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Magic Time #2
Angelfire
Across America, technology has been eclipsed by magic, as ordinary people become the embodiments of their darkest desires, deepest fears -- and purest selves. Searching for the source of this terrifying phenomenon -- and to save his sister Tina, transformed by it into one of the ethereal creatures known as flares -- former lawyer Cal Griffin and his band of unlikely heroes follow the visions of the charming lunatic Goldie and the fragile song of a cursed bluesman to a secret haven hidden from its malevolent power. The domain of the bluesman and his protector Magritte -- a callgirl turned flare -- is a wondrous sanctuary from the madness. But how long can it survive if the evil beyond it is allowed to flourish? For the world is unraveling little by little. And the salvation of everything left worth saving requires that Cal and his companions journey deep into the very heart and soul of darkness to confront the beast ruling the Ruby City once called Chicago. But first they must conquer the darkness within themselves.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published September 30, 2003
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139 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 2, 2008
Marc Zicree inserted a note on the flyleaf that informs the reader that he did not write this book.
He didn't. He DID create the world in which it's set, but the story is mine.
The rating is from Amazon.com, and the review below is from Booklist:
In the wake of a devastating accident, the face of America has changed. The land is warped and twisted, and previously normal humans now exhibit strange, magical talents. The forces unleashed by the accident cause people to manifest their greatest potential . . . or their darkest desires. Driven by guilt and a powerful vision, Cal Griffin has assembled a small band to seek out and destroy the source of the evil, which is known as the Storm, and to rescue his 12-year-old sister--if she is still alive. Led by the unpredictable manic-depressive Goldie, whose newly emerging talent is to sense the direction in which the Storm lies, and the old and ailing musician Enid, whose ethereal song repels the life-sucking evil, the band makes its way westward to the Storm. But the group's first stop is Chicago, where another evil nearly as potent as the Storm has arisen, is growing rapidly, and must be dealt with. A terrific story featuring powerful, strong characters, this is rather a must for fans of postapocalyptic fiction. Paula Luedtke
He didn't. He DID create the world in which it's set, but the story is mine.
The rating is from Amazon.com, and the review below is from Booklist:
In the wake of a devastating accident, the face of America has changed. The land is warped and twisted, and previously normal humans now exhibit strange, magical talents. The forces unleashed by the accident cause people to manifest their greatest potential . . . or their darkest desires. Driven by guilt and a powerful vision, Cal Griffin has assembled a small band to seek out and destroy the source of the evil, which is known as the Storm, and to rescue his 12-year-old sister--if she is still alive. Led by the unpredictable manic-depressive Goldie, whose newly emerging talent is to sense the direction in which the Storm lies, and the old and ailing musician Enid, whose ethereal song repels the life-sucking evil, the band makes its way westward to the Storm. But the group's first stop is Chicago, where another evil nearly as potent as the Storm has arisen, is growing rapidly, and must be dealt with. A terrific story featuring powerful, strong characters, this is rather a must for fans of postapocalyptic fiction. Paula Luedtke
April 1, 2009
I loved the first book in this series; it was fresh, different and well-paced. This second, though, left me completely underwhelmed. It did little to advance the overall plot and cheapened the series to the point that it feels less epic and more episodic, like bad television. From the ginormous logical hole as to why any of episode 2 was even happening in the first place, to some dramatic yet almost glossed over changes to character dynamics and relationships among the major characters, the storytelling in this volume just wasn't up to par from the high standard set by the first novel. I guess that's the chances one takes when reading a series in which the individual volumes are written by different authors. Still, it was ok and I'll read the third volume since I am still interested in the overall plotline, and hope that it's better thought out and better written than the second.
March 2, 2010
This was better, and cleaner language than the first. She nearly exclusively wrote it, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, though not credited here, and it is quite different from the other two. She uses first person point of view, but keeps skipping it among the key four; whereas the other two books have scenes and characters away from these four and an omniscient perspective. I liked her style.
November 4, 2012
Stagnant plot with flat character development.
May 28, 2015
WOW!
I found an old copy of the first book Magic Time while on vacation and from the start I was hooked. I don't read fantasy but this series is great! You're got to read them.
I found an old copy of the first book Magic Time while on vacation and from the start I was hooked. I don't read fantasy but this series is great! You're got to read them.
