing, there are enough important side plots that things never get boring, and I'm very excited to read the next book, as soon as it's published.

I'll even admit that this book has convinced me to buy Steve Jackson Games' "In Nomine" game. It's not related to the book in any way. But Williams has shown that the war between heaven and hell can certainly be entertaining, and I want in on that.

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