Customer Reviews

Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The previous "review" of this book shows the shortcomings of Amazon's "Are you over 13?" button before commenting; the question should be posed as mental age, not physical.

Unlike the prior reviewer, I've actually read Jim's book. I'll be honest: urban fantasy is not my cup of tea. I find Butcher's Dresden Files novels mildly entertaining, if formulaic (the long build-up to a "crowning moment of awesome" and then a power plus-up for Dresden gets a little old after ten or so installments).

That said, I enjoyed Jim Bernheimer's book a lot. It avoids many of the cliches of the genre (no hot, tramp-stamped vamp on the cover in torn leathers) and tells a fresh tale, not a hackneyed vamps vs. lycan replay.

The story is about a down-on-his-luck Iraq War vet who acquires the ability to see and communicate with ghosts via a cornea transplant. He becomes a Ferryman, with the ability to help ghosts acquire closure with their lives and deaths and pass on to the next world. The ability to see ghosts has existed throughout modern literature (Hamlet, Jesus Christ, the ancient Greeks, many African spiritual traditions, and yes, several B horror flicks); the challenge is to tell the modern ghost tale in a fresh, interesting way. Jim does.

In such stories, there is often a supernatural world existing beneath normal human perception. The mark of a good tale in this genre is whether it's a compelling, interesting enough world that the reader wishes to join, if only vicariously through the written word. Jim delivers in spades.

What's good about this novel: Jim's characters are organic and interesting. His hero isn't a superman, but rather an average guy thrust into difficult circumstances. His weaving of Civil War era history into the tale is engaging and clever. He works in the sort of bitter humor that's become a staple for modern heroes and that keeps the prose lively. And, as those who know his writing from other genres can attest, he pens heart-thumping action sequences with the best.

I suspect this novel will be difficult to place on booksellers' shelves. I wouldn't characterize the story as horror so much as supernatural/suspense, but the story doesn't quite have the grandiose scope of a classic urban fantasy yarn (ala Butcher's novels). It's a gritty, realistic tale of a real guy that doesn't try too hard to be what it's not. It does leave some loose ends and probably deserves a sequel.

If they allowed half-stars, I'd give this 4.5/5.

If you're looking for demon-killing nymphomaniacs, this book is not for you. If, however, you're looking for a brilliant first novel by a very promising storyteller, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Set in modern times (the protagonist is a medically retired veteran from Iraq) it's an adventure story where the hero doesn't know he's a hero, and in fact finds the whole hero business to be an inconvenience - he'd like to get back on track with his life, thank-you-very-much.

Imagine some petty, vindictive, ungrateful and even psychotic people. Now imagine that these people knew that no one could punish them for murder (or worse). Meet the ghosts that Mike Ross -- Jim Bernheimer's great new hero -- is forced to deal with.

Ferryman Mike is down on his luck but doesn't quit. His sarcastic wit, moral code, and generally proactive style remind me of a Jim Rockford or a Thomas Magnum. Like those other two antiheroes, he gets: plenty of grief from his "clients", precious little money, and no glory. Still, we love him and the characters he is surrounded with.

The story starts with a single false step (a little questionable politics) but quickly draws us into Mike's world as we watch him learn -- the hard way -- to deal with his unwanted gifts. This book is a real page-turner with excellent characters and great action scenes. The mystery moves along nicely and the plot twists are well done. It ends all too soon, leaving us wanting more.

I sincerely hope there will be a sequel.

I got this book as a time killer, so to speak. Something to read while my games were going through their abnormally long loading times, my cakes were baking, I was on a plane, or something equally tedious. And, in fact, that was what I used this book as. Well, for about five minutes.

Then I closed down my game and sat here for a few hours and read Dead Eye cover to cover. I can say, without a doubt, that Jim is a phenomenal writer, who manages to blend action, mystery, a bit of romance, and make a compelling tale.

Plus, it made me care about the civil war. As someone who fights sleep in every history class, there's not much higher praise then that.