October 27, 2025
When I first read Magic Time and then Angelfire, it was about 20 years ago. And as a teenager, I was enthralled, wrapped up, totally in love with the books. But I never finished the trilogy. For whatever reason, I opted to leave it on a cliffhanger and never find out what actually happened with Cal, Goldie, and the rest of the group. So I've endeavored to actually finish the series and with that, I needed to do a re-read of the first two books. The problem now is that these books did not hold up to what my teenage self thought they were.
My issues with the first book are that it was slow. There were times that the group walking across several states was as painful of a slog as you can imagine. That issue was solidly not fixed in book two, Angelfire. So much of this book felt like a filler episode. Yes, we established new locations and added new side characters to help the overall goal of shutting down the Source. The problem was that, was it necessary? Probably. But there were also character choices that made me so frustrated that I remembered immediately why I didn't continue. I know that Zicree was very quick to put a note (disclaimer) at the start that while this is his world he created, and he had final say, Bohnhoff was the author of this book. She made the choices that were written in. I suppose the thing I question the most is if we are supposed to like some of these characters. Cal? Love him. He's written like a man with a medieval knight's soul. Goldie? I have no complaints; he really is an amazingly written character. Doc is a well done character if not my favorite. He's certainly got some issues. But every good feeling I had for Colleen in book one was smashed to nothing with the wishy-washy behavior and snide bordering on shitty comments and treatment of Goldie. Couple all that with the out of actual nowhere love triangle and I'm now struggling to decide if I should finish the series or not.
This was just such a letdown of a book. Not only did it suffer from book 2 slowdown, but it also added an unnecessary romantic trope that kills most plots. The romance in general probably wasn't needed, but to add a love triangle to a story as well and I question if this was just a ploy to get teenage girls to try these books (teenage me did not think so but what did I know?) I'll probably suffer through book 3 if only to say I did it and then I'll unhaul them from my shelves.
My issues with the first book are that it was slow. There were times that the group walking across several states was as painful of a slog as you can imagine. That issue was solidly not fixed in book two, Angelfire. So much of this book felt like a filler episode. Yes, we established new locations and added new side characters to help the overall goal of shutting down the Source. The problem was that, was it necessary? Probably. But there were also character choices that made me so frustrated that I remembered immediately why I didn't continue. I know that Zicree was very quick to put a note (disclaimer) at the start that while this is his world he created, and he had final say, Bohnhoff was the author of this book. She made the choices that were written in. I suppose the thing I question the most is if we are supposed to like some of these characters. Cal? Love him. He's written like a man with a medieval knight's soul. Goldie? I have no complaints; he really is an amazingly written character. Doc is a well done character if not my favorite. He's certainly got some issues. But every good feeling I had for Colleen in book one was smashed to nothing with the wishy-washy behavior and snide bordering on shitty comments and treatment of Goldie. Couple all that with the out of actual nowhere love triangle and I'm now struggling to decide if I should finish the series or not.
This was just such a letdown of a book. Not only did it suffer from book 2 slowdown, but it also added an unnecessary romantic trope that kills most plots. The romance in general probably wasn't needed, but to add a love triangle to a story as well and I question if this was just a ploy to get teenage girls to try these books (teenage me did not think so but what did I know?) I'll probably suffer through book 3 if only to say I did it and then I'll unhaul them from my shelves.
April 13, 2018
The thing I liked most about this was that tropes you expect to happen don't.
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May 24, 2020A little too depressing for me.
December 23, 2014
Skip this book, to say it's badly written is nearly too much praise. Marc Scott Zicree goes to some pains to point to Bohnhoff as sole author in the intro; after reading this steaming heap of words I'm now certain he did so to evade blame for the wreckage.
I started the series with Magic Time #1 , co-authored by the inimitable Barbara Hambly, and was looking forward to reading Angelfire knowing it would have a different voice and flavor with the change in authors. Had I known that different equaled bad I'd have saved my eyes, particularly since I later found that volume 3, Ghostlands , has an excellent synopsis at the beginning. Don't bother with Magic Time: Angelfire , you don't need it to finish the series.
