Customer Reviews

Geist (A Book of the Order)

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Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

GEIST is one of those books that straddles the line between a number of different genres. It reads like a mix between Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and Illona Andrews Kate Daniels series (and not just because of the werelion). A number of paranormal creatures thrown into a high fantasy setting and time period with a splash a steampunk. Let's call it paranormal fantasy.

GEIST is set in a lush high fantasy world were a dedicated Order of essentially mages protect humanity from demons (aka geists) who attempt to possess and destroy the world. The Order is made up of two complimentary types of mages: Actives (who wield magic) and Sensitives (who can `see' the Otherside) who enter into a psychic Bond together.

This type of magic system and the religious/political order who train and dogmatize the deacons from childhood is very reminiscent of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Unfortunately, at just over 300 pages, I felt like GEIST barely scratched the surface of this necessarily complex society. I'm sure there will be more about The Order in future books, but as it was in the first book, we got the abridged version which remained too shallow for me to really connect with.

The characters were an entirely different matter, specifically Raed Rossin, Pretender to the throne. He is a wonderfully tormented man who brandishes his bitterness and pride like the weapons they are. Sorcha, meanwhile, is a walking legend as the most powerful Active The Order has. She is revered and feared by those around her, save for her indifferent husband and Sensitive partner, Kolya. After an injury, the young and idealistic Merrick is assigned to Sorcha in his stead.

I did like GEIST, but it had the potential to make me love it, and that miss has me disappointed. The world building was fascinating but underutilized, the surprise romance was a nice addition, and the three main characters made for an interesting if dysfunctional group. I'm on the fence about whether or not I'll be picking up SPECTYR when it's published in Summer 2011.

Geist really had me from the first chapter. In it we see Deacon Sorcha Faris and her husband, Kolya trying to find and get rid of a geist in a crowd of civilians. Sorcha is an Active of the Order, a fierce combatant who uses gauntlets inscribed with powerful runes in order to fight the undead. Her husband, and Bonded partner, Kolya, is a Sensitive who are equipped with a Strop around their eyes and are there to guide their Active partners. I really loved this aspect of the world building. There are evil paranormal forces that are watched and dispelled by these Deacons of the Order, who are stationed around the land. They are forces of good in a world where geists can erupt from the Otherside at any moment. The story takes place in a familiar setting of a medieval-like time but progressed enough to have pistols and dirigibles. I enjoyed that part too. It was familiar yet different from what I've seen in other fantasy novels.

After a terrible and shocking geist attack leaves her husband badly injured, Sorcha is given a new temporary partner, Merrick Chambers, to work with on the mystery of the unusual geist attacks. Chambers is a young, newly ordained Sensitive who is Bonded to Sorcha despite his reservations. I really liked Merrick; he offered a fresh and interesting perspective, being so new to the world of the Deacons as we are. He does go through some ups and downs in the story, but by the end, I really liked him.

On Sorcha and Merrick's mission to the town of Ulrich, they are met by a captain named Raed and his crew who are not what they seem. They find their fates attached when they make it to Ulrich and find trouble waiting for them. On this journey we see Sorcha and Raed grow somewhat closer together (and definitely attracted to each other) into what becomes an unusual romance. Yes, she is married, but her relationship with her husband has been almost nonexistent for two years. I wasn't too bothered by this, but perhaps others would be. I appreciated the unconventional romance; however, it wasn't the thing I liked most about this story.

My least favorite part was Sorcha herself. She smokes cigars, is a pretty cold person on the outside, and is the best at what she does. I didn't connect with her for those reasons, although it didn't deter me much from enjoying the story.

Overall, I really liked Geist. The unique and exciting world building made this a great read for those who like undead and/or paranormal creatures in a different setting. There's a lot of action (which I definitely love) and good story. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys those things. The romance, on the other hand, could be improved upon. The sequel, Spectyr, comes out next year and I will definitely be reading it.

A review copy of this book was provided by Ace Books.

