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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
Probably a solid 3.5 for me, but I've rounded up because I've moved straight on to the next book because I liked the characters a lot. The premise is interesting too, but the writing is a little slow and I'm not sure I actually "get" the worldbuilding - maybe in book 2! The characters absolutely save it though, and I want to find out what happens to them next.
DNF @ page 182. I hung on for a long time but it's just not getting better.
Whatever good ideas the plot or world-building contained that might have otherwise given me a satisfying reading experience, this novel demonstrated to me a fundamental flaw over and over again: breaking rules it never bothered to establish. The first time we meet a geist, the protagonist makes a big deal about how it's acting weirdly. But how would I know that? When was normal geist behavior explained to me?
She's married to her Bond partner, but the marriage has gone sour and the husband is a non-character gravely wounded in the inciting incident, in order to set up the surprising strength of the Bond with her new partner. But when did I as a reader ever learn what a normal Bond is supposed to be like?
When the new partners travel to a distant chapter of their Order and things feel off, I know I'm supposed to dread the reveal of whatever's going on, but I don't feel it because I don't have anything solid to compare it to. And when it turns out the chapter has gone rogue and is summoning geists instead of banishing them, the protagonist is horrified because this, apparently, has never once happened in the history of the Order. Umm, what? How many hundreds of years has the Order been around again? And not one Deacon has ever turned out to be evil before now? Your screening methods for applicants, and their training, is really that good? Am I supposed to believe that?
The one exception to this repeated untold-rule breaking is that geists start being capable of acting on water, when it is at least mentioned beforehand that the capital city is built on a peninsula in a swamp in order to surround as much of it with water as possible and keep it nominally geist-free. So when a geist possesses a giant sea creature that attacks a ship, okay, fine, I'll give you that one, it's weird and I understand it. But that was the only time I did.
I could never get invested in the story because I felt like the author was constantly trying to one-up me as a reader. "Oh, you'll never guess what's coming next! Why? Because I haven't given you a single tool to predict it! It's a super-big twist that I'm breaking the rule I never told you about!"
This is a fantasy world. I do not inherently know how it works. Info-dumping is a poor writing technique, but I would have preferred that to not being told barely anything useful about the system of the world until just before, or in some cases, just after, it gets broken and I'm supposed to care.
Whatever good ideas the plot or world-building contained that might have otherwise given me a satisfying reading experience, this novel demonstrated to me a fundamental flaw over and over again: breaking rules it never bothered to establish. The first time we meet a geist, the protagonist makes a big deal about how it's acting weirdly. But how would I know that? When was normal geist behavior explained to me?
She's married to her Bond partner, but the marriage has gone sour and the husband is a non-character gravely wounded in the inciting incident, in order to set up the surprising strength of the Bond with her new partner. But when did I as a reader ever learn what a normal Bond is supposed to be like?
When the new partners travel to a distant chapter of their Order and things feel off, I know I'm supposed to dread the reveal of whatever's going on, but I don't feel it because I don't have anything solid to compare it to. And when it turns out the chapter has gone rogue and is summoning geists instead of banishing them, the protagonist is horrified because this, apparently, has never once happened in the history of the Order. Umm, what? How many hundreds of years has the Order been around again? And not one Deacon has ever turned out to be evil before now? Your screening methods for applicants, and their training, is really that good? Am I supposed to believe that?
The one exception to this repeated untold-rule breaking is that geists start being capable of acting on water, when it is at least mentioned beforehand that the capital city is built on a peninsula in a swamp in order to surround as much of it with water as possible and keep it nominally geist-free. So when a geist possesses a giant sea creature that attacks a ship, okay, fine, I'll give you that one, it's weird and I understand it. But that was the only time I did.
I could never get invested in the story because I felt like the author was constantly trying to one-up me as a reader. "Oh, you'll never guess what's coming next! Why? Because I haven't given you a single tool to predict it! It's a super-big twist that I'm breaking the rule I never told you about!"
This is a fantasy world. I do not inherently know how it works. Info-dumping is a poor writing technique, but I would have preferred that to not being told barely anything useful about the system of the world until just before, or in some cases, just after, it gets broken and I'm supposed to care.
Let me tell you the reasons why Geist wasn’t as epic as expected.
