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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I thought the first book in the Walker Papers series was okay enough for me to give the second book in the series a go. Unfortunately I was not impressed by Thunderbird Falls. One might even go so far as to say that I was disappointed.
The book follows a pattern common pattern to many urban fantasy books. Main character discovers that he/she has some form of magic/supernatural powers and gets dragged into a world where there are things that go bump in the night. After the initial introduction the books in the series pits the character against a series of bad guys one after another while the character develops as we go along.
However Joanne does not really seem to develop. If anything she almost regresses not wanting to use or learn about her shamanic powers. Worse, she walks around like a sleepwalker moaning about how tired she is or how unfair the world is and so on. She is duped more or less from the first page and continues to be played up until the ending where she somehow manages to avoid disaster despite the total mess.
When Joanne actually delves into her powers it is in surrealistic dream sequences which are more confusing than being a good read. I could perhaps have lived with that if Joanne would have developed along the way but she behaves like a less than intelligent wimp most of the time. In the first book she was a bit hot mouthed and showed some spunk but I did not get any feeling of such traits in this book.
Bottom line is that I was rather disappointed and I am in doubt whether I will read the next book in the series.
The book follows a pattern common pattern to many urban fantasy books. Main character discovers that he/she has some form of magic/supernatural powers and gets dragged into a world where there are things that go bump in the night. After the initial introduction the books in the series pits the character against a series of bad guys one after another while the character develops as we go along.
However Joanne does not really seem to develop. If anything she almost regresses not wanting to use or learn about her shamanic powers. Worse, she walks around like a sleepwalker moaning about how tired she is or how unfair the world is and so on. She is duped more or less from the first page and continues to be played up until the ending where she somehow manages to avoid disaster despite the total mess.
When Joanne actually delves into her powers it is in surrealistic dream sequences which are more confusing than being a good read. I could perhaps have lived with that if Joanne would have developed along the way but she behaves like a less than intelligent wimp most of the time. In the first book she was a bit hot mouthed and showed some spunk but I did not get any feeling of such traits in this book.
Bottom line is that I was rather disappointed and I am in doubt whether I will read the next book in the series.
adventurous
medium-paced
“Let me guess.” Was pretty much the only thoughts I had while reading Thunderbird Falls. OK, clearly not the only thoughts. But they were pretty much on replay the whole way through. Lot's of readers complained about how much Jo pisses and moans about her new powers. Which I'll talk about. My main complaint was how terribly predictable this book was.
Each new character, plot point, or anything introduced was so glaringly obvious I had this mental image of myself beating my head against a school desk! The fact that I had to forcibly sit myself down and finally just get finish this book killed this most of the enjoyment. The only reason I didn't simply walk away from Thunderbird Falls is the fact that I love Jo and I bought all of the books. All right, I really enjoyed the first one. Plus, Jo’s denial about her crush on Morrison . . .
Jo is great to follow in this book. She reminds me of myself on many levels. Talking out loud to myself. Check. No mind to mouth filter. Check. Car lover. Check. Shirks at the idea of huge cosmic responsibility. Check. Admittedly Jo immediately whining about how she doesn't want her new powers and her denial annoyed me. After everything in the last book she should know better. She's taking fencing lessons on the off chance that she might need to sword fight again. Why wouldn't she want to better herself on the magic playing field? That's where the battles are really going to take place. Then a dear book friend of mine stated that denial is the only thing that keeps us sane sometimes. Then there's Jo's dark and sad past. It clicked. Honestly in Jo’s place I would not want those powers and would run too.
In the end the real saving point of the book isn't that everyone is asking for Jo to want her powers, but to accept her place with them and to help. Because denial does not make the problems go away. Another beautiful thing is that no one out right laughs at Jo for her beliefs and it actually shows a Seattle full of a lot of people willing to accept and believe in the magical side of the world. While I find it highly unlikely, it is nice. At some point I'm sure Jo, and readers, will have to deal with some prejudices about it later. This book is a necessary step for character development, a lesson that hits close to home that Jo needs. It's just a shame the book had to be so freaking predictable.
