Deborah Turner HarrisRezensionen

I ended up with this book along with a number of others from a relative's collection.
From the description, I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a let down. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was definitely not what I got.
I suppose I anticipated a bit more of the 'mystic detective' trope, ala Carnacki or so many other examples from weird and pulp fiction. And that's certainly present in a way...but there is an awful lot of almost Victorian/Romantic-esque nobility/rich person stuff here. Much like a lot of classic literature from that era, I find it a little off-putting. Its hard to feel sympathetic to or identify with people so wealthy they have no actual responsibilities or demands on their time. Even artists who benefit from their patronage (which are present here) feel similar to me. Combined with the fact that we get *VERY LIMITED* magic or mystical secret society action until about the last 50 pages of this book. In fact, there's very little action of any kind til that point. Until then, there's a lot meandering not really training, not really teaching, a new protege...a lot of description of rich people's homes and cars and oh so important activities, a *little* investigation...and that's about it. There's also some really heavy christian overtones to the magic, which I wasn't anticipating, but the author goes out of their way to let us know it doesn't *have* to be that way. Unless someone tells me the subsequent books have a pretty hard shift in tone and pacing, I'm out for the rest of the series.

Hmmm. Not as good as the others, even as fun fluff. There are two distinct storylines, which never seriously cross (aside from how the main characters have to deal with both) - Clare and Carnage Corridor, which is a happy/uplifting story as she learns to forgive, and the main storyline with the daggers, which is very much not happy. Several deaths, of innocents and bad guys (at various levels), and he gets away in the end. Bah! Adam learns some new abilities, which may come in to play later (I don't recall that they did, aside from in this book); Peregrine alternates between feeling sorry he's running out on his honeymoon and feeling like a fifth wheel in the adventure. Honestly, they could have left him to Julia without losing much (a picture of Raeburn...not much else). Julia reveals unexpected depths, though - nice. Not a favorite.

Not bad, not wonderful. A very rich story, with a lot of philosophy at various levels mixed into the tense and rather grim adventure that's the basic plot. A seal is stolen, and on rather thin (external, visible) clues Adam, Noel and Peregrine decide that it's the Seal of Solomon itself and that there's a great threat to all the world in its being in the wrong hands. They spend quite a lot of time struggling to figure out _anything_ - who took the seal, what they want, what the seal represents, what their next steps should be. The first clues require quite a lot of discussion with various ghosts - spirits, disembodied and otherwise. Each tiny step sends them off in another direction, for something else that has to be done before they can take the next step - it gets quite frustrating, for them as well as for the reader. The reader does have the advantage of the occasional scene from the POV of the thief, so we know who and why and something of what long before the Hunters do. And it comes down to a race through a rainy night, with our heroes always behind - which may be a good thing. And the Light triumphs in the end, though not before another death. Quite a good story, though not as enjoyable, for me, as the previous one. I'll keep it - as I noted in my review for the first book, these three keep being culled and re-bought, so I might as well hang on to it.½

I was sorry to see this series end.

The Adept again takes on the Nazis.

Masons, Knights Templar, treasure, time travel, and romance -- what's not to like?

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2001339.html

Starts with Irish coastguards discovering a long-wrecked Nazi submarine and being promptly murdered by sinister Asian monks. Then we shift across the water to Scotland where the police are aided by a psychic order of nobility linked to the Templars (and white so therefore not sinister). The first line of page 72 is, "At the heart of the Inner Planes lay the Akashic Records" - and at that point I decided I could read no further. Sorry, life is too short.½

competent and dull, with a hint of stuffy.

It's a very interesting story. Again, I've read it many times before, so I largely knew what would happen ahead of time, but it's a very rich story and I see new things each time I read it. Peregrine is a very handy mechanism for the authors to explain all the mystic, esoteric stuff to their readers. He's also an interesting person, and I find his reactions to a lot of what he learns both realistic and amusing. The enemy are presented as irredeemably evil and also rather pettily cruel (or perhaps just careless, but it comes to the same result). I enjoy all the ordinary bits of the story, too - the weather, Templemor, their food, Humphrey...the magical bits fit in, and the combination makes for a very convincing world. We get some hints Adam et al don't - some names, mostly - though by the end of the book it's clear that Adam knows things we don't, yet, about the enemy. He's encountered the Lynx symbol before... Good story both as a self-contained adventure and as the intro to the series. I do like Adam - and Peregrine, and Neil, and Lady Laura, and just about everyone (who isn't a bad guy) that we meet.

