Two serious flaws work against the novel, however — flaws made all the worse by being easily correctable, to my mind. Carl opens the book by throwing almost the entire cast at the reader, making it hard to grasp and identify with any of them, much less the setting of contemporary Glastonbury. ... The other major problem I had with Lucifer's Crown is infuriating simply because it's so utterly unnecessary: The novel takes place in the final months of the year 2000. That's right, we're treated to yet another clichéd end-of-the-millennium apocalypse. Other than hopelessly dating a story that otherwise manages to be effectively timeless, the move is just downright dumb.