GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ I Smell Sheep: Simon R. Green
Showing posts with label Simon R. Green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon R. Green. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Book Review: Voices From Beyond (A Ghost Finders Novel) by Simon R Green

Voices from Beyond (Ghost Finders #5)
by Simon R. Green
Paperback, 304 pages
August 26th 2014 by Ace

Meet the operatives of the Carnacki Institute—JC Chance: the team leader, brave, charming, and almost unbearably arrogant; Melody Chambers: the science geek who keeps the antisupernatural equipment running; and Happy Jack Palmer: the terminally gloomy telepath. Their mission: Do Something About Ghosts. Lay them to rest, send them packing, or just kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses…

In a quiet London suburb, four university students participating in an experiment inside a reputed haunted house hold a séance that goes terribly wrong. What—or who—ever they summoned has taken their minds away, leaving them empty shells.

Enter the Ghost Finders, ready to confront an enraged poltergeist for the students’ very souls.

All in a day’s work—except the team doesn’t know that in another part of the city, a different entity has also breached the threshold between worlds. And this time what is at stake is not four lives—but the very existence of all humanity.


JC Chance the team leader, Melody Chambers the computer science geek and Happy Jack Palmer the telepath who is not really happy, call themselves the Ghost Finders. The Ghost Finders work for the Carmacki Institute which deals with the paranormal. Their mission is to take down the bad ghosts, the ones that cause all sorts of trouble. When the Ghost Finders arrived at their next mission they found four University students sitting around a coffee table who apparently were in a middle of a séance gone bad. Upon further examination the Ghost Finders realize the students to have lost their minds...literally. Their bodies were empty soulless shells. To save the student's souls they had to go into the alternative world, the same world that took the students souls, to bring them back. Little did they know that this was the start to something bigger much bigger.

The world building was very creative, I felt a part of it. I think Melody the computer science geek, 
always fiddling with her equipment, was my favorite. I loved the idea of the students using the Ouija board. What better way to open the doors to the other side, right. It definitely took me back to my early teenage years with my friends sitting around a Ouija board waiting for something to happen. We eventually got bored of it. I kind of felt the same way with the book. It was very well written and the characters were likable but it did lose my interest at some points. Not that the book was predictable. It was far from it in fact, but it lacked that punch you get when you can’t wait to turn to the next page. The scared/happy/
unsure emotions mixed into one; anticipation of what you are going to find next. As for Romance it was there, the characters had relationships but I would not use the word “Romance” but you could see them building throughout.

All in all it is a good light read, if you can call bad ghosts that take away your soul light.

3.5 Soulless Sheep




TammyK

About the Author:
British science fiction and fantasy-author. He holds a degree in Modern English and American Literature from the University of Leicester. His first publication was in 1979.

His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirsty.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Book Review: Spirits From Beyond (Ghostfinders #4)

Spirits From Beyond (Ghostfinders #4)
by Simon R. Green
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Published August 27th 2013 by Ace
ISBN13: 9780425259931

Meet the operatives of the Carnacki Institute—JC Chance: the team leader, brave, charming, and almost unbearably arrogant; Melody Chambers: the science geek who keeps the antisupernatural equipment running; and Happy Jack Palmer: the terminally gloomy telepath. Their mission: Do Something About Ghosts. Lay them to rest, send them packing, or just kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses…

Their latest assignment takes JC and the team to a small country village, site of a famously haunted inn. At first, JC thinks that the spirits in the King’s Arms are more the stuff of urban legend than anything that needs the Ghost Finders’ expertise. Then one story rings true: the tale of a traveler trapped by an unusual thunderstorm who retired to her room for the night—and vanished.

Trapped by an unusual thunderstorm—like the one that begins raging outside shortly after they arrive…

As the team investigates, they are forced, one by one, to face some hard truths about themselves, their relationships, and the haunting itself—truths that may push Happy Jack over the edge into the madness that he has always feared...


Spirits From Beyond is the fourth installment in the Ghost Finders Series. A ghost investigation series about three operatives of the Carnacki Institute, an organization focused on dealing with malevolent ghosts by any means necessary. The team leader is JC Chance an extremely chipper and arrogant ghost hunter who is obsessed with finding his lost ghost girl friend Kim. Melody Chambers is the ingenious field geek, who can literally use her computers to find, draw out and destroy ghosts. Then there is Happy Jack Palmer, a psychic who is in a never ending battle with himself over whether to use drugs to cope with his powers. The different personalities on this team lead to a number of hilarious situations and antics which is a constant in all four books.