Let's just wrap this up by saying that I didn't think Jim could top "Horror, Humor, And Heroes". Not that I don't think he's good, but I just enjoyed Confessions of a D-List Superhero that much. I can say, without a doubt, that he managed to do that with Dead Eye.

If you enjoy any of the books I've mentioned, or even are just browsing for something to kill time, I can't recommend this highly enough.

I am surprised at the number of glowing reviews on this page. I just finished Dead Eye, and while I enjoyed the premise of the story, the novel fell short on a number of levels, most noticeably the shoddy editing. I won't bother detailing the plot summary which you can read in other reviews and that I actually enjoyed, which is why I was so frustrated with the poor editing.

I was amazed at the number of grammatical errors in this book! I'm not sure whether that's the fault of the author or the editor; however, the poor editing definitely impacted my enjoyment of the story. The typos were primarily visible in sentences containing too many/not enough words to make sense, and not simple misspellings. Sentences throughout the story read as if they were reworded at some point and relevant words were not removed in order for the sentence to make sense. For example: "I went to the her office." (This example is mine, not the author's, but you get the point.)

In addition--and this is not necessarily an editorial mistake--but the excessive use of "air quotes" around every pun or ironic observation Mike makes is also very distracting and become tedious quickly. There is also an abundance of exclamation points after sentences! I found this punctuation mark distracting when applied in excess to Mike's dramatic observations, which didn't really require the additional "shout" to make a point.

Aside from editing, there are some key issues that detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. First is the lack of any likeable female characters. With the exception of Mike's mother, there are really only three supporting female characters: Jenny Goodman, Officer Candy McKenna, and Elsbeth the ghost. All of these women are written as vapid, petty, promiscuous, or outright bitchy. This may not matter to some readers, but I found myself unable to sympathize with any of these women, all of whom become dislikable and/or irritating shortly after their introduction. Jenny is the flirtatious college classmate of Mike's who sells his tale of being able to see ghosts after a corneal transplant operation to a tabloid, thus exposing him to all manner of kooks calling to ask for his help. Their relationship starts as potentially romantic when Mike banishes Jenny's malicious ghost until Jenny gives Mike the cold shoulder. Without going into too much detail, her immature and manipulative behavior are so irritating that I found myself questioning why--other than physical appeal--would Mike want anything to do with this girl? Mike's pseudo-girlfriend Candy (he calls her his girlfriend after one date) is also Jenny's cousin--a fact that initially causes friction when Jenny becomes jealous of Mike's attention when they aren't dating. Candy's "southern" accent is written into her dialogue i.e. "Ya gotta" which, coupled with her seductive banter (the only lines she has in the story) make Candy "read" as a promiscuous airhead. Elsbeth is a ghost who seeks Mike's help in stopping her husband from murdering her mother. She hangs around assisting Mike and fast becomes critical of his every move shortly thereafter. I could not understand why Mike tolerated her antics for as long as he did before finally confronting her about her attitude.

The pacing of the story is somewhat slow in the beginning as Mike discovers he can see ghosts, which leads into a series of unrelated, irrelevant episodes in which he assists people with ghost problems or ghosts with people problems. Only two of these incidents have a remote connection to the main plot that doesn't even occur until the second half of the story when Mike discovers the Gettysburg ghosts. As a result, I found myself putting the book down often and picking it back up again. The pacing definitely gets better toward the latter half of the story once Mike gains more ghost experience and learns that he is "the Ferryman."

On the plus side, the author has come up with a clever and interesting storyline for a series that, despite my frustration with the afore-mentioned problems, I was really into. I normally stop reading books that irritate me, but I stuck with this novel determined to finish. Some of the criticisms I had (such as "with" punctuation!) may simply be to the author's inexperience and will hopefully correct themselves in future novels. I really hope there is at least one likeable or strong female character introduced in the next novel. I would recommend this book to a friend with the warning to expect grammatical/structural errors. If you can get past those (as many seem to have done) then you may enjoy this story.

Good book. I literally read it straight through. It had a couple of typo's, and a couple misspellings, but really, who cares?
My neck hurts, and my eyes are sore- and I just bought the sequel. How's that for a review?

