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Philippa Ballantine
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Harbinger (A Book of the Order 4) Kindle Edition

by Philippa Ballantine (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 126 ratings
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The Deacons of the Order are all that stand between the wicked spirits of the Otherside and the innocent citizens of the Empire. They are sworn to protect humanity, even when they cannot protect themselves… After the Razing of the Order, Sorcha Faris, one of the most powerful Deacons, is struggling to regain control of the runes she once wielded. The Deacons are needed more desperately than ever. The barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead is weakening, and the Emperor has abandoned his throne, seeking to destroy those he feels have betrayed him. Though she is haunted by the terrible truth of her past, Sorcha must lead the charge against the gathering hordes of geists seeking to cross into the Empire. But to do so, she will need to manipulate powers beyond her understanding—powers that may prove to be her undoing…
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  1. Book 4 of 4
    A Book of the Order
  2. Print length
    248 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    November 13, 2018
  6. Reading age
    16 - 18 years
  7. File size
    2207 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
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There are 4 books in this series.
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Bundle price: Kindle price
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the Book of the Order Novels

“[A] richly detailed world and wonderfully realized characters.”—New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh

“Absolutely not to be missed.”—National bestselling author Barb Hendee

“A fantastic fantasy.”—Genre Go Round Reviews

“[A] unique, character-driven fantasy that delivers on all levels.”—Smexy Books

About the Author

Philippa (Pip) Ballantine is the author of the Book of the Order series, the Shifted World series, the Chronicles of Art series, and—with Tee Morris—the coauthor of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series. Her podcast of Chasing the Bard won the Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2009, and two of her novels have been short-listed for it. Originally from New Zealand, she now resides in Virginia with her husband, her daughter, and a mighty clowder of cats.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07GHFX44W
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 13, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2207 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1730932908
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 126 ratings

About the author

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Philippa Ballantine

Philippa Ballantine

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Originally from New Zealand, Philippa Ballantine, is a horror, fantasy, and steampunk author.

Her most recent novel, Inferno's Fall, is set in the world of Alien.

She's won an Airship, a Parsec, an RT Book Review Readers Choice, and a Sir Julius Vogel Award, as well as appearing in the Locus Bestseller list, and been in the Goodreads Top Science Fiction books.

She currently resides in Manassas, Virginia with her husband, her daughter, and a mighty clowder of cats. Visit her online at pjballantine.com or follow her on Twitter @PhilippaJane.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
126 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the ending good, somber, and heartwarming. They also describe the book as exciting, entertaining, and intriguing. Readers praise the storyline as great and the characters as always on the move.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

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EndingEnjoymentStoryline
5 customers mention "Ending"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the ending good and heartwarming.

"This was a great end to a wonderful series. Fulfilling in every way. Hard to put down...." Read more

"This book ended the series very well. I feel like all the loose ends are tied up nice and tight." Read more

"...and raed had satisfying endings to their journeys and it ended on a somber, yet heartwarming note." Read more

"...(although the ending of the book was pretty nice)." Read more

3 customers mention "Enjoyment"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book exciting, entertaining, and intriguing. They say the theory behind the books is very fulfilling.

"This was a great end to a wonderful series. Fulfilling in every way. Hard to put down...." Read more

"It was exciting and kept you wanting more. The characters were always on the move and kept you wondering what will happen next." Read more

"...Unfortunate since the idea and theory behind the books was very intriguing, but the execution of the purported final book in the series was less..." Read more

3 customers mention "Storyline"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the plot and characters have substance and depth. They also mention the characters are always on the move and keep them wondering what will happen next.

"I like Philippa Ballantine's books. The plot and characters have sbu;substance and depth...." Read more

"It was exciting and kept you wanting more. The characters were always on the move and kept you wondering what will happen next." Read more

"...soon, and while it takes a while to pick up speed for me it is a great story line." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Ms. Tricia A. Deluna
5.0 out of 5 stars Sorcha rules!
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014
Verified Purchase
This was a great end to a wonderful series. Fulfilling in every way. Hard to put down. Makes me want to take up smoking cigarillos......but I probably won't.
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dragonbreath
4.0 out of 5 stars liked
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
I like Philippa Ballantine's books. The plot and characters have sbu;substance and depth. Her books are about the story not about how much "sex" she can introduce throughout the plot. Many of my time favored authors have now gone the route of thinking it's all about the "sex" in the story rather than the story.
One person found this helpful
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Amanda C
5.0 out of 5 stars Fitting ending
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2014
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This book ended the series very well. I feel like all the loose ends are tied up nice and tight.
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Cecile Bryan
5.0 out of 5 stars It was exciting and kept you wanting more. The ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2018
Verified Purchase
It was exciting and kept you wanting more. The characters were always on the move and kept you wondering what will happen next.
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Michael Snowden
4.0 out of 5 stars Good end to a great series
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2017
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I thought this was a good wrap up to the four book series. sorcha, merrick, and raed had satisfying endings to their journeys and it ended on a somber, yet heartwarming note.
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Bw. Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2014
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I love all of Phillipa's books and I can't wait for the next installment. I have thousands of books in my library and I read at least three books a week ( one of the perks of being retired ) I am looking forward to my grandchildren getting old enough to get interested in what I have collected . They are almost teenagers now and I hope that they will still enjoy reading books instead of just tablets .. time will tell.
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Izzygirl
2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing end to a series that began with so much potential
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book was sadly exactly what I was expecting. I understand pyrric victory but taking a character who was once powerful and in control and brave and turning her into a sniveling victim for most of the book except the one scene in the village. Then at the end she is stripped of everything by the person who had once been closest to her. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.
On top of that this book was boggy, filled with continuity errors, and had many spelling and grammatical errors. I'm sure that writing a series and making it all come together is hard but it can be done better than this.
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Meio Setsuna
3.0 out of 5 stars Book was kind of rushed
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2013
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The reason why I couldn't give this one a five star was mainly due to the fact that it felt hurried. There were a lot of things that were just brushed over and getting only like a sentence. For example: there was a rebellion brewing while the main characters were beginning to move in on the castle. All this, just got one sentence in which the Duchess went over there and fixed it somehow. This could have been so much more...

