John BarrowmanRezensionen

For full disclosure, the only reason I bought this book was because I love John Barrowman. I'm glad I did, though, because it was an interesting and new type of middle-grade fantasy. The premise was very original and I'll probably pick up the second book when it comes out later this year just to get more of the world building.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as enamored by the actual story as I was by the world-building. I found Matt extremely annoying and almost put the book down within the first few chapters because he was such an epic brat. He got better as the book goes on, but his sullen rebellious act got old. Half of the trouble the twins got into would have been avoided if he'd actually listened to the adults, or his sister.

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Unfortunately I haven't read the Torchwood novel Exodus Code, which I think this is a loose sequel to; lots of fun stuff happens, including Captain John Hart (as portrayed by James "Spike" Marsters) taking over the original Victorian-era Torchwood estate, and some gorgeous art with some nice nods to the show (and one or two nods to Doctor Who). But it's only the first part of an ongoing narrative, and who knows when I'll get another chance to visit Forbidden Planet...

Just as good as his first autobiography, I loved every minute of this. Several chapters had me laughing so hard I had tears.

I read this for the "a celebrity memoir" part of my 2018 reading challenge, and it was fantastic. I laughed out loud in every chapter, and loved all of the insights into his life. I already loved John before this, and love him even more now.

Definitely an interesting concept and likeable characters, but everything felt too shallow and simple and I wish the story had gone more in-depth into the background and events.

I was never a 'Torchwood' fan, but I have enjoyed my local library's Torchwood audio books. Torchwood [:] Exodus Code is my first Torchwood novel.

I do remember Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who. I thought it was interesting that this novel was written by the actor who portrayed him and the actor's sister. The events from 1930 were fine. I enjoyed the adventure. Jack seeing a beautiful woman where his friend saw a black puma was intriguing.

I started having problems with the novel when only [some] women were being affected by something that was driving them mad, including attacking loved ones and mutilating themselves. I had no emotional attachment to characters Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams, but what they were put through made me wonder if Mr. Barrowman had some issues with his co-stars.

At least Rhys gets to take care of his and Gwen's daughter while Jack and (eventually) Gwen -- and others -- save the world. I'm sure it would have made a nice movie. I did like the touch of the American soldiers who had no idea that their attempt to stop serial kidnappers could prevent Jack and friends from stopping the end of the world. It's not as if there had been time to get them to understand.

Knowing who wrote the book made the singing of Captain Jack's praises hard for me to take. I kept seeing Jack as the bragging Captain Zapp Brannigan from the old show, 'Futurama'.

Note: I just checked the Cambridge Dictionary website and the proper UK pronunciation of 'geyser' is indeed the same as the American 'geezer'. (If you're not American, a 'geezer' is a rude, but not obscene, term for an old man.) As an American, the mental image I got when the narrator talked about the enormous geysers erupting around the world spoiled the drama of the moment a bit.

Those reservations aside, this isn't bad.

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

Honestly, one of the reasons I was interested in this book, was because it was co-written by John Barrowman, who most of you might know from either Doctor Who, Torchwood or Arrow. Then, of course, I read the summary and I thought it sounded interesting, so that is the reason I eventually bought it.

The first thing I noticed, was that this book has a map of the island the twins and their mum are staying on, which is something I really like – because sometimes I find it hard to imagine the place in which the book happens; because of the way people describe it, so with this book I often found myself flipping back to the beginning of the book to see where the people in the story were at that moment.

I also really liked the concept; being able to animate yourself into paintings, or having your drawings come to life. I mean, who wouldn’t want that? Okay, maybe the whole ‘scary things appearing when you’re scared’ thing isn’t really that awesome (I mean, spiders the size of a cat, no thank you!), but the rest is really something I would love to be able to do!

There were some parts in the book where I wasn’t 100% sure what exactly happened, and I had to re-read that part again to understand what had happened (and sometimes after re-reading it I still didn’t understand it), because so many things happened all at once, and the POV’s kept changing and telling the same part of the story again, so that was a bit annoying. There was also one character who had a Scottish accent, and her dialogue was written that way, which is something I find annoying, an accent being written down (like Hagrid’s in Harry Potter). Because sometimes I just don’t get what they’re saying.

