Afterlife crisis was a lot of fun and this one was a lot of fun. It's a bit surreal, sometimes quite weird, always very funny.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Everyone has a dotty old uncle, grandparent, or even spouse that cannot tell a linear story. They go shooting off in irrelevant tangents usually never returning to, or maybe even remembering, their original point. Nether Regions works exactly the same.

What starts as a witty take on Heaven circles so many drains that it is exhausting. Heaven is Detroit. Socrates is an assassin in Heaven. People in Heaven don’t remember their pre-death life. They also don’t realize their minds can mold Heaven as they wish. Then we meet the Church of O, who are questioning their very existence. One of the heads of the church, Elder Silence or The Tinkerer, aka Ben Franklin has a witty but over long debate with Socrates over nothing. All of that happens in the first two chapters.

While I concede the author is witty, what Nether Regions really needs is a harshly critical editor. It is all too much for me. 2 stars.

Thanks to ECW Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

Could not enjoy the book since it was third book in the series so the story was a bit detached for me since the premise of the story is unknown. I hope I will start with the first book and then move on towards the other to enjoy them more since I believe this series has the power potential to give the pure unadulterated joy of reading something great!

I chose this book based on the intriguing premise, without realising it was the third in a series. The author does a good job of explaining the backstory and concepts, so it is possible to read and enjoy without having read the others - but I'm also certain I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read them in order. You're always playing catch up to some extent when you start mid-series, so I'd definitely recommend others to read them in order.

The intriguing premise is that everyone ends up in an afterlife where everything is possible, but only a tiny proportion of people remember anything about their 'beforelife' or even that such a thing existed. The afterlife is ruled by a small number of 'ancients' who wield the power to change the fabric of the ether, but use it to generate a place which obeys the same rules as the real world. The ordinary citizens are unaware of the real nature of where they live or that they could in theory become all powerful deities. The novel's premise is that a disruptive leader - the first child to be physically born there rather than arriving from the 'beforelife' - sets out to gain followers and reveal all. In doing so, chaos would be unleashed, so our heroes must aim to stop him.

The writing style and setting are strongly reminiscent of Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' series. It's only natural for writers as good and well known as Pratchett to influence others, but the inevitable urge to keep comparing the two authors is never going to work in Graham's favour. Descriptions of the city of Detroit (an underworld version, not the one in the USA), could be equally applied to Discworld's Ankh-Morpork. The author uses the same deadpan humour and despairing yet affectionate view of human nature. There are even footnotes. It's not a bad imitation, but it's not good enough to ever mistake for the real thing.

Certainly the concept of the 'afterlife' and 'beforelife' is a good one, particularly as it allows Graham to feature any famous face from history he desires, in often amusing or unlikely situations. The plot is reasonably exciting and there are some good moments of humour. But... even putting aside the perhaps slightly unfair comparison with arguably the greatest fantasy satirist of all time, there are a number of issues. I found it hard to really emotionally connect with the characters. I cared a bit whether they succeeded or not, but not passionately. The writing feels laboured and overwritten, particularly towards the end. Pratchett might have gone off on amusing tangents but he also knew when to put that aside and focus on the action. Graham doesn't, and the pace suffers. There's also a bizarre 'meta' quality to the novel, with the 'fourth wall' between writer and reader broken frequently. It's not a technique I ever enjoy, and reaches its most bizarre in a chapter written as if it were a transcript of a panel discussing the novel. Possibly it's ever so clever and literary but to me it seems like self-indulgent showing off. Just tell the story and if it's good enough, people will understand it and enjoy it. If it isn't, putting in gimmicks like that won't save it.

I've given a rating of three stars rather than the two that I might otherwise have, to allow for the fact that my enjoyment was probably reduced by not having read the predecessors. I'm not sure if I will use my reading time to go back and try the first two. It is a good concept and I enjoyed it at points, but there are a lot of flaws and it really came apart towards the end. On balance, it's worth checking out, so I'd recommend readers start with book one, and if they enjoy it, continue through the series.