This post first published March 29, 2012.
Author: Philippa Ballantine
Series: Book of the Order #1
Published: September 2010
Publisher: ACE
294 pages (paperback)
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.
My Rating: 4/5
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