I felt that the author was trying to stay within the four book limit and tried to tie up the last story threads in the last hundred pages. The beginning of the book painted the picture that was pretty bleak and I was ok with that but then the author decided to rush to the ending. I sat back while reading this and marked where the action started and I was 2/3 of the way through the book...

If the author had made the story in this more developed and didn't mind making two books out of this one, then I think it would have been better. I was kind of sad that the last book in this amazing series ended like this (although the ending of the book was pretty nice).
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
good
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Helen Roy
5.0 out of 5 stars more please
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2018
Verified Purchase
Great read. Fantastic characters and I hope this isn't the end for them
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Mina
4.0 out of 5 stars Satisfying end of the fantasy tetralogy
Reviewed in Germany on October 26, 2013
Verified Purchase
Warning: This is the forth and final book of a series in which the overall story arc is determining the action in each book. So there is no way to review the book without spoilering what events happened in the previous books to lead to everything that happens in "Harbinger". In other words: if you haven't read the first three books, this would be spoilerish as far as these books are concerned. And since the books aren't stand alone novels, you should definitely start at book one, "Geist".

Synopsis [by Goodreads.com]:

The Deacons of the Order are all that stand between the wicked spirits of the Otherside and the innocent citizens of the Empire. They are sworn to protect humanity, even when they cannot protect themselves…

After the Razing of the Order, Sorcha Faris, one of the most powerful Deacons, is struggling to regain control of the runes she once wielded. The Deacons are needed more desperately than ever. The barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead is weakening, and the Emperor has abandoned his throne, seeking to destroy those he feels have betrayed him.

Though she is haunted by the terrible truth of her past, Sorcha must lead the charge against the gathering hordes of geists seeking to cross into the Empire. But to do so, she will need to manipulate powers beyond her understanding—powers that may prove to be her undoing…

Review:

As are the other three books, the story is told from various POV, five actually. If the characters or their parts of the story aren't equally interesting, this is annoying for the reader: there are heads you just don't want to be inside of. Fortunately, this is so not the case with this book: the changing POV allows the reader to be at multiple interesting points at once and get the many occurances that the different characters encounter until it all converges in a breathtaking finale.

Sorcha, the former Deacon of the destroyed Order, still suffers from what she found out about herself in the last installment. Yet she, her Deacon-Partner Merrick and Raed, the cursed Pretender to the throne and Sorcha's lover, work on establishing a new Order to save the people of the Empire from the variety of Otherside-creatures that get stronger by the day, as the barrier between human world and Otherworld gets thinner and more and more pentrable for all Otherside-beings. Since Sorcha finds herself wielding tremendous power, she is now the head of the newly founded "Order of the Enlightened", something she surely never would have thought possible. But since her power comes from her Otherside-heritage, there is a permanent underlying sense of danger from and for Sorcha that Ms. Ballantine conveys in a way that it's really palpable for the reader. You just now that this cannot end well and this sense of "impending doom" delivered even more suspense than the looming confrontation with über-villain Derodak.

At the same time Zofiya, the now mad Emperor's sister, has to face the sad fact that her sworn duty to the people of the Empire makes her the enemy of her beloved brother. So she sets out to oppose her brother for the sake of the realm and the horrible havoc the mad Emperor wreaks is more than enough evidence that he is crazy and more than unable to rule, but a threat to his own people. Although the Emperor never was a main character, it was heart-wrenching to see a charcter as good as he was, twisted beyond salvation.

As I said, each of their POV [and let's of course not forget the Rossin! He is a unique character of his own!] is interesting and I liked to follow them all. Especially since it helped to speed the story along. That dragged a bit in the first half, which is the reason, I gave it four instead of five stars.
But when their ways part and each has their own battles to fight, the story gets a great pacing and as a reader you could feel the ever present threat of the very imminent breaching of the barrier to the Otherside that would so be the end of the human world. Ms. Ballantine managed to converge the different threads very nicely, concluding in a breathtaking showdown. All is answered, concluded and wrapped up nicely, even if the end is bittersweet - it is believable, since some things could just not go on the way they were and others happily were going to [sorry, can't spoil that].

I liked this fantasy series, since it was not perfect but had a unique world builing, a thoroughly and logically developed magic system and well described and believable characters. I especially liked it, that the various ladies were real heroes, each in her own way [and no, not all of them were badass - but I liked it that Sorcha and Zofiya were and were at the same time very human].
One person found this helpful
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Watchya
4.0 out of 5 stars A fitting end
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2014
Verified Purchase
Having read this series from the start, I really can't understand why it's not higher in the charts. It's fantasy with a beating heart at its centre, and ultimately a celebration of life.

Th plot is more laboured than before, at least at the start. It took me a while to remember all the characters (a synopsis would have been handy!) But once I got going it moved at a great pace to its denouement.

The end was worth the beginning. I hope this is a world that Phillippa returns to ...
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
A damn good read
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