Paperback, 432 pages
Published July 1, 2021 by Bantam Press.
A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable.
At least that's their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door - and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own.
When tragedy strikes in her first week on the job The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined.
Decent, but quite not enough to elevate to very good. Characters - especially Banecroft, are somewhat clichéd. Not without promise however. I'll give the second book a read and take it from there.
The Stranger Times is over the top sitcom urban fantasy.
There aren't many good funny fantasy writers. Many try to hard and it shows. McDonnell's characters go all the way across the line into caricature, thus avoiding the uncanny valley between the real and the absurd.
There are some funny situations where the author manages to be extremely witty. But most of the time it is generic modern-day-fantasy stuff which won't be remembered.
The humour is mostly not my type, and I'm a bit conflicted about the amount of clichés infused in the characters. But the story is actually good and interesting enough when not hindered by "the funny".
The second half was enjoyable. Not sure if I'll read the next volume though.
delightful!
