Jack Faust

I wanted to like this book. I've had a minor fascination with Faust mythology for a while now, and the premise of Mephistopheles being an unknowable alien who wants to destroy humanity could have been a great time. Alas, Jack Faust squanders its potential with a meandering nothing of a plot full of unlikable characters. Solid prose and the odd bit of good description can't salvage a novel that runs out of steam about halfway through. Maybe this could have worked as a novella, but there just wasn't enough here for a novel.