The book is written from the perspective of the major characters, changing voice from character to character in each relatively short chapter. This is a difficult task to pull off as a writer and Ms. Bohnhoff wasn't up to it. After a few chapters spent in the voice of the different characters they all sound alike and one-dimensional. Except Colleen. While she continued to read in the same voice as the rest of the crew her first-book toughness rapidly morphs into a nails-on-the-blackboard whining bitchiness.
There's also a lot of filler in this book: every few chapters we're flogged with a few pages of pop psychology as to why character X is involved with the quest and the nature of their innermost feelings. Their innermost feelings are banal in the extreme and it's obvious throughout why each character is where they are. This is truly brutal slogging.
The book contains so many analogies to the Star Trek TV universe it's almost copyright infringement. Surely a professional author can come up with their own words once in a while rather than writing that something looks like the 'transporter' or the 'photon torpedo', ad infinitum. That's just Trek by the way, there are an equal number of other pop culture references standing in for creativity in this book.
What nearly sent me gibbering over the badly-written edge, finally, was the use of analogies the author did not understand. One egregious example refers to the sky in two separate locales unlike one another: she writes of the first area's sky as a nice "bonnet" and in the other less pleasant locale it was a "snood". A bonnet covers the head as a sky covers the earth. Fine so far, but a snood traditionally is a small piece of cloth or lace or worked yarn that holds only the fall of hair on the head. When in doubt consult a dictionary, not an LL Bean catalog. There's also a reference to a mule in a pack train as a "mule" as though there's something special about the sterile offspring of horse and a donkey that warrants quotation marks. Small complaints in themselves but when you read enough of them they turn into verbal slivers of glass under the skin.
The final chapters read as though they're written by an entirely different writer which I suspect they are. I have the feeling that the editors had to call in Mr. Zicree to take over and produce something readably conclusive.
I started the series with Magic Time #1 , co-authored by the inimitable Barbara Hambly, and was looking forward to reading Angelfire knowing it would have a different voice and flavor with the change in authors. Had I known that different equaled bad I'd have saved my eyes, particularly since I later found that volume 3, Ghostlands , has an excellent synopsis at the beginning. Don't bother with Magic Time: Angelfire , you don't need it to finish the series.
The book is written from the perspective of the major characters, changing voice from character to character in each relatively short chapter. This is a difficult task to pull off as a writer and Ms. Bohnhoff wasn't up to it. After a few chapters spent in the voice of the different characters they all sound alike and one-dimensional. Except Colleen. While she continued to read in the same voice as the rest of the crew her first-book toughness rapidly morphs into a nails-on-the-blackboard whining bitchiness.
There's also a lot of filler in this book: every few chapters we're flogged with a few pages of pop psychology as to why character X is involved with the quest and the nature of their innermost feelings. Their innermost feelings are banal in the extreme and it's obvious throughout why each character is where they are. This is truly brutal slogging.
The book contains so many analogies to the Star Trek TV universe it's almost copyright infringement. Surely a professional author can come up with their own words once in a while rather than writing that something looks like the 'transporter' or the 'photon torpedo', ad infinitum. That's just Trek by the way, there are an equal number of other pop culture references standing in for creativity in this book.
What nearly sent me gibbering over the badly-written edge, finally, was the use of analogies the author did not understand. One egregious example refers to the sky in two separate locales unlike one another: she writes of the first area's sky as a nice "bonnet" and in the other less pleasant locale it was a "snood". A bonnet covers the head as a sky covers the earth. Fine so far, but a snood traditionally is a small piece of cloth or lace or worked yarn that holds only the fall of hair on the head. When in doubt consult a dictionary, not an LL Bean catalog. There's also a reference to a mule in a pack train as a "mule" as though there's something special about the sterile offspring of horse and a donkey that warrants quotation marks. Small complaints in themselves but when you read enough of them they turn into verbal slivers of glass under the skin.
The final chapters read as though they're written by an entirely different writer which I suspect they are. I have the feeling that the editors had to call in Mr. Zicree to take over and produce something readably conclusive.
April 8, 2008
"Magic Time: Angelfire" introduced me to Cal, Colleen, Doc and Goldie which were the main characters in a previous book by Marc Scott Zicree. When i picked up Angelfire I didn't know it was sort of a sequel.