The book begins with the Ghost Finders being contacted by JC Chance’s ghost girl friend Kim. She disappeared in the second book after an epic battle with a Carnacki Institute traitor who was serving The Flesh Undying, a powerful supernatural intelligence hell bent on destroying the Institute. JC discovers that in order to free his girlfriend, the team must go to the London underground. They find out that the Flesh Undying has been manipulating a fallen Celtic god who has been raising an army of ghosts for a final purge of humanity. This forces Happy to make a decision, either go back on his drugs to give him the power to stop this threat or face certain death? This is only the first of two investigations the Ghost Finders are sent on leading to a second even more dangerous situation.

I thought this was a great book because it went further in depth with the characters than it has in the previous books. Happy especially had to go through a lot of character development in this book, showing he had to use drugs to contain psychic powers which are slowly destroying his mind. The constant banter between him and his tech geek girlfriend Melody is hilarious. My only criticism is I feel Kim is an underdeveloped character and she was inexplicably given all these new powers. One thing I have always enjoyed about the Simon Green books is you never know what random supernatural creatures or threats you might see and that keeps things interesting.
 


4.5 Sheep




Guest Reviewer: Tim

About the Author:
Simon Richard Green is a British science fiction and fantasy-author. He holds a degree in Modern English and American Literature from the University of Leicester. His first publication was in 1979.

His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirsty.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Urban Fantasy Releases from Penguin + giveaway!

Penguin has some awesome Urban Fantasy
coming out.
2 winners can pick 2 books (US/Canada only)

Bleeding Out (OSI #5)
Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Ace (May 29, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1937007634
ISBN-13: 978-1937007638

From the author of Infernal Affairs comes a story of murder. mayhem, and demon relations. Is this really the vacation Tess was looking for?
Though she’s on leave from the Occult Special Investigations squad, Tess Corday is still grappling with her own personal mysteries. But finding out the truth about her demonic heritage has been more difficult than she expected. Plus, her unauthorized investigation into an addictive new vampire street drug is driving a stake between her and her undead boyfriend.

Then Vancouver’s premier necromancer turns up dead. Tess suspects that the cases are related. And her suspicions will lead her into a paranormal showdown that can—and will—change the course of her life forever.
Occult Special Investigations series

Blood Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City #2
Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Roc (June 5, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0451464583
ISBN-13: 978-0451464583
Imagine a city divided. A city where human and Fae magic rests uneasily next to the vampire Blood and the shapeshifting Beasts. A city where a fragile peace is brokered by a treaty that set the laws for all four races… a treaty that is faltering day by day.
I didn’t plan on becoming a thief and a spy. But options are limited for the half-breed daughter of a Fae lord. My father abandoned me but at least I inherited some of his magic, and my skills with charms and glamours mean that few are as good at uncovering secrets others wish to hide. Right now the city has many secrets. And those who seek them pay so well…
I never expected to stumble across a Templar Knight in my part of the city. Guy DuCaine is sworn to duty and honor and loyalty — all the things I’m not. I may have aroused more than his suspicion but he belongs to the Order and the human world. So when treachery and violence spill threaten both our kind, learning to trust each other might be the only thing that saves us.
But even if a spy and a holy knight can work together, finding the key to peace is never going to be easy…
Novel of the Half-Light City Series

All Spell Breaks Loose (Raine Benares)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Ace (May 29, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1937007715
ISBN-13: 978-1937007713


My name is Raine Benares—and it sucks to be me right now.

I’m a seeker who found the Saghred, a soul-stealing stone that gave me unlimited powers I never wanted. Now I’ve lost the rock—and the magic it gave me—to a goblin dark mage whose main goals are my death and world domination. This is more than incentive enough for a little trip to the goblin capital of Regor with a small band of good friends, not-so-good friends, and one outright enemy. Don’t ask.

All we need to do is destroy the Saghred, kill the mage, and put a renegade goblin prince on the throne. Did I mention I’ll be doing that with no magic?
Raine Benares series

Silence (The Queen of the Dead book #1)
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: DAW Hardcover; 1 edition
(May 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0756407427
ISBN-13: 978-0756407421

It began in the graveyard…
Ever since her boyfriend Nathan had died in a tragic accident, Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was. For Emma, life had stopped with Nathan’s death. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery. There were two others there--Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags. And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death...

Emma was not quite like others teenagers. It was true that other girls had experienced grief. Other girls had also lost their fathers, or had their boyfriends die in a senseless accident. But though she hadn’t known it till that night in the graveyard, unlike those other girls, she could see, touch, and speak with the dead. In fact, Emma could draw upon the essence of the dead to work magic. That was what Necromancers did. But Emma had no desire to be a Necromancer. She just wanted to help the ghosts who walked the streets of Toronto, unable to escape from the land of the living. And that was just as well, because had she chosen the path of the Necromancer, Eric would have had to kill her.