First off, the introduction to the world and its characters was bad. You got thrown in a riot without knowing where you are, who you are, who the hell if fighting you, or who the hell you’re fighting against. There was also a lack of an index. It’s so funny how some authors that write Paranormal books (especially Paranormal Romances) tend to hit us with these fancy indexes of silly edited words, which are pretty obvious in their meaning. And yet a book of Geist’s might gets nothing of the sort.
Geist is in badly need of an index, people. Please fix this issue.
Another problem was with the information, or better put, overflow of information. Sometimes when I read my mind gets idle, and I might not pay attention to certain things. Fuck it, this happens to me a lot, especially since I tend to read at the end of the day in bed, before I sleep. Why do i do this? Because I read to relax. Geist felt like doing homework. I had to focus 100% with it in order not to miss anything. Now don’t get me wrong, I love being totally sucked into books, but my problem is with being forced to do this since it didn’t come naturally. Geist has 290 pages, and the story is rather complex. This resulted in an overflow of information that gave me headaches at times.
Since the story is rather somber, I felt like the romance between Sorcha and Raed was not matching. I would have the erotic scenes replaced with some more intimate emotional ones. I also felt like Sorcha’s toughness was a bit too forced. But this could be me.
Apart from this, I loved Geist’s universe, story and characters, and I would recommend it if you’re in the mood for some fast-paced Fatasy reading.
3.5 stars
Review also posted on
First off, the introduction to the world and its characters was bad. You got thrown in a riot without knowing where you are, who you are, who the hell if fighting you, or who the hell you’re fighting against. There was also a lack of an index. It’s so funny how some authors that write Paranormal books (especially Paranormal Romances) tend to hit us with these fancy indexes of silly edited words, which are pretty obvious in their meaning. And yet a book of Geist’s might gets nothing of the sort.
Geist is in badly need of an index, people. Please fix this issue.
Another problem was with the information, or better put, overflow of information. Sometimes when I read my mind gets idle, and I might not pay attention to certain things. Fuck it, this happens to me a lot, especially since I tend to read at the end of the day in bed, before I sleep. Why do i do this? Because I read to relax. Geist felt like doing homework. I had to focus 100% with it in order not to miss anything. Now don’t get me wrong, I love being totally sucked into books, but my problem is with being forced to do this since it didn’t come naturally. Geist has 290 pages, and the story is rather complex. This resulted in an overflow of information that gave me headaches at times.
Since the story is rather somber, I felt like the romance between Sorcha and Raed was not matching. I would have the erotic scenes replaced with some more intimate emotional ones. I also felt like Sorcha’s toughness was a bit too forced. But this could be me.
Apart from this, I loved Geist’s universe, story and characters, and I would recommend it if you’re in the mood for some fast-paced Fatasy reading.
3.5 stars
Review also posted on
Now I am a sucker for good fantasy, but this was different, fantasy yet paranormal in its bones. Hell yes! Excellent story, world building is extraordinary, I felt as though I was just on the tip of the iceberg in the vastness of the Order universe. The characters are fantastic, dark, deep, strong, weird yet it works. Very well in fact. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars was the writing, its uncomfortable... not horrible, not unedited, just weird. It grew on me later, but it took 3 solid days of trying to get into the story before I knew I wanted to finish the book. I am glad I did. AND the very best part is we have no HEA here. Just a mere lightening of the load on the 3 main characters, it left me wanting to immediately start book 2... and only good can come of that :)
The world of The Order is incredibly rich and the author wasn't afraid of plunging her readers right into the thick of things - the first chapter is dense with action and mythology and it took me a while to settle into this book. But once I found my feet, Geist made for an enjoyable read.
My biggest criticisms of the book are to do with character growth and villain motivation. For the former, the book suffered from too many new people and new relationships - I would have been quite happy to read about Sorcha and Merrick alone, forging a partnership and ultimately a friendship. The Raed strand was interesting but not explored enough and Nynnia was just jarring.
The 'big bad' plot and reveal also bothered me - it hinged on a lot of 'we knew you'd behave this way so we can now do this' plot contrivances. Still, as an introduction, Geist caught my attention and I am curious to see what happens next.
