Review: Dragon Badge by Scott Moon

*Cover and Synopsis from Goodreads

Synopsis

Street cops face a crime trend no one saw coming. Who could have predicted what a person would do to possess another soul?
Michael Prim is a cop’s cop, taking down drug dealers, killers, and all kinds of predators, until he realizes a sorcerer has a vendetta against him and is using hellhounds, demons, and soul slaves to exact revenge.

MICHAEL PRIM
Michael Prim is a hard charging beat cop soon to be thrust into a world of dark magic. He has always been a bit of a freak: different, strange, and always needing to prove himself. His last memories of his father were of bedtime stories—the mercenary war, dragon slaying, and demon fighting variety. He knows how to come down hard on wife beaters, pedophiles, and cop killing drug lords, but nothing has prepared him for the sorcerer who is coming for his soul.

KEITH MARIN
Keith Marin takes a new prostitute under his wing and tries to protect her, because she continually winds up in the gutter raped, tortured, and clutching a strange jar with a preternatural magnetism. He begins a dangerous dance with the sorcerer who has found his way to Blue Point, and discovers people from all walks of life who are slaves to the soul jars and little more than zombies. When two homeless layabouts who frequent his beat turn up driving a BMW, wearing tailored silk suits, and carrying serious firepower, Marin takes his investigation to the next level.

NICOLE SIMMONS
Nicole Simmons has come out of hiding and reinvented herself—as a rookie cop. She begins to doubt her choice as soon as she is assigned to a training officer who is the archenemy of her kind. She should kill him and disappear again, but she had hoped this time would be different.

DRAGON BADGE
Michael Prim does what any good cop would do after discovering a soul reaving sorcerer is hunting on his beat, he goes to war, even as hellhounds and Rashfellen warriors come after him. He gets a little help from his friends—a tough as nails veteran and a zombie like prostitute who holds a soul trapped in a magical jar—but when the apocalypse comes, there is only his most hated enemy, the gang member who murdered his partner, to stand against Travass Isegurad and his demons.

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My Review

Dragon Badge takes us on a journey through everyday street cops day to day lives, as they slowly discover that things are not as they always believed. People obsessed with seeming-less empty jars, strange red men, mysterious beatings and maniacal creatures are running a muck throughout the city and and they are all looking for one man, Michael Prim, one of the street cops that you get to follow throughout Dragon Badge. 

In the beginning of Dragon Badge Scott Moon gives you a really good look at the inner workings of being a street cop in Blue Point, as you are given the opportunity to follow a number of different cops through their day to day run ins. I like to relate it to watching an episode of Cops and in my opinion  that is sort of how Scott Moon tells the story, instead of getting one point of view or one cops opinion on what is happening in the city, we get multiple points of views with multiple opinions. But despite all the differences, it really all boils down to the same thing. Weird crap is happening all over the city and no one knows what the hell it is, or what the hell it means. 

I both liked and disliked the level of mystery that surrounded the weird happenings in Blue Point. On one hand, it kept me reading and interested; on another, it frustrated me and made me feel lost at times. I just wanted answers, so I kept reading. My main problem comes from the fact that even though I finished the book, I still found myself a little confused as to who or what exactly was going on in Blue Point. 

Names of creatures are thrown around but never really explained and that left me on the line between frustrated and fascinated. I was frustrated because I expected to have a certain level of clarity upon finishing Dragon Badge, but all I got was more confusion. But despite that confusion I can say I am curious to learn more about this world that Scott Moon has begun to uncover in Dragon Badge.

I enjoyed the fact that Scott Moon gave me the opportunity to get to know many different characters throughout the book and I really enjoyed the realistic approach to the life of a street cop that he took with Dragon Badge and the small peek he gave us into his magical world. I just wished it was a bigger peek. 

Overall I liked the story, but I couldn't help but feel lost at times. I thirsted for more of that magical world, as well as a bigger explanation of that world. But I can say that I am looking forward to peeling back another layer of this story and I hope to see a second installment in which I get more of my questions answered as well as more of that magical world that Scott Moon touched on.

"If there were ever a demon in human flesh it was this man. If there were ever a demon killer encased in muscle and righteous fury, it was Michael." (kindle, loc. 3409).

I chose this moment because I think it wraps up what Michael is all about, a cop not to be messed with, by anybody, or anything!