Not as terrible as Heart of the Dragon but still something of a downer. I had some expectations for this novel 'cause I read and enjoyed Death Troopers by the same author. Have to say Season 5 was a hard one to go pick it to write a tie-in story, maybe trying to fit into the whole Christian deal going on posed a problem for the author. Leaving that aside, I think he was trying way too hard to add rock and movie references to the point it made me roll my eyes. Perhaps the author knew it all too well and that's why he wrote this: "Good god, would the pop culture stuff ever stop coming, even in moments of profund physical agony?". That's one of the things that bothered me most; I just didn't buy Dean taking his time to stop and make some silly reference instead of rescuing Sam from being suffocated.
Oh, and I think the portrayal of Castiel was way out of character. Yeah, he's gullible sometimes but not stupid. I think the author also made a reference to angels picking up souls from the battlefield back in the Civil Way and sort of fighting demons. I think angels were not allowed to manifest on Earth or take a vessel for millenia, and demons were clearly not aware of the existence of angels on the show till Season 4 and it came to them as a huge surprise.
Not sure I'll get another Supernatural novel, they keep letting me down so bad.
