Watcher of the Damned is an interesting read. Of that there is no doubt. I would say you could even call it a complete book. As it has a bit of everything. Western, cyberpunk, romance, dystopian future, etc. It has a little bit of everything. We start with learning that the human race is all but extinct. Those that managed to survive are now mutants. Everyone seems to live in a strict system where everyone has a place and a job but must sacrifice their individuality and their freedom. The story focuses on the so called “Watcher”. A beast of a man(or what passes for a man now) that is used as the muscle for the encampment. He’s chained to the entrance like a dog on a leash. Their own giant guard dog.
Anyway, through various circumstances, The Watcher eventually is free and finds himself on a strange adventure with a new companion. Her name is Rose and her introduction turns The Watcher’s world upside down. As I’m sure many can understand. But can The Watcher trust her? Or is she just using him as the town did? Well you’ll have to read the book to find out for yourself. The book was well written with some beautiful descriptions. Even though there is a lot of technical parts to the book I didn’t find it too difficult to follow and think it will be an easy read for most readers.
So, now for my take. I had a rather hard time with this book. I just couldn’t really get into it which I thought was a real shame because I love the author and, from what I heard about the book, I thought it would be perfect for me. My first problem comes from how niche I think some may find the comments about Texas. If you don’t know Texas fairly well, I could see how having to stop to look things up could get frustrating and take you out of the story. My other problem with the book was that I found I couldn’t connect to the characters for the most part. I felt, in their current situation, a lot of their decisions didn’t really make a lot of sense. As I didn’t really relate to the characters I found it difficult to really get immersed in the story. While having some interesting concepts, I found it fairly uninteresting. Because everyone else I know who have read this book give it such high praise I can only conclude that this book just was not for me. So take my rating with a grain of salt.
3.5/5
Next book in the series
How much further have you read in the series? After finishing the first six books, book one feels almost like a prologue to the first arc, ending with the sixth book. I think many things become clearer after books two and three, and then four through six give an action packed conclusion to the arc.