I picked up this book when it was offered for free on Kindle several months ago. When I first bought my Kindle several years ago I would get seemingly almost every free book that was offered. I have since become a bit more selective, a few too many crap books out there that I would start reading only to delete two pages in. I decided to get "Clovenhoof" because of the favorable comparisons to Neil Gaiman, which is always strong praise, plus the price was perfect.
The concept is a good one and solid; Satan is fired (again) and kicked out of Hell, forced to dwell among mortals in England. It is in many ways a typical fish out of water comedy, which can be a bit tiresome at times, but there are a few good moments and it was a concept that had such potential as to keep me reading despite some rather weary bits. The idea of Hell and Heaven running along based solely on bureaucracy is not a new one, but I so like the idea of Satan being kicked out of Hell (something that mirrors Milton in a more modern and comedic way) that I pushed through.
I'm afraid that it may sound like I didn't like this book at all, which is not true. It is well written and funny enough in parts. The problem is that for 95% of the book it doesn't seem to have a goal in mind. Clovenhoof goes through the whole fish out of water routine that we've seen done before. You could as easily replace Satan with an alien, a caveman, or a mechanic for a taxi company and the story would change very little. The episodic nature up until the very end would actually make a fairly enjoyable BBC comedy, but as a book it just sort of goes nowhere until the final denouement.
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