I gave this book three planets, because though I couldn’t really relate to any of the characters, and some parts were a bit confusing to me, I did really enjoy this book, and I am definitely going to read the second one, because I just really want to know what happened! I can’t really handle it when a book ends in a ‘cliffhanger’ (though this wasn’t really a proper cliffhanger, but still, not everything that happened in this book was solved).

Actual rating: 3,5 - I am not sure how I found out about this series, perhaps from a tweet from one of the authors (John Barrowman, who I followed because he played Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and Torchwood), but I knew that I wanted to read it because I thought the summary was quite interesting. I bought the first book, and was pleasantly surprised, even though it was a book written for children I enjoyed it very much. It wasn't the best story I've ever read, but I did like it enough to want to read the rest of the series.

Bone Quill starts off, I think, a couple of days after the events from Hollow Earth. The twins are under house arrest while the grown ups search for their mother. I didn't really remember anything that happened in the previous book, because it'd been a while since I've read that. But luckily, there was a sort of 'previously on...' page in front of the book. I am going to start a petition to force every author to do this at the beginning of their sequels, because that would save so much precious (re)reading time! (Of course, rereading a book is not that bad, but if you just want to start the sequel without having to reread the rest of the series, a 'previously on...' page would come in handy).

I liked the story in this book very much, loved how the twins started to find out their powers were much more than they had thought they were. They found out they can sort of travel back in time through paintings, and they also find out they are not the only ones who can do this. We learn more about the island, and about the events that happened in the middle ages after the vikings attacked. We are introduced to some new characters, and we see most of the older characters again which I liked (I really liked Zach and Jeannie).

This book was still a multiple POV story, and it was still a bit confusing whose pov the story was being told from sometimes. Because like with the previous book it sometimes seemed like the chapter was from Em's POV, and then it would change to Zach's POV sentences later. I did get used to this a bit more thanks to the previous book, but it was also still a bit annoying in my opinion. Also of course the story happens in two places - or I should say two times - at once. Present day (with Em and Matt) and the middle ages (with Solon), and I liked that. They eventually met each other near the end of the story, thanks to the twins being able to travel through time and I really hope they'll meet each other more often.

In the end, I liked Bone Quill and I will definintely be reading the third book in the series, because I just want to know how the story ends. It ended with a kind of cliffhanger, and I HATE CLIFFHANGER GODDAMNIT! Ugh. Yeah, will definitely be reading The Book of Beasts soooooooooon-ish.

My opinion on this book in one gif:

This is the last of the Torchwood books (I think). I was hoping for more to come. This was well written and entertaining. The focus of the book was mostly on Jack and more of his history. Recommended to Torchwood fans.

Bone Quill picks up where the first book in the series left off, delivering just as much excitement. The characters in this series are so engaging that it's almost impossible to put the book down--all told, it's exciting, engrossing, and a wonderful wandering into meditations on the powers and intricacies of imagination and art.

Absolutely recommended.

I had to read a book by a celebrity and a middle grade novel and had Hollow Earth on my TBR list so decided to combine these two challenges and move Hollow Earth up and read it for the challenges.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought, I chose it for the premise of people who can manipulate their imagination to make things come to life (don't we all imagine that as kids?) but was a little hesitant with it being co-written by a celebrity. I wondered if it was just a ploy to cash on on Mr. Barrowman's popularity as an actor. I was wrong. He and his sister can really write.

If you aren't fond of middle school fiction (or your not fond of middle school students) you may want to stay away from this book as one of the main characters, Matt is very typical of a 13-year old boy who has some major family issues and blames is mom - being a complete brat to her. He's also angry and frustrated (usually that means a sad boy or man who can't admit he's in pain) and that tends to come out in ill-thought out actions.

Em and Matt are twins who have extraordinary powers that are growing. They don't really know what they are or what they can do and their mom isn't telling them anything. Something happens though that makes her bring them to their grandfather, a man they don't remember meeting. Shortly after they arrive their mom disappears and their grandfather is severely hurt.

This is an easy (for an adult) and fast book that does a great job of introducing a new trilogy without leaving one of those awful cliffhangers. You want to read more but not because there's no ending to this book. I'll be reading more and will be buying copies of the series for my grandkids.

