In Sean Farley’s Pandemonium he traces Jackson Armstrong’s journey from a gambling deadbeat father and ex-husband to an alternate universe realm hero. The theme of this story caught my attention but the description of the alternative universe—or afterlife—is what convinced me to read it.
The story unfolds with Jackson casing a slot machine in a casino, swindling money out of a pawn shop to go back and play said slot machine, blowing all his money, then selling a priceless gift from his only child to go back to the slot machine…to lose again. While alive Jackson values winning—ultimately, being right—over his family and other such responsibilities. Then in the course of his dishonest ways he dies and is transported to Pandemonium, a land inhabited by demons called Rogues who rule over humans who have committed unthinkable crimes against humanity in life. Jackson’s passing from life to Pandemonium reminds him what should truly be important to him and he spends the duration of the story attempting to get back to the life he should have been living, back to his son whom he values more than his own father valued him. In the end, he makes the ultimate sacrifice and resets the universal balance.
Pandemonium tells the classic story of the con artist realizing the errors of his ways and undertaking a series of impossible tasks to set things right, and it had all the makings of one of the great otherworldly fantasy novels of 2018. The author stretched his resources a bit too far, however, misusing a number of literary tools and muddying the flow of the story. For instance, one of Jackson Armstrong’s gimmicks is his freakish memory. Farley shows this throughout the book with detailed flashbacks connected to what is going on at the time. When he describes the pawn shop clerk’s voice he flashes to Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and the exact time and date he first saw it, the channel it was on, and the circumstances surrounding why he saw it at that point in time. While these flashbacks show the detail of his memory they, and his memory in general, add little if anything to the story. Likewise, the story is told from the third person, and in the very beginning it seems like it will be told only about Jackson and his journey describing other characters from his own perspective. After a few chapters, though, the attention shifts to a previously secondary character, and later to another character still. He moves focus among a number of characters, confusing me as the reader about what is happening at any given point. Lastly, the story is graphically crude and vulgar without obvious purpose. The author uses vulgarity like a schoolboy first learning to swear, and the imagery at times is beyond necessary in telling the story. While I enjoy Kill Bill type description of decapitation, killing, and gore I draw the line at attempted rape at the hands of an overgrown, anthropomorphized, horny bug/spider creature.
Had Farley scaled back his descriptions, left out unnecessary plot additions, and focused more on the protagonist this story would have held my attention better than it did. I give the book two stars only because I relate to Jackson as a father, and Farley’s descriptions of his son hit close to home. Had I not connected with the story on this personal level it would have stayed one star. It was a quick read, and can hold the casual reader’s attention for a while, but serious fantasy readers—especially ones who enjoy stories of the afterlife, demons, ghouls, etc.—would not miss anything in not reading this book.

This was a pretty amazing and strange book. It was fairly gross and bloody which is usually not my cup of tea but this one made me change my mind. The book is well written and even tho I had issues with some of the main characters actions towards his father. I can understand it and it was well described in the book. The characters were all well developed and the environment - stomach turning as it was well imagined. It was one of those books that has you going "they are NEVER gonna get out of this" and whammo! they do, well done author!
Thank you Net Galley, enjoyed it!