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A review by jinny89
Geist by Philippa Ballantine
4.0
So, I bought this book on a whim, totally based off of the cover. It’s gorgeous! Okay, it wasn’t 100% off a whim. I did look up some reviews and they were generally pretty favorable towards it. But admittedly, I gravitated to this book mainly because of the cover … heh.
The story takes place in a world where geists frequently attack, popping over from a mysterious placed called the Otherside (which I imagined was a sort of hellish place of death and grimness). An organization called the Order trains and utilizes Deacons to banish geists and other shadowy monsters when they appear, in order to protect the populous. Our main character, Sorcha Faris, is one of the top Deacons, and is sent to a small village called Ulrich in order to investigate some strange geist activity. To her annoyance, she is paired with rookie Deacon Merrick Chambers (though they eventually develop a strong Bond).
At Ulrich, they encounter Raed Rossin, the Pretender to the Throne. At first they are not friendly with one another, but later find they need to cooperate in order to save Ulrich, and defeat a dark conspiracy, one that shakes the very foundation of the Order.
I usually find it a bit difficult to really get into a new fantasy world. I think it’s the genre as a whole — they usually throw around terminology and jargon without really explaining what it means, and the reader has to figure it out themselves. With that said, Geist is no different in that respect and I had a little trouble understanding the beginning of the story. It was supposed to be a very exciting beginning, I could tell, but I didn’t understand or know a lot of the magical spells and terms being used so the effect was a little lost on me.
However, the story shapes itself up to be quite interesting as it chugs along. It felt like a very solid fantasy novel, almost like a fantasy RPG video game (I love RPG video games) with “boss battles” and things like that (hehehe). There is also a well thought out magic system, so the magic in this world is quite structured. The story is obviously meant to be an adventure story, and I think Geist was successful in that regard. I certainly want to continue pursuing the series, and I already have book two on my shelf!
The characters were pretty good, but a bit hit or miss. I don’t think they’re particularly deep or anything, but I didn’t get the impression that this was a character-driven book anyway. Sorcha is definitely a very independent, almost arrogant, Deacon. She’s strong willed and doesn’t let anyone boss her around. At first I thought she was too cold and, well, bitchy, for my liking, but she grew on me a little and by the end of the novel, I was okay with her. Merrick’s personality never felt fully developed to me but in general he was likeable as well. Raed was often flirtatious and cocky, but at the same time, very troubled, which is kind of an odd combination of traits, and it struck me as kind of weird. Nynnia (er, I forgot her name, but if you read the book, you’d know who I mean) was really one dimensional and flat. Completely uninterested in her, even at the end of the story when you find out who she is, it’s like, “So what?”
Another thing that bothered me was Sorcha and Raed’s relationship. There is a romance component in this novel, and it was really typical and unsurprising. They start off not liking each other too much, then experience a life or death moment together, fall in love but experience moral conflicts since Sorcha is married and Raed is kind of royalty, even if not officially. Kind of a clunky romance, like it was moving from one stage to the next. It didn’t flow smoothly in my opinion, and like I said, predictable since it was obvious to me from the start that they’re meant to be the couple of the story. However, since the romance is not a huge part of the novel or anything, I was not too bothered.
To sum it all up, the story was really good with a strong magic system. The characters are a small drawback, but since it’s more of an action and plot orientated story, I could overlook it. If you’re looking for a short, solid fantasy book, give Geist a try.
(X-Posted at http://skyink.net).
The story takes place in a world where geists frequently attack, popping over from a mysterious placed called the Otherside (which I imagined was a sort of hellish place of death and grimness). An organization called the Order trains and utilizes Deacons to banish geists and other shadowy monsters when they appear, in order to protect the populous. Our main character, Sorcha Faris, is one of the top Deacons, and is sent to a small village called Ulrich in order to investigate some strange geist activity. To her annoyance, she is paired with rookie Deacon Merrick Chambers (though they eventually develop a strong Bond).
At Ulrich, they encounter Raed Rossin, the Pretender to the Throne. At first they are not friendly with one another, but later find they need to cooperate in order to save Ulrich, and defeat a dark conspiracy, one that shakes the very foundation of the Order.
I usually find it a bit difficult to really get into a new fantasy world. I think it’s the genre as a whole — they usually throw around terminology and jargon without really explaining what it means, and the reader has to figure it out themselves. With that said, Geist is no different in that respect and I had a little trouble understanding the beginning of the story. It was supposed to be a very exciting beginning, I could tell, but I didn’t understand or know a lot of the magical spells and terms being used so the effect was a little lost on me.
However, the story shapes itself up to be quite interesting as it chugs along. It felt like a very solid fantasy novel, almost like a fantasy RPG video game (I love RPG video games) with “boss battles” and things like that (hehehe). There is also a well thought out magic system, so the magic in this world is quite structured. The story is obviously meant to be an adventure story, and I think Geist was successful in that regard. I certainly want to continue pursuing the series, and I already have book two on my shelf!
The characters were pretty good, but a bit hit or miss. I don’t think they’re particularly deep or anything, but I didn’t get the impression that this was a character-driven book anyway. Sorcha is definitely a very independent, almost arrogant, Deacon. She’s strong willed and doesn’t let anyone boss her around. At first I thought she was too cold and, well, bitchy, for my liking, but she grew on me a little and by the end of the novel, I was okay with her. Merrick’s personality never felt fully developed to me but in general he was likeable as well. Raed was often flirtatious and cocky, but at the same time, very troubled, which is kind of an odd combination of traits, and it struck me as kind of weird. Nynnia (er, I forgot her name, but if you read the book, you’d know who I mean) was really one dimensional and flat. Completely uninterested in her, even at the end of the story when you find out who she is, it’s like, “So what?”
Another thing that bothered me was Sorcha and Raed’s relationship. There is a romance component in this novel, and it was really typical and unsurprising. They start off not liking each other too much, then experience a life or death moment together, fall in love but experience moral conflicts since Sorcha is married and Raed is kind of royalty, even if not officially. Kind of a clunky romance, like it was moving from one stage to the next. It didn’t flow smoothly in my opinion, and like I said, predictable since it was obvious to me from the start that they’re meant to be the couple of the story. However, since the romance is not a huge part of the novel or anything, I was not too bothered.
To sum it all up, the story was really good with a strong magic system. The characters are a small drawback, but since it’s more of an action and plot orientated story, I could overlook it. If you’re looking for a short, solid fantasy book, give Geist a try.
(X-Posted at http://skyink.net).