I used to be a big reader. Like, really big. But in the last 5 years it's been hard for books to keep my attention and while I did manage to work my way through a few novels and short story collections recently, graphic novels have been the bulk of my intake. Imagine my surprise when I started reading Geist and I could. not. put it down! Every day I was reading! I was neglecting chores! I was staying up late! That's how much this book grabbed me. For one, the world is immensely detailed and fully realized. Ms. Ballantine does a fantastic job of making the world believable even as it continues to surprise you, ie. the medieval setting is revealed to have guns and airships as well as magic. The main players in this world are unique and flawed, just as three-dimensional characters ought to be. I found myself very drawn to the protaganist, Sorcha, and empathizing with her plights and painful choices. Plus she enjoys a good cigar! Plot-wise, you couldn't ask for a better fantasy story! It has everything: adventure, romance, betrayal, even a healthy splash of horror makes its way into the pages! Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Geist! You won't be disappointed and then we can all be waiting impatiently for the sequel together!

When I picked up Geist, it looked like an interesting premise. Something like a more serious Ghostbusters organization transplanted to a vaguely Medieval setting with magic doing the work that Egon's proton packs did. I could dig that.

And dig it I did... at least for the first three quarters of the book or so.

The book begins with Sorcha, who is an Active Deacon with an organization called "the Order" from all I could gather (I have utterly no recollection of any other nomenclature for this organization). Despite all of the titling, the Order is not religious in nature and instead goes about the dirty job of banishing geists, which are essentially like ghosts. Actives and Sensitives can banish and fight them in teams. Anyway, Sorcha and her new and inexperienced Sensitive partner Merrick are called to investigate some disturbances in the far off town of Ulrich. Little do they know there is a larger nefarious plan at work (dun dun DUN!). Cue the mess.

My main complaint stems from the larger nefarious plan at work. Without getting into too many spoilers, I thought that it needed more work, specifically in the pacing department. It felt distinctly rushed and probably could have used a few hundred more pages. The big baddie never really seemed like a character, almost more of a walk on role. Also, super powers started getting pulled out of thin air to pull people's bacon out of the fire.

Also, for all the ado made about the process of Bonding and how vastly important it is to the Active and Sensitive involved, it seemed to be in a state of being both overplayed and underplayed at the same time. It felt overplayed in how ever so strange it was that Sorcha and Merrick had such a strong bond in such a short period of time and yet Sorcha's previous bonds to previous partners didn't seem to give her any trouble whatsoever. I was left with the lingering impression that there should have been some kind of limitation in the mechanics of Bonding that were not in play.

Ending aside, I liked the book overall. The characters were decently well done. I especially enjoyed how Merrick and Sorcha grated on each others nerves in the beginning. I also thought that Merrick at least had some more apparent downsides to the whole weird Bonding thing. While I wasn't particularly thrilled with Sorcha at all throughout the book, I could at least follow and understand her lines of reasoning.

The setting was all right, although I had been hoping for more horror elements and a greater focus on geist-busting. From the politics shown, they would have been very interesting to take a look at from someone closer to the machinations than Raed.

I thought it was ok, but maybe not my cup of tea at the end of the day.

I have two reviews to give for Philippa Ballantine's book Geist.

The first is the short review. The cave man version, as given by my slightly hairier Cro-Magnon alter ego Thag: "Geist good! Thag like! You buy!"

Thag is a man of few words.

The second was a lot harder to write, simply because writing a really good review that sounds honest is a lot harder than writing a man one. That's my excuse for taking this long to write a review anyway.

Make no mistake, Geist is good, really good. Ballantine has found a way to make Ghosts scary again. As I mentioned in my review of Unholy Ghosts, ghosts usually play second fiddle to something far uglier, but the geists of Philippa Ballantine's world are entirely nasty enough without being cheesy. While of course there is more going on than an infestation of the undead, I never felt like a geist attack was something the characters could brush off.

If you haven't read Geist already, then you might be unprepared for Deacon Sorcha Farris, Geist's hard drinking, cigar smoking, ass kicking and ghost banishing protagonist. I say protagonist rather than hero because when you first meet Sorcha, you might not actually like her that much. Stick with her though, and you soon see there is far more to the deacon than her exterior would let on.

