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| The cover of the book perfectly sets the tone for what to expect in the book. It's dark and gritty and bloody. |
Plot
Sky Ghosts is a book about two sisters that work for a
shadowy organization composed of beings called Sky Ghosts. These are individuals who've separated from
humans long ago and gained access to powers buried deep inside of them. They stick under the radar to avoid human
contact mostly but a few influential humans know about them and pay them lots of
money to complete tasks like bodyguard services and the like. One night the two sisters stumble across
rogue Sky Ghosts, called Sky Beasts, about to kill or capture two helpless
human boys. The sisters intervene and
save the boys and take them with them to their HQ. From here they are tasked with protecting the
boys and everyone involved wants to figure out just why the Sky Beasts wanted
these two so badly.
That's the bigger mystery for most of the book. And there are some nice twists and turns in
it to keep you guessing for a while.
Along the way you'll find out some history behind the organization and
the Sky Ghosts themselves and get some background on Pain and Jane and some of
the other characters as well.
Quick Rating: The plot isn't the strongest aspect of the
book but it is solid and gives a nice backdrop to some awesome character action
and drama. It takes three chapters for
it all to build up but by chapter three I was immersed.
Ideas
All For One is filled with babes and blades, studs and
swords, and beyond all that a lot of heart.
What I mainly liked about this book was its fusion of eastern ideas and
western style. That fusion can be seen
most clearly in the way that the character's powers work and the way they
fight. The powers of the characters all
come from inside. There's some genetic
factors at play but mainly the power functions essentially like Ki or Qi as it
is understood in eastern philosophy.
Characters here are stronger, faster, and can fly! And what's better than that is the fact that
with practice a person can hone these powers to an even greater degree. I dug the powers immensely and the way each
character applied such abilities was distinct.
It reminded me of the anime Claymore where everyone has access to the
same abilities but some specialize in certain aspects over others like speed or
power or healing.
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| Claymore by Norihiro Yagi, Published by Shueisha and Viz Media, Animation by Madhouse, and Licensed by Funimation |
Quick Rating: There's so many cool ideas and great execution
here that it's clearly one of the books strengths.
Characters
The strongest aspect of this book was the way the characters
interacted and played off of each other and the dialogue they had with one
another. There was an abundance of humor
anytime this young cast did anything together.
Pain and Marco were hilarious early on.
Their banter, bullying of each other, and combined bloodlust made me
laugh so hard and wince a little bit too (these two rarely pull their
punches). Beyond the humor there's a lot
of sincerity and heart in the dialogue and emotions between everyone. You end up feeling for all the characters
even ones you might not like. By the end
one of the characters I disliked for most of the book became my favorite.
Quick Rating: The characterization, character interaction
and banter between the characters is by far the strongest aspect behind this
book and--more often than not--is what will keep you turning the pages.
Action
The fight scenes are particularly awesome and bloody! There's a lot of blood. Be warned!
The violence is stylistic and each character fights how you'd imagine
him or her to do so in stunning aerial sequences of steel, blood, flesh, and
bone. Being the action junkie that I am
I could picture every scene perfectly as if it were an action movie.
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| Sky Ghost art from Engellmann's Tumblr page |
Quick Rating: A great splattering of blood and clanging of
steel is found in many pages of this book.
I found it to be very enjoyable.
I only wish there was a little more variety to be found here. Regardless, all of these scenes were hugely entertaining.
Romance
Now as a guy--no that's a bit of a copout--I'll just say
that I'm not that inclined to like drawn out romances. All the back and forth kills me every
time. So romance isn't my genre. There's a lot of romance here and there's a
nice amount of back and forth to it.
It's not my cup of tea but fans of the genre will no doubt like it. That said I still like how it played out, it
was just a little over suspenseful for me.
I guess I didn't mind it so much because I did want these two characters
to succeed with each other.
Quick Rating: My previous words don't give enough credit to
the romance subplots in the book. There
is actually a lot of suspense here, not just in the main coupling but in
several others as well and it's all portrayed very realistically. So while not my genre I still enjoyed it.
Indie Plug (FREE STUFF)
I really liked the high manic energy of Sky Ghosts and all of its crazy characters so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you check this one out. Right now it's for FREE on Amazon.com until the 20th of this month. So check it out and let me know what you think of it.
Updates
There has been a major update to the book since I last read
it at the beginning of January. The
contents have been cleaned and tightened and the plot more focused. If you have an older version of the book just
contact Amazon Support (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us) and ask them
to update your copy. They're really
quick about it too. For all new buyers
you'll automatically have the new updates.
Author
Alexandra Engellmann is a truly fascinating person. Just take a look at her profile by clicking the picture to the left to get
an understanding of what I mean. In
summary; she's Russian, she taught herself English by learning the lyrics of
songs she liked and reading books that caught her attention, and she's crafted
a book that wouldn't make you think any of that. I've known her for over a month now. We've been corresponding about the hardships
of being newly released Indies in a broad sea of books. She's given me some great tips about the
'biz' and I have done the same for her.
What I can add to her profile is that she works tirelessly, has a hugely
creative mind, a great sense of humor, and is very supportive of other Indies. And she's a digital artist to top all of that
off. She's quite the modern day renaissance woman.
Artwork
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| Sky Ghost art from Engellmann's Tumblr page |
The world of Sky Ghosts and its characters have a certain
darkness about them. This is evident in
the descriptions. The action takes place under the veil of night and the characters are all garbed in black. It’s a very visual world and the author has
taken this a step further and drawn some damn good digital art for the
characters and some of the settings. It
can be found on her personal Tumblr page and a page made by a fan of hers. Its
extra content that keeps you immersed into the book while you're reading or
after you're done. I just find it cool
to have art on characters that I've come to really like.
Awesomesauce
+Powers
+Fights Scenes
+Humor
+Dialogue
+Realism
+Cool and Badass Characters
+Sexiness
+Believable Romance
Not so Awesome
-Long Book
-Slow Start
Links
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QQABR5U
Tumblr: http://engellmann.tumblr.com/
Fan Page: http://sky-ghosts.tumblr.com/
My Secret?
As I was reading this book, I faced the fact that I have a dark
secret buried deep inside of me. It's
been there for a while but it's only now just surfacing. I feel that it's finally time that I share it
with you all. You see. I am....
I am a Sky Ghost!!!
Or a nerd with a little extra time on my hands on this particular day. I'll let you be the judge of that.
As always, thanks for the browse!
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