A few weeks months ago, for Free (Legal) Books on the Internet Week, I reviewed Darkside by S. K. S. Perry. At the time, I didn’t even know if he was male or female (turns out he’s a guy), but I did know that I liked James Decker, the wise-cracking narrator, and his crazy world and friends. Mr. Perry sent me the sequel, which he might do for anyone who asks him nicely enough (also, there’s a donation button on the page), and I promised him I’d review it, too — eventuallly. At first, I’d gotten taken over by Wedding Brain; then I was holding off until I could find enough books for Self-Published Week. Finally, Mr. Perry, I’ve read it, and here’s your review.

The usual Sequel Rules apply: select [NO PLOT] from REVIEW when book number>2 . . . James Decker isn’t quite dead, in that way where he’s an Eternal. There are only eight of them, and whatever they are, they’re immortal. As a matter of fact, James gets killed two or three times in the process of this book, and it just doesn’t stick very well. In addition to that, he’s haunted by his dead father and grandfather, and his late girlfriend is possessing his current girlfriend. Sounds kinky, but apparently they share fairly well. Anyway, so Kingston starts to get overrun with zombies — both the vampire-made, yucky ones, and the more useful, resurrected kind from necromancers. Unfortunately, the zombies start attacking James and his friends and family. What do they want from him?

The enjoyment of this book is largely character-driven, for me. James is pretty awesome, as I mentioned before, as are all the characters we’ve known before (Sabrina, Josh, Leanne, Alex, Dad, and Grandpa); we also meet several great new people. My favorite is, of course, Sister Juliet; she’s a teacher at Alex’s school, and while she’s sort of the funny stereotype of nun (there’s a riotous scene wherein she orders two police officers to say Hail Marys), she’s also a lot more open-minded about the whole supernatural than most others. The other great character we see a lot of is Greg, James’s father’s old partner at the police force. He’s got a heck of a lot of strength of character, and a very dry sense of humor.

The plot of this book involves zombies, vampires, bikers, and strip clubs. No, seriously. It’s sort of like Bruce Campbell came up with it (in a good way!). There’s a lot of chopping-off-of-heads, fighting-off-of-vampire-biker-chicks-bent-on-seduction, and even a great car chase. Add to that an exploding car or two, a short diversion where James is taught how to fight with and without weapons, and the Angel of Death, and one’s got an action-packed plot pretty much guaranteed to appeal to nearly everyone. I think I liked the plot of volume 2 better than volume 1, frankly, although the original Darkside is still good.

I still don’t know why these didn’t catch the eye of a publisher, what with the urban fantasy boom. Perhaps it’s due to the male narrator, although Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files were even made into a short-lived TV series. Perhaps it’s due to a strong amount of humor, although Terry Pratchett sells awfully well. I hope my reviews have convinced at least some people to read the book, in its free, legal, self-published version. I’d recommend it for people who enjoy action, adventure, James Bond movies, zombie flicks, and laughing at all of the above, although things will undoubtedly make more sense if one reads the first volume first. 4.25/5 stars. (It’s my website. I can invent a quarter star if I want to.)