A good story, though it's definitely the middle of a series. A lot of references to events in the first book, and at the end one of the bad guys gets away to continue the fight. Some very clumsy work - Adam sets up this difficult deception, and they know about Napier - but they don't even check to see if they're being followed to the train station? Sheesh. The storyline about Ximena is rather neat - after all of Adam's moans about his matchmaking friends, it's nice to see him find someone. And Peregrine comes into his own a bit more, feeling less like a tag-along and more like one of the Hunt - and then he gets his formal initiation. The Masonic elements feel a bit pasted-on to the storyline, especially when they provide the conventional manpower the Hunt hadn't a hope of supplying. But not bad. I thought I had the third book, but actually I have the fifth - so I need to hunt down the third and fourth. I want to see the end of this story, which is in the third book. And I think I'll keep at least the three - I keep culling them and rebuying them.½

Not bad, not wonderful. It's somewhat amusing how I don't feel I missed anything (much) by not reading books 3 and 4 before this one. The only thing that really makes a difference is John Graham - I remember him from previous readings of the series, but he was introduced and explained in one of the books I missed this time through. Here he's presented as an established ally - of course, so were most of the Hunters in the first book. Several aspects here - semi-mundanely, Adam and Ximena's romance comes to a head, with her father's death playing a part, and there's a good deal about various Christmas (and Hogmany - Scottish New Year) celebrations. Raeburn is once again the active enemy (we, the readers, know this long before Adam and the Hunt do). The latest plot is even more convoluted than usual, though the titular death doesn't take place until the climax (and it's not the one you expect). More helicopters, guns, and Masonic assistance; a new Hunter, coming into his powers much as Peregrine did in the first couple books, and a very scary buildup to the climactic battle. Overall, a decent contribution to the series without being anything spectacular in itself. I'll probably reread it the next time I read the whole series - no reason to read it otherwise, though. And on rereading - since I remembered, at least vaguely, the climactic sequence, it wasn't scary at all - it felt like they were carefully working to manipulate my emotions to _make_ it scary, though. Which is really annoying. Same thing with the tearjerker first sequence, with Ximena's father. I did cry, but I was annoyed at the same time. I really don't think this one is worth rereading again.

Maybe not quite as good as the first two, but still very good.

Maybe not quite as good as the first two, but still very good.

Maybe not quite as good as the first two, but still very good.

Also very good

Very good beginning to a non-Deryni series

Not bad, not particularly good - I'm glad I read it and perfectly willing to swap it. There were a couple continuity errors, mostly with them being surprised by news they'd already discussed - Neil Bruce's death, for instance. But nothing major or story-disruptive. Also an interesting crossover with the Kurtz story in Tales of the Templars - the story was Sir Adam, her modern-day Adept, dealing with a Templar past life. The same person was a minor character in Temple & Crown, and it showed a lot more about him, including more about what Adam had seen in the story. Interesting.

The Adept takes on a Nazi cell in Scotland.½

Fascinating tale with Masonic overtones, romance, and Scotland.

This series consists of some of the worst books I've read. The whole thing consists of cliches on top of cliches. Descriptions meant to create ambience and invoke the images of British upperclass luxury as wll as genteel behaviour are nothing but cardboard cutouts without any life to them and even less air of authenticity.
The adjectives are generously used, unfortunately with little skill, as th efollowing quote shows"Sitting before the fire in an open-arm chair upholsteres in rose velvet was a slender, silverhaired woman with a spine like a ramrod an eyes that put Peregrine in mind of the goddesses painted on the walls of egyptioan tombs." The plot of the series is that the 'forces of light' are reincarnated in the 20'th century as amongst others Lord Sinclair (sic!), famous physician, and Inspector McLeod, policeman to fight the dark.