My biggest criticisms of the book are to do with character growth and villain motivation. For the former, the book suffered from too many new people and new relationships - I would have been quite happy to read about Sorcha and Merrick alone, forging a partnership and ultimately a friendship. The Raed strand was interesting but not explored enough and Nynnia was just jarring.
The 'big bad' plot and reveal also bothered me - it hinged on a lot of 'we knew you'd behave this way so we can now do this' plot contrivances. Still, as an introduction, Geist caught my attention and I am curious to see what happens next.
DNF due to the incredibly complicated world and dry descriptions that didn't really engage my interest.
3 stars
I just see the date when I start reading Geish and finish it, and it took me more than 1 month! Yeah, actually I kinda had a dry spell in reading because I'm distracted with game that I played today. I neglect Geist for many days but there's something niggling in my min. Like an itch that need to be scratched. So, I decide to pick Geist and finally finish this one tonight.
The story start with a bang with our heroine, Deacon Sorcha Faris lose her husband and partner in a fight, and must bonded herself with Merrick Chamber. Deacon is like a peace protector, those who stand between the living and the dead, called geist. Deacon divided into 2 type, Active that is offense type like Sorcha. Their partner called Sensitive, who support Active to fight Geist by Sight, a ability to peer into the Otherside when Geist reside. The problem begin when Sorcha and Merrick that go to Ulrich to investigate strange incident meet Raed Rossin. Raed, called the Pretender, is the son of the last emperor of Arkaym that lose his throne to the current Emperor. Raed himself hold a curse,named the Rossin aka The Beast (that explain the lion on the cover). Things get complicated when Sorcha and Merrick face betrayal in Ulrich and face a sinister threat, and Sorcha get entangled by Raed, both mentally and physically.
Geist not bad, but like so many first book in a series, its have big weakness. Complicated world building. My biggest pet peeve in fantasy book is a map. A fantasy book without map will get me lose because I don't know where the story set, when its happen and how much time our MCs need to travel to city A to B. Also, Ballantine kinda jump to the water, write so little explanation that make me so confused when read Geist at first. I just realized that there was a prologue to Geist which explain the event before Geist start. Even the story start with a bang, the plot also slow. The pace begin to pick up in the middle part until the end.
The strength of Geist is the character. Sure Nalini Singh said that the world of the Geist is original, but I detect some old fantasy troupe, like sword and sorcery. Sorcha and Merrick role perfectly fit into this troupe. Its not that bad, quite opposite actually. It just I hope that Ballantine give some glossarium to explain about the term and event in this book. The other plus point is the characters. I like Sorcha. A.Lot. This is a heroine that so badass, without lose her feminine will, confident with her sexuality and her power. While her relationship with Merrick is still grow a little, hers with Raed is wow.
Mark my words, Geist is NOT A ROMANCE. Sorcha already married and even I said she lose her husband, said husband is still much alive. What happen between Raed and Sorcha might be categorized into infidelity. But who can blame Sorcha? Her marriage already crumbling, her husband is distant from her she barely remember how to feel a man's warmth. I like how Ballantine wrote about Sorcha and Raed. Who said that fantasy can't have sex on it? Yes for YA fantasy maybe, but adult fantasy is very very welcome to have sex scene. Beside Ballantine not write it graphically, even the infidelity part might trigger some readers that not like cheating. But like I state before, Geist is not romance, Sorcha's act with Raed have believable reason and I really love this pair. Their dynamic is kinda remind me of Kate Daniels and Curran Lenart, but while Kate-Curran is too slow like snail, Sorcha and Raed is already sizzle from the beginning. Is that bad? Nope, nope in my opinion ;).
While the weakness of Geist is the complicated world building, I still recommend this one to fantasy readers alike. The concept is good, the plot have a good dollop of mystery and suspense, the conspirary is intriguing, the characters are lovable. I will definitely read the next to know what's waiting for our deacon Sorcha, her partner Merrick and her fugitive lover, Raed.
I just see the date when I start reading Geish and finish it, and it took me more than 1 month! Yeah, actually I kinda had a dry spell in reading because I'm distracted with game that I played today. I neglect Geist for many days but there's something niggling in my min. Like an itch that need to be scratched. So, I decide to pick Geist and finally finish this one tonight.