Instead, Eric and his fellow Necromancer hunter Chase found themselves violating every rule they were sworn to follow, becoming part of Emma’s group, helping her to stand against those who preyed upon the dead. But whether Emma and her friends could survive such a battle was anyone’s guess. And whether Emma could learn to use the magic of the dead against her enemies without herself falling victim to the lure of such power remained to be seen. Eric seemed to think she could, and her living friends would never abandon her. But only time would tell what Emma’s true destiny was...

The Last Four Things (The Last Hand of God #2)
By Paul Hoffman
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (June 5, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0525952187
ISBN-13: 978-0525952183

The epic story of Thomas Cale-introduced so memorably in The Left Hand of God--continues as the Redeemers use his prodigious gifts to further their sacred goal: the extinction of humankind and the end of the world.

To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain.

Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved but still marked by a child's innocence, possessed of a remarkable aptitude for violence but capable of extreme tenderness, Cale will lead the Redeemers into a battle for nothing less than the fate of the human race. And though his broken heart foretells the bloody trail he will leave in pursuit of a personal peace he can never achieve, a glimmer of hope remains. The question even Cale can't answer: When it comes time to decide the fate of the world, to ensure the extermination of humankind or spare it, what will he choose? To express God's will on the edge of his sword, or to forgive his fellow man-and himself?
The last Hand of God Series

Live and Let Drood: A Secret Histories Novel #6
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Roc Hardcover (June 5, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0451464524
ISBN-13: 978-0451464521

The name is Bond, Shaman Bond. Better known as Drood, Eddie Drood Yes, I’m one of those Droods—the family who’ve been keeping the forces of evil contained in the shadows for as long as humans have walked the earth. Recently, I suffered a slight case of death, but thanks to Molly, my best girl (who happens to be a powerful witch), I got over that right quick. Unfortunately, my family wasn’t so lucky. In my absence, Drood Hall was destroyed and all my relatives were killed. Which left me as the Last of the Droods. I didn’t much like being The Last Drood, I can tell you—and then I realized that things weren’t as they seemed. Someone had activated a dimensional engine, sending my Drood Hall off to an alternate Earth, replacing it with a burnt-out doppelganger. My family is still alive out there. Somewhere. And nothing’s going to stop me from finding them…
Secret Histories

Enter the Rafflecopter, 2 winners will be chosen to pick 2 books each
US/Canada only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, December 23, 2011

Penguin book giveaway!

There are some awesome books coming from Penguin in the next few weeks! Would you like to win one of these?
I will pick one person to win the book of their choice!
How to win:
1. Leave your name, contact info
2.Tell me which book you want
*followers get double entries

The Bride Wore Black Leather (Nightside #12)
John Taylor is marrying the love of his life, Suzie Shooter, the Nightside’s most fearsome bounty hunter. But before he can walk down the aisle he has one more case to solve as a private eye — a case that has him on the run from friends and enemies both, with his bride-to-be looking to collect the bounty on his head...
Pre Order: kindle hardback


Raven Cursed (Jane Yellowrock #4)by Faith Hunter
The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to the Master Vampire of New Orleans they must work out the terms with him. To come up with an equitable solution, he sends an envoy with the best bodyguard blood money can buy: Jane Yellowrock. But when a group of local campers are attacked by something fanged, Jane goes from escort to investigator. Unless she wants to face a very angry mast vampire, she will have to work overtime to find the killer. It's a good thing she's worth every penny.
pre order: kindle paperback


The Mortal Bone (Hunter Kiss #4)by Marjorie Liu
When the bond Maxine Kiss shares with the demons tattooed on her skin is deliberately severed, the demon hunter is left vulnerable and unprotected. For the first time in ten thousand years, the demons have a taste of freedom. And as the little demons grow more violent and unpredictable, Maxine starts to fear they will lose their minds without her. Reuniting won't be easy, since a greater temptation waits for these hellions: a chance to return to their lives as Reaper Kings, and unleash hell on Earth.
pre order: amazon kindle paperback


The Bitter Seed of Magic (Spellcrakcers.com #3)by Suzanne McLeod
On the surface, Genny's life seems ripple-free right now. Finn, her sexy boss, has stopped pushing for a decision on their relationship. The seductive vampire Malik al-Khan has vanished back into the shadows. And the witches have declared her no longer a threat. But unless Genny can find a way to break the fertility curse afflicting London's fae, she knows this is just the lull before the magical storm. Then a faeling - a teenage girl - is fished out of the River Thames, dead and bound with magic, and Genny is called into investigate. As she digs through the clues, her search takes a sinister and dangerous turn, exposing age-old secrets that might be better left buried. Then another faeling disappears, and Genny finds herself in a race against time to save the faeling and stop the curse from claiming its next victim - herself!
pre order: kindle paperback


contest ends: Dec. 29th at midnight