Sexual Content: Sexual humor.
2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out
Originally reviewed at Book Whispers.
Each new character, plot point, or anything introduced was so glaringly obvious I had this mental image of myself beating my head against a school desk! The fact that I had to forcibly sit myself down and finally just get finish this book killed this most of the enjoyment. The only reason I didn't simply walk away from Thunderbird Falls is the fact that I love Jo and I bought all of the books. All right, I really enjoyed the first one. Plus, Jo’s denial about her crush on Morrison . . .
Jo is great to follow in this book. She reminds me of myself on many levels. Talking out loud to myself. Check. No mind to mouth filter. Check. Car lover. Check. Shirks at the idea of huge cosmic responsibility. Check. Admittedly Jo immediately whining about how she doesn't want her new powers and her denial annoyed me. After everything in the last book she should know better. She's taking fencing lessons on the off chance that she might need to sword fight again. Why wouldn't she want to better herself on the magic playing field? That's where the battles are really going to take place. Then a dear book friend of mine stated that denial is the only thing that keeps us sane sometimes. Then there's Jo's dark and sad past. It clicked. Honestly in Jo’s place I would not want those powers and would run too.
In the end the real saving point of the book isn't that everyone is asking for Jo to want her powers, but to accept her place with them and to help. Because denial does not make the problems go away. Another beautiful thing is that no one out right laughs at Jo for her beliefs and it actually shows a Seattle full of a lot of people willing to accept and believe in the magical side of the world. While I find it highly unlikely, it is nice. At some point I'm sure Jo, and readers, will have to deal with some prejudices about it later. This book is a necessary step for character development, a lesson that hits close to home that Jo needs. It's just a shame the book had to be so freaking predictable.
Sexual Content: Sexual humor.
2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out
Originally reviewed at Book Whispers.
I really enjoyed this book and so far the series too!
3 stars
This was just not as good as the first. It is important to the series and character development or I would say skip it and go to the next. It is obvious who the "bad" guy is almost from the beginning, yet we get dragged into the spirit realm into a quest that is just pull your hair out boring... several times. Jo is struggling with accepting her powers to the point of... joining a witch's circle? Um... can someone say, inconsistent. So she is "investigating" but you cannot do worse things than the crime you are investigating and not realize that you are the issue here.
So there were parts that I loved like, Morrison, Gary, Billy,... but I didn't feel that there were enough of them to save the poor plot line, which you can see coming from a mile away and takes forever to get there. I felt that she really messed up in this book and needs to start looking into what she is doing. She needs to find and research like minded people. Instead she falls upon people and unluckily most people are not like Gary. I still want to see her and Morrison more and get more relationship build there. This had satisfying moments but they seemed to be pulled back from.
So I liked the book. And reality check, I read right through it in a day, so it kept my attention. I was just frustrated much of the time. And after reading it, I even forgot that I had read it. It took a while for me to remember what I read between two other books. I knew I had read something but just couldn't remember what. It just didn't make a big impact.
This was just not as good as the first. It is important to the series and character development or I would say skip it and go to the next. It is obvious who the "bad" guy is almost from the beginning, yet we get dragged into the spirit realm into a quest that is just pull your hair out boring... several times. Jo is struggling with accepting her powers to the point of... joining a witch's circle? Um... can someone say, inconsistent. So she is "investigating" but you cannot do worse things than the crime you are investigating and not realize that you are the issue here.
So there were parts that I loved like, Morrison, Gary, Billy,... but I didn't feel that there were enough of them to save the poor plot line, which you can see coming from a mile away and takes forever to get there. I felt that she really messed up in this book and needs to start looking into what she is doing. She needs to find and research like minded people. Instead she falls upon people and unluckily most people are not like Gary. I still want to see her and Morrison more and get more relationship build there. This had satisfying moments but they seemed to be pulled back from.