Balancing Sorcha is the junior deacon Merrick, who backs up Sorcha's abilities at banishing with his own ghost sensing powers and a far more (at least initially) laid back approach to life. Merrick serves as an excellent foil to Sorcha and as a team they are a very believable (not to mention extremely readable) ghost fighting team.

Raed, known as the Young Pretender, is a pirate captain who rounds out the narrative from his perspective. Raed has a curse laid on him that had to have been thought up at 3am on a starless night, and it serves as a backdrop to his part of the story before becoming a part of the story in its own right.

Geist works on several levels. If you're looking for an excellent fantasy novel with plenty of action and some sex scenes that will leave you in dire need of a cold shower (or a willing partner) then Geist is your book.

I really only have one criticism of the book, and that's I would have liked to know more about the Order that Sorcha and Merrick belong to. She hints at an extremely rich and complex society within the larger society and I'm hoping the sequel Spectyr will show me more.

I was once lucky enough to interview Philippa and we talked a lot about Geist. She described it too me as "three days of sex in a blimp", but I think Geist is a lot more than that. She has taken several fantasy rotes and turned them on their ear, giving readers something entirely fresh that carves out its own niche in the fantasy genre with a blend of steampunk, fantasy and paranormal romance.

Highly Recommended.

N.B This review also appears on my website [...]

The book started out asking questions instead of answering them.. . and I found that to be part of the charm. I liked wondering from the very beginning . .what's going on? What's the connection? Then, throughout the book there were instances when you KNEW there was something there . .but didn't find out where it lead until later. I think the book itself answered most of the questions presented. I like that, a book that leave enough for the next book but answers most.

I've literally had Geist in my purse for the past two months - I didn't have time for it during Nano and was busy with work and holidays in the first part of this month.

And, as suspected, this is the sort of book that shuts out the world.

I started to read it several times, only to have Real Life pull me back with a wrenching insistence I couldn't deny. So I scheduled a day during my vacation at the end of the month. As it happened, the Universe cooperated and sent a blizzard, foiling any further attempts by Real Life to keep me from my book.

Now, a confession: When I'm invested in a book, I peek at the ending. At the very moment that I "fall into" the book.

I peeked at the ending when I got to page eight of Geist. You know, just to be sure that the heroine didn't die in a fiery explosion at the end. Even though I knew that Spectyr and two other sequels have already been sold to the publisher, I had to check.

I was right, this is a book that shuts out the world and swallows you into its world. I took a couple of breaks for food and moving off of the couch. I think my mother called and I set it down for that, too.

But while I was away from the book, I was thinking about it.

The story involves an unusual heroine - late 30's, married, powerful Deacon Sorcha Faris, who smugly thinks she knows it all and can usually cope even when she doesn't. It's more of a police/ buddy story, when she's paired with an equally powerful partner, Deacon Merrick Chambers, a wet-behind-the-ears kid on his first assignment.

The Bond between them takes the term partner to new levels and they're soon dealing with Geists (unliving creatures) who don't follow the rules they've learned and trusted. Toss in a semi-possessed Pretender to the Throne who's part pirate and the result is a jaunty adventure.

The characters reveal themselves by what they do, the bad guys are wonderfully bad, disparate storylines careen toward each other and good intentions cause all sorts of problems. I would have liked more worldbuilding, but I'm expecting more in the sequels. I'll be waiting for them.

For an avid reader of fantasy, this was a nice change of pace from most of the other books I read. I found that, even though it was a light read, it still kept me interested. I read it from cover to cover on a recent plane ride. Highly recommended.

This book is a wonderful introduction to a universe which could go in any direction. The characters are compelling and easy to identify with. The lore is both familiar and rich. The story is entertaining. No matter what flavor of fantasy or fiction you love there is something here for you. Philippa Ballantine has done a fine job of creating an intriguing setting and filled it with characters that will draw you in.

My only criticism is that it was all over too soon. Fortunately there is more to come before long. Try not to fidget in meantime. The Rossin might be watching.

I thought the world Ms. B created was rich and complex. I was interested in the characters from the start, and enjoyed watching them evolve as the story unfolded.

I cannot wait for the next book!Geist (A Book of the Order)