The Dirty Streets of Heaven

Executive summary: This book is alright, but nothing special. Certainly didn't live up to hype. I gave it 3 stars, but really it was 2.5 for me. I could have easily gone with a 2.Full ReviewThis is the first book by [a:Tad Williams 6587 Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1191183065p2/6587.jpg] I've read, so I can't compare it to any of his previous works.The best I can do is compare it to [a:Jim Butcher 10746 Jim Butcher http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1205261964p2/10746.jpg]'s Dresden Files or [a:Thomas E. Sniegoski 27140 Thomas E. Sniegoski http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238440776p2/27140.jpg]'s Remy Chandler books.The former being one most people who read Urban fantasy should be familiar with. The latter being another series I read that has a detective Angel for the protagonist.I don't think it's nearly as good as Dresden. It reminds me a bit of [b:Storm Front 47212 Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) Jim Butcher http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg 1137060], where the concept is intriguing, but the book itself is only so-so. However, unlike Mr. Butcher, this isn't Mr. Williams first book.I'd put it on par with Remy Chandler. I think the quality of the writing by Mr. Williams is a little better, but the quality of the plots seems to be about the same. I was pleased to see they both have very different takes on the Angel thing. While Remy fought in the battle of Heaven and Hell, Bobby is uncertain of many things, including his own past. Bobby doesn't seem to have any kind of super human abilities and is limited by his body. Remy can embrace his Angelic nature and become more powerful/scary.The book started out OK, but really went on to drag in the middle before picking up steam again at the end to finish alright. He does bring the mystery of the first book to a reasonable conclusion, while setting up some larger mysteries I assume he will address in the next two books.The other I guess minor gripes I have about the book were the humor and the sex. I don't mind sex in books. It's a large motivator in human (or in this case Angelic) actions.However Mr. Williams went into a lot more detail (across several chapters) than I thought was necessary. This will likely be popular for the 50 shades of gray/Paranormal Romance crowd, but for me, I just skimmed through it to get on with the actual story. The sex was important to the story, but could have been less detailed without losing any of that.Humor is very subjective. I love Jim Butcher/Harry Dresden's sense of humor. I didn't really care for Tad Williams/Bobby Dollar's. I could tell some of the places he was trying to make jokes and they just didn't do it for me. He did have 1 or 2 others. It didn't spoil the book by any means, but it just fell short in my eyes.Overall it was an alright book, and I'll probably try to read the next 2 books in his initial trilogy, but won't be in any rush to do so.