Ennis, Garth – Preacher Book 8: All Hell’s A-Coming

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Preacher Book 8: All Hell’s A-Coming

If anyone tries to tell you that not a lot happens in this book, well, punch them in the nose. We finally get the backstory on Tulip (just when I thought he forgot all about that), we get the real story of Cassidy, and Starr has to deal with a threat from within the Grail. Combine that with Jesse coming back to find Tulip and meeting everyone who thought he was dead and, well, you have one of the better books in the series. Quiet, but absolutely essential reading.

The only dark spot in the book is the inclusion of the special Tall in the Saddle. Just not a good story. I was really excited to read this too, because I didn’t know anything at all about it until I got the trade for this storyline. I just missed it when it came out, apparently. I could have easily gone the rest of my life without reading it and wouldn’t have felt like I was missing a damned thing in the story. That’s one thing you can say about the other specials, good or bad: they told you something that you needed to know. The story of Arseface, Saint of Killer, Starr, Cassidy finally meeting another vampire… all of those were things that might not have fit directly into the tight structure of the story, but they were important to all of the characters. Sure, you could just say “And Saint of Killers went to hell and the place froze over” and move on with your story, but it’s necessary to see exactly what happened down there. This story was a total waste of time. A tale of Jesse, Tulip and Amy from back when they were younger and happy, this is basically about a bunch of horse thieves. I don’t know, maybe Ennis thought that that was the quintessential western story or something. It’s still not a terrible story by any stretch, but it’s average at best and does nothing to develop any of the characters. Amy, at least, could use some fleshing out, and we really don’t get it here.

So, is this book worth getting? Well, didn’t I tell you a second ago that this was one of the better books in the series? I’m sticking by that. Honestly though, I’d say that you could safely skip the last story. Unless you’re an absolute Ennis/Dillon junkie, that is.