When I saw "John Barrowman", I clicked request. Then I read the description. It's a book by John Barrowman (and Carole E. Barrowman, his big sister, with whom I didn't realize he's written several books before besides his memoirs – where have I been?)

Honestly, and I truly mean no offense to anyone, I'm getting really tired of opening up a book's description and seeing "Janie was sixteen" and "At sixteen, Mary knew she was special" and "On Jackie's sixteenth birthday her life changed" and so on. I suppose the window for a Young Adult audience is pretty narrow, but there are so many sixteen year olds out there… In Conjuror, the three main characters are seventeen. Point to the Barrowmans. (She said sarcastically.)

That being said, I enjoyed the three young protagonists. Conjuror Remy is the first on the scene, a young man who has only just discovered his abilities to mold reality with music, fleeing from the horrific murders of his mother and aunt to try to fulfill the mission his mother was never able to see through. Unfortunately, his youth and inexperience combine with the sad reality of prejudice, and his general appearance along with his necessary actions to send him on the run again, and his disappearance into a statue of Shakespeare draws the attention of Orion, "the Animare MI5". As a conjuror can use music, animares use art to create and travel, and twins Matt and Em Calder are young prodigies sent through a painting to assess the situation. Unfortunately, it turns into a great deal more than an assessment, and soon all three kids are in deep trouble.

While I credit the Barrowmans for an excellent job at putting the story over, I do with there had been just a smidge more exposition. In addition to bringing to life what they draw, he animares enter paintings, interact with the subjects, discover that instruments are being stolen from the subjects, and leave a man (a rather surprising man) prisoner in one artwork; they are described as stepping out into museums brushing flakes of paint off their clothing, and that made me shudder a little. The idea of paint being carried away from something like a Vermeer is a terrible one; I'd have loved a little more reassurance that there's no damage to paintings used in this way. And I'd have loved to have learned whether that prisoner would ever be visible in the painting; whether the missing instruments left blank spots in the paintings (plain canvas or underpainting, or spaces where the background was visible, as if the objects had never been included at all?), and a few other details of the system of magic. No, a lot more details. Apparently the twins were featured in earlier books – which explains a lot, hopefully.

There are some very effective – by which I mean really gross – horror scenes throughout, and the villain of the story is effectively alarming. Setting is nicely done, from Remy's home in New Orleans (New Orleans?) to Edinborough. The characterization for the three kids in the middle of it all is nicely done. I enjoyed the casual knowledge of art (and, unsurprisingly, music) that allowed that system of magic. I did not enjoy the occasional not-so-subtle glimpse of what I take to be authorial opinion ("'That’s terrible,’ said Em. ‘The Church has done a lot of nasty stuff.'").

But I absolutely loved the Doctor Who reference(s).

I look forward to more.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

You can't go wrong with Capt. Jack Harkness.


I still miss Ianto.

I absolutely love this series! If you like middle-grade books and fantasy stories, read Hollow Earth! Highly recommended. I am hoping to get this for our school library!!

This is such a wonderful book, and a perfect finish to the Hollow Earth trilogy.

The Barrowmans have a talent for story-telling and character-building that comes through on every page. The power in their writing, and the wonder in each chapter, is palpable. Whether you go into this for the story, for a meditation on the power of art as its understood, or for the simple wonder of the story, you should read this if you enjoy fantasy.

The only thing about this book which isn't wonderful is the fact that I believe it's meant to be the finish in the series.

Absolutely recommended.

Started out great but couldn't stay into it. Not into young adult reading right now.

I liked this one better than the first in the series, yay for stepping it up, guys! They got a lot more story and action in a shorter book and I had a hard time putting it down at times. John and his sister definitely have a gem here and I'm so glad they wrote this series. This ending, oh my gosh. Can't wait to read the next book to see what happens. Overall better than the first, more enjoyable, and more fun. I would recommend this book. 4.5 out of 5 stars. Well done!