So I liked the book. And reality check, I read right through it in a day, so it kept my attention. I was just frustrated much of the time. And after reading it, I even forgot that I had read it. It took a while for me to remember what I read between two other books. I knew I had read something but just couldn't remember what. It just didn't make a big impact.
This wasn't quite as good as the first book, but Joanne Walker is an interesting enough and well fleshed out character that I'm tempted to pick up book three right away! I was disappointed that the description on the back cover spoils some of the surprises from the latter half of the book. Yes, I was uneasy about certain events before I read the back of the book... But that tension is gone when it's confirmed.
In Thunder Falls, Joanne continues to struggle with the idea that she is a shaman. In this story, she has to deal with illness close to home, a witch coven and some interesting bad guys. It is fun to follow Joanne on her journey to understanding her new world. Recommend this series to all UF fans.
The second book in the Walker Papers series was more enjoyable than the first one for me, simple because I like Joanne's sense of humor. She pokes fun at herself relentlessly, whether it be in her thoughts or outloud in conversation, which makes her superhuman abilities not so off-putting. At one part she makes the remark that the people who are given the strongest powers usually don't even want them - the universe's way of creating balance. This is a great summary of Joanne's reluctance to be who she is supposed to be. The irony of this book is that reluctance is what she needs most in this book in order to defeat the Big Bad of this book, but she spends most of the book working on acceptance. She has a certain klutz factor in everything she does, and yet she still ends up on top no matter what the situation is.
The lack of romantic interludes I find rather discouraging, since she seems to have a few potential men in her sights but refuses to act on her attractions. With the chemistry building between her and her boss, a lack of activity feels like a loose end left hanging.
Another factor that felt like a loose end was Joanne's search for a spirit animal. While she did the search in the plot, and did come out with one, the ending made it look like she lost her spirit animal, so does she still have one or not? It seems like an awful lot of work to come up empty-handed.
Loose end number three was the outcome of the coven that Joanne joined. Nothing was stated to indicate if she was still a member, or what they intend to do about the events that they played a part in.
I was also rather confused about what the meaning of several of the scenes was, such as her encounter with the big Coyote and her sight-reversal of color. Neither of these, as well as other things, were explained much at all. I feel like I should research what shamanism is before I read anymore of this series, as it does not look like the author is inclined to delve into the details.
The lack of romantic interludes I find rather discouraging, since she seems to have a few potential men in her sights but refuses to act on her attractions. With the chemistry building between her and her boss, a lack of activity feels like a loose end left hanging.
Another factor that felt like a loose end was Joanne's search for a spirit animal. While she did the search in the plot, and did come out with one, the ending made it look like she lost her spirit animal, so does she still have one or not? It seems like an awful lot of work to come up empty-handed.
Loose end number three was the outcome of the coven that Joanne joined. Nothing was stated to indicate if she was still a member, or what they intend to do about the events that they played a part in.
I was also rather confused about what the meaning of several of the scenes was, such as her encounter with the big Coyote and her sight-reversal of color. Neither of these, as well as other things, were explained much at all. I feel like I should research what shamanism is before I read anymore of this series, as it does not look like the author is inclined to delve into the details.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/769830.html[return][return]The heroine of Thunderbird Falls is a Seattle policewoman who turns out to have psychic powers, in an environment drawing substantially from Native American traditions, with a certain helping of Celtic lore and the author's own imagination. It is very difficult to convey such a setting without falling into the trap of being either too twee or too earnestly evangelical, and it is very much to the author's credit that she manages it; the dangers, both physical and psychic, to the narrator make it clear that this is very far from the fotherington-tomas "Hullo clouds hullo sky hullo sun etc" view of nature.[return][return]The plot, unfortunately, depends a bit on the heroine not asking certain important questions that occur to the reader (at least to this reader) fairly early on. OK, we are given good reasons why she doesn't think her situation through, but it's a nagging concern. Also, I was kind of hoping (this is the romantic in me) for a more definite resolution of the various sexual tensions surrounding our narrator's life. Having said that, I really do hope there is another book to follow, and that I somehow get hold of the earlier one.