Superheroes, demons, hell on strike, damsels in distress, nefarious deeds, and poker. What's not to like? ( )

Loved this trilogy (and wish there were more books!). A fun take on heaven, hell and everything in between. Superheroes, evil villains, Satan, satanic minions, not-really-all-that-evil-when-it-comes-down-to-it demons, evangelistic preachers, angels (who can't think for themselves) and much more! ( )

Fantasy novel featuring a guy who accidentally summons up Hell's demons when he's setting up a five-sided poker table. This is set in the USA; but inexplicably feels like a British novel. Not nearly as fast, funny or clever as I would like, and it's a bit long for what it is (400+ pages), so I probably won't be continuing this series ( )

The play on words in the title is misleading – people interested in the Dam Busters of World War II will be disappointed. That said, the book is an entertaining fantasy in the milieu of Tom Holt and A. Lee Martinez, not up to Christopher Moore's sophistication (or level of absurdity), but fun nonetheless. English publisher, author is Liverpudlian by birth, grew up and worked in Canada, and apparently now lives in Ireland. ( )

A bit meh, this one. It started out promisingly enough. Cheaney Arnstruther, a slightly boring actuary who finds personal relationships difficult, accidentally summons a demon to his tiny apartment. When Chesney refuses to accept the normal agreement (his soul in exchange for the granting of his wish) the demon predicts it will lead to trouble. And it does, as with Hell already on the brink of a major industrial dispute all it takes is Chesney's refusal to cause an all out strike. With the population of Earth up to seven billion and no corresponding increase in the number of demons, the workload of each individual demon has increased exponentially and they are not happy. Hell being on strike does not have quite the positive effect on human society that might be expected: without ambition, greed and vanity much of the economic activity of human society comes to a complete halt. And so Chesney must try to negotiate a deal that does not involve him losing his soul.

Well the book was OK up to that point, but then it just got silly. The eventual agreement with Hell leads to Chesney getting the services of a demon to do whatever he wants for a couple of ours each day, and what Chesney wants most of all is to be a crime-fighting superhero. I've never been a great one for superheroes in films or books, so I lost interest in a fairly major way at that point. And as the first book in a series The Damned Busters did not come to a particularly satisfying conclusion. Clearly, you need to read the next book in the series to find out what's going but I don't think I can really be bothered. ( )