As Sleeping Late on Judgement Day, the third Bobby Dollar novel, begins, the one-time advocate finds himself on trial arguing for his soul, as we know from previous novels: The Dirty Streets of Heaven and Happy Hour in Hell. Bobby is a cynic and hasn’t always fallen in line, at least philosophically, with the Almighty’s directives. Most blatantly, he fell in love and has relationship with a demon. His long-time friend Sam, also an advocate and an angel with whom Bobby fought in the many wars against Hell, presented a Third Way earlier in the series, about which Bobby was very curious. So after Bobby’s diversion in Hell in the previous volume, the Third Way returns front and center as the primary plot point in Sleeping Late on Judgement Day.
In order to save his own bacon, Bobby realizes he needs to discover who created this Third Way. Of course, Bobby’s life isn’t so simple, he has made quite a few enemies over the course of his time as an Advocate and some of those people come a-knocking during Bobby’s very personal case. One group of people in particular sends their spider monsters after him, as well as a few goons. This group just happens to be a bunch of Nazis who summoned a demon, which is what one should expect from modern-day Nazis. Fortunately, a couple of Bobby’s neighbors, “Amazon” lesbians come to his rescue and are familiar with the spider-monsters and ally themselves with our angsty angel. These Amazons (as Bobby dubs them) have similar goals as our angel advocate so the three form a strange (for Bobby) and fun (for the readers) partnership.
Also helping Bobby to solve the mystery and exonerate himself is Harrison, the newbie angel from previous volumes he’s dubbed Clarence (as a tip of the hat to It’s A Wonderful Life); Bobby’s ‘supervisor,’ the Angel Temeul who helpfully nudges Bobby along his search for answers; as well as a few people who fit the role of “I’ve got a guy for that.” Tad also introduces a couple of new characters (in addition to the Scythian “Amazons”), including his nemesis in the novel, a celestial being who provides ample challenges to our hero. The other new character is an enigmatic fellow by the name Gustibus; a man(?) who knows more than anybody should rightly know about the factions of Heaven and Hell and who trades knowledge for knowledge with Bobby. (Maybe because I’m binging on Mad Men right now, I found a bit of resonance between their relationship and Don Draper’s initial friendship with Conrad Hilton).
Throughout it all; though, the thing that drives Bobby the most is his forbidden love of the demon Caz, the Countess of the Cold Hands. Having bargained for her in Happy Hour in Hell, he managed to both give his nemesis the demon Eligor what the demon wanted while still failing to save Caz from his clutches. Despite her protestations (through a very entertaining communication “device”) that Bobby just move on, he doesn’t. After all, Doloriel is a stubborn git.
Sleeping Late on Judgement Day is a wonderful addition to the growing mythos of Bobby Dollar and Tad’s expanding canon. While there is a sense of closure in the novel, Tad introduces many tidbits that could easily spin out into more novels (or shorter tales like the humorous God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlepig) like the mystery of Bobby’s true identity before becoming an angel, who Clarence/Harrison really is, or even tales of Bobby and Sam on the front lines during their battles with the denizens of Hell. In other words, Tad’s such great storyteller, writer, and worldbuilder that throw-away lines or mini-concepts are kinetic with story energy.
As it stands now the Bobby Dollar series is 3.5 books and with the looming Last King of Ostern Ard, the highly anticipated sequel/follow-up series to Tad’s best known work Memory, Sorrow and Thorn it isn’t clear if/when we’ll see more tales of Bobby Dollar. I sure hope we do.
Recommended
© 2015 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover, September, 2014, 448 Pages
ISBN 978-0-756-40889-3
http://www.tadwilliams.com/2014/08/sleeping-late-on-judgement-day-a-bobby-dollar-novel/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, DAW