Yeah. I'm one of those people that read the book because of 'Captain Jack' himself. The book was okay. It wasn't bad by any means and some parts had me on the edge of my seat, but I feel like it was what I was expecting and didn't have a lot of surprise twists and turns. Like I said, that's not to say it was a bad story, because it isn't. I've just seen it all before. I would still recommend this book to people that might find it interesting. Everyone is different and I see a lot of people loved it =). 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Fun read, especially of interest to musical theater fans

I listened to Exodus code using the whispersync feature available from Amazon and Audible. I enjoyed the narration, but I do have a nit-picky observation: the word geyser is pronounced guy-sur; the narrator kept saying (hard g) geezer, and this kept making me giggle. Point: it was slightly distracting. Overall (and other than), the narration was good.

I did like and enjoy the story, I thought it was a nice spin-off to Miracle Day. I wasn't super-crazy about the end for two reasons: I thought it was a bit predictable (I kept saying to myself that they wouldn't possibly end it that way, something else HAS to be the solution) and I don't think (please excuse the absolute vagueness of my wording, I don't want to give anything away) a certain character's situation was explained enough for the ending to be completely satisfying for me.

Quick read of a scifi book in the Torchwood series. Plot line is rather thin. Characters are consistent with the TV series, but lightly drawn. There is enough explanation of underlying concepts so that the book stands alone.

More biography, this time heavy on the funny stories and shenanigans in the course of a career in show business and living life as an openly gay man. Easy to pick up this book and read a few paragraphs or pages at a time. More Doctor Who and Torchwood backstage stories than his other book. And don't forget the footnotes - they are fun and funny! Published before his current gig on Arrow. Grab some popcorn and have some fun.

I’ve never given it much of my time to think about stories picking up right where we left off. With Bone Quill, it turned out I happened to like it. A lot. It made it possible to get straight to action and we get rewarded with one cliffhanger after the other!

On top of that, we get to know a great deal more about the characters and their history (some are REALLY surprising!!!). And as I kinda hoped for, we get to spend much more time at the Abbey and its surroundings during the Middle Ages.

And Barrowman wouldn’t be Barrowman if there wasn’t something wicked like time travelling involved! *JACK HARKNESS MOMENT*

The missing pieces of the puzzle fell into place, but now what…?
A wonderful sequel, wich makes you long for more!

After listening to Mr. Barrowman's talk at the Gallifrey One convention, I went out and bought his two autobiographies. This is the first one. It is written in a breezy, open style, and is quite readable. It covers his family's move from Glasgow to Illinois when he was in grade school, giving him the opportunity to develop two distinct accents and ways of talking. It chronicles his theatre (Anything Goes, etc.), movie (The Producers, etc.), singing (several albums) and TV (Doctor Who and so on) experiences so far. It also notes that he is gay. In connection with roles, he noted that he lost the part of the lead in "Will and Grace" to a straight actor, because Barrowman didn't act "gay enough". I quite enjoyed the book.

Did the name John Barrowman sound familiar to you? Then you might know him from Doctor Who, Torchwood or Arrow!? He must have a wicked imagination, I thought. And when I found out he wrote this book with his sister Carole, who happens to be a teacher (English & Creative writing), it had to work, right?!

Hollow Earth - "a place where all the devils, demons and monsters ever imagined lie trapped for eternity", starts at the the monastery of Era Mina on Auchinmurn Isle, where an old monk was illuminating The Book of Beasts. You are just about to enjoy it all and we get sucked to present time and meet the twins Matt and Em. They are one of a kind. Not only do they animate their imagination through drawing them, but they are also the offsprings of an Animare and a Guardian – which ancient laws had forbidden. As they get older, their powers grow with them and things get complicated. With their mom, they flee London and find a safer haven in their granddad’s abbey, on a remote Scottish island.

Although the passion for art’s intriguing, It’s at this point I started to wonder whether my expectations had been too high. I also wished we got more of an insight of what was going on at the abbey during the Middle Ages. Then I mean, a bit more than one (rather short) chapter at the beginning of each of the 4 parts. But then the pace picked up, it got a lot more exciting and the craziest things happen and suddenly turned in such a cliffhanger, that I didn’t want to lay the book down anymore!

Loved the concept of Animare & Guardians, characters are well-developed (their backgrounds included), easy to visualize and get sucked into the story etc etc. The loose ends and unanswered questions, only make me long for more!