The story start with a bang with our heroine, Deacon Sorcha Faris lose her husband and partner in a fight, and must bonded herself with Merrick Chamber. Deacon is like a peace protector, those who stand between the living and the dead, called geist. Deacon divided into 2 type, Active that is offense type like Sorcha. Their partner called Sensitive, who support Active to fight Geist by Sight, a ability to peer into the Otherside when Geist reside. The problem begin when Sorcha and Merrick that go to Ulrich to investigate strange incident meet Raed Rossin. Raed, called the Pretender, is the son of the last emperor of Arkaym that lose his throne to the current Emperor. Raed himself hold a curse,named the Rossin aka The Beast (that explain the lion on the cover). Things get complicated when Sorcha and Merrick face betrayal in Ulrich and face a sinister threat, and Sorcha get entangled by Raed, both mentally and physically.
Geist not bad, but like so many first book in a series, its have big weakness. Complicated world building. My biggest pet peeve in fantasy book is a map. A fantasy book without map will get me lose because I don't know where the story set, when its happen and how much time our MCs need to travel to city A to B. Also, Ballantine kinda jump to the water, write so little explanation that make me so confused when read Geist at first. I just realized that there was a prologue to Geist which explain the event before Geist start. Even the story start with a bang, the plot also slow. The pace begin to pick up in the middle part until the end.
The strength of Geist is the character. Sure Nalini Singh said that the world of the Geist is original, but I detect some old fantasy troupe, like sword and sorcery. Sorcha and Merrick role perfectly fit into this troupe. Its not that bad, quite opposite actually. It just I hope that Ballantine give some glossarium to explain about the term and event in this book. The other plus point is the characters. I like Sorcha. A.Lot. This is a heroine that so badass, without lose her feminine will, confident with her sexuality and her power. While her relationship with Merrick is still grow a little, hers with Raed is wow.
Mark my words, Geist is NOT A ROMANCE. Sorcha already married and even I said she lose her husband, said husband is still much alive. What happen between Raed and Sorcha might be categorized into infidelity. But who can blame Sorcha? Her marriage already crumbling, her husband is distant from her she barely remember how to feel a man's warmth. I like how Ballantine wrote about Sorcha and Raed. Who said that fantasy can't have sex on it? Yes for YA fantasy maybe, but adult fantasy is very very welcome to have sex scene. Beside Ballantine not write it graphically, even the infidelity part might trigger some readers that not like cheating. But like I state before, Geist is not romance, Sorcha's act with Raed have believable reason and I really love this pair. Their dynamic is kinda remind me of Kate Daniels and Curran Lenart, but while Kate-Curran is too slow like snail, Sorcha and Raed is already sizzle from the beginning. Is that bad? Nope, nope in my opinion ;).
While the weakness of Geist is the complicated world building, I still recommend this one to fantasy readers alike. The concept is good, the plot have a good dollop of mystery and suspense, the conspirary is intriguing, the characters are lovable. I will definitely read the next to know what's waiting for our deacon Sorcha, her partner Merrick and her fugitive lover, Raed.
This book took a while for me to get into. I wanted to like it, but mostly I was bored. I got interested in the middle, but then that interest dropped off again. I'm not sure exactly why, but I just didn't care for this book. :( That's a shame because it reminded me a little bit of Robin Hobb and I LOVE her.
Oh, and what was up with all the editing errors in this book? Seriously, it was bad. I found 3 in just the first 30 pages or so.
Oh, and what was up with all the editing errors in this book? Seriously, it was bad. I found 3 in just the first 30 pages or so.
I _really_ wanted to like this series. The magic system is interesting and the main character was a strong female (still a rarity in this day and age) but unfortunately, she turned to goo and bodice-ripping when the dashing pirate captain appears on the scene. Although married, she immediately falls into bed with him and loses all semblance of strength and independence when he is around or in danger.
It was quite a shame as the series held such promise before bare chested pirates entered the story line.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of non-romantic fantasy to keep me occupied without having to plod through this rest of this torrid romance.
It was quite a shame as the series held such promise before bare chested pirates entered the story line.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of non-romantic fantasy to keep me occupied without having to plod through this rest of this torrid romance.