I enjoyed this first novel, an urban fantasy that reminded me of early Jim Butcher. A quirky sarcastic protagonist, who has to figure out who he is, and his place in the world, against all odds. The plot really kept moving, and kept me up too late at night, since I wanted to know what happened next. The characterization was believable, and the main character grew over the course of the novel. The fantasy elements were creative, and the author continued to fill us in on new and interesting details. I'm picky about what I read and have stopped reading novels mid-stream. But while some of the other reviews are correct about the need for better editing, I enjoyed this book and look forward to the sequel.

I have been reading science fiction and fantasy for over 40 years (Dragon Riders of Pern was the series that really got me hooked on the genre). However, I lean towards hard science fiction (Asimov, Clarke, Weber, Flint Etc...) rather than fantasy. I probably never would have found or picked up "Pennies for the Ferryman" if it wasn't for the fact that the author, Jim Bernheimer, started to work with me recently in the same IT department. I was surprised to find out that he was a published author, especially a science fiction/fantasy author. A short while later Jim gave me his book and asked that I let him know what I thought of it. To tell the truth, I somewhat dreaded it, what would happen if I didn't like it, it almost felt like a school assignment.

I set on it for a while but then decided to take it with me on a weeklong business trip, figuring it would make good airport and hotel reading. Imagine my surprise when I started reading it while waiting for the plane to head to my destination and got hooked on the story line. During that whole week long trip I could not wait to get back to the hotel and continue reading the book.

Jim has a dry and sarcastic sense of humor that comes out in the main character, Mike. I noticed that some reviewers commented on some lack of polish in the book's dialogue. The book is a first person account and Mike sounds like a normal person not like some English scholar. That adds to the believability of the story rather than detracting from it. I especially liked the way Jim has his character comment on and behave in the little things. Those little continuity issues or implausibles that even some of the major writers in the field miss (the equivalent of seeing the microphone boom in a movie frame). Bottom line is this, you know a book and the storyline is good if you can't put it down and then when you do finish you are hungry for more. That is the way I was with this book, and I can't wait for the sequel. One advantage (or is it a disadvantage) is that Jim has given me some glimpse into the sequel and I can't wait for it to come out.

Length:: 3:31 Mins

Dead Eye - Pennies for the Ferryman by Jim Bernheimer

So here we have what I consider the perfect protagonist. We have Mike Ross, 23 years old and already a war veteran with a disability. Or is it? Some would say he was given a gift when he lost part of his eyesight in the war and then regained it during a corneal transplant. Well let's just say not everyone would appreciate the sort of gift Mike was given, because now he can see ghosts and they aren't all the "Casper the Friendly Ghost" kind.

Through a bit of trial and error and a lot of ghostly fighting and several near concussions, Mike finds out that he has a new job- he needs to send restless ghosts on to wherever it is that they belong, for they certainly don't belong with us. But just maybe some do! I am most certainly not going to spoil this book for you by telling you what the plot is all about or giving way spoilers. Nope. What I am going to tell you is that if you are a fan of the paranormal, of suspense and mystery with a touch of history thrown in, then you are going to love this book.

Mike is great as he learns to live with his new abilities and in just this one book we see him grow quite a bit, but not to the point that he has no room to grow in future books. The secondary characters are wonderful and I hope to see much more of them in the future. The book also has a number of surprises that keeps things fresh. Mike is a witty, sarcastic Protagonist who can definably "roll with the changes", can make you laugh one minute and then smack yourself in the head for his naivete the next.

There is not a lot of bad language (nothing you really wouldn't expect to see in a book of this sort),and no sex; which will make parents comfortable recommending it to younger teens. I would recommend this book to any one from mid to late teen years on up to adults, and what is great is that this book will appeal to both sexes.


This book is going to be a hit; and if not this book I know that the author is going to make it. His concepts are new and fresh, the writing tight and humorous. The additions of the historic tidbits are something that I don't think I've really seen in this manner in this genre.

I am counting the days until I get to read the next book in this series.