I thought it was probably one of those books that that spawn from a previous popular series. The book cover is what caught my eye and got me to pick up the book, as strange as that may sound.
Now I will be picking up the first book to fill in some of the missing pieces of the beginning of their journey. Also I suspect there is (or will be) a sequel to Angelfire since the story doesn't quite come to a solid end.
The story is well written and the way the action is viewed from each character's point of view throughout each chapter in their travels is great. Reading their thoughts, beliefs and emotions as they learn and grow sometimes apart from each other.
367 pages worth reading in my opinion.
I thought it was probably one of those books that that spawn from a previous popular series. The book cover is what caught my eye and got me to pick up the book, as strange as that may sound.
Now I will be picking up the first book to fill in some of the missing pieces of the beginning of their journey. Also I suspect there is (or will be) a sequel to Angelfire since the story doesn't quite come to a solid end.
The story is well written and the way the action is viewed from each character's point of view throughout each chapter in their travels is great. Reading their thoughts, beliefs and emotions as they learn and grow sometimes apart from each other.
367 pages worth reading in my opinion.
November 21, 2008
The more I read these books the more I enjoy them. In a lot of ways, I can totally see the potential for a television series out of them. Each book would be a full season with stories and ideas along the way. I can see so much in them and so far they are really enjoyable. I kind of felt like the first book was a tad cheesy and there were a couple geographical issues with New York that bothered me... but otherwise it could've been worse. Now in this book, it seems to have smoothed out the cheese and the main hero is no longer alone in his solitary heroism and other characters have gotten the opportunity to shine. The story is also told in first person from many different viewpoints which is sometimes confusing but for the most part it works out.
Definitely a fun story so far.
Definitely a fun story so far.
March 4, 2011
The world as we know has changed, technology no longer works and magic is the norm. This "Change" has also effected people as well. Some people have become what are called "flares". The sister of Cal has become one of these flares and has disappeared, so now Cal, with the help of a group of friends, is looking for his sister and the source of the Change.
This book is written in first person, with every chapter told from the point of view of one of the four main characters (Cal, Colleen, Goldie, and Doc) which got a little confusing for me, as I sometimes had to remind myself whose perspective this chapter was in. The characters were wonderfully written, and how much the world had changed because of the Change was also very well described.
This book is written in first person, with every chapter told from the point of view of one of the four main characters (Cal, Colleen, Goldie, and Doc) which got a little confusing for me, as I sometimes had to remind myself whose perspective this chapter was in. The characters were wonderfully written, and how much the world had changed because of the Change was also very well described.
June 9, 2011
I started reading this book series years ago, but had to take a break in the middle of Magic Time: Angelfire due to real life. Now I've finally found my way back to this book series again, and I don't regret it.
Relaxing outside in the sun, while getting lost in the adventures of (pre-Change lawyer) Cal and his motley crew of (pre-Change homeless man) lunatic Goldie, tough-as-nails Colleen, and Russian (pre-Change doctor-turned-hot-dog-vendor) Doc Lysenko on a quest to find the source behind the world's magic change, and to find Cal's little sister, Tina, who was taken by the Source. On their travels they encounter challenges, mysteries, and other normal and twisted characters, such as magical bluesman Enid and (pre-Change callgirl) flare Magritte.
Relaxing outside in the sun, while getting lost in the adventures of (pre-Change lawyer) Cal and his motley crew of (pre-Change homeless man) lunatic Goldie, tough-as-nails Colleen, and Russian (pre-Change doctor-turned-hot-dog-vendor) Doc Lysenko on a quest to find the source behind the world's magic change, and to find Cal's little sister, Tina, who was taken by the Source. On their travels they encounter challenges, mysteries, and other normal and twisted characters, such as magical bluesman Enid and (pre-Change callgirl) flare Magritte.
February 21, 2012
In a world sans electricity and more simple things once taken for granted, new beings who were once human now embody their greatest desires, both for good and ill. In this remade world, follow a group of survivors as they continue the search for answers into why and how their world was remade and if there is any way to undo the damage.
December 16, 2016
I read the first book almost ten years ago (it didn't seem that long ago but thanks to Goodreads I know when I read it) and liked it. It was a struggle to get through this book. There are some good parts but overall I just couldn't get into it. It maybe another ten years before I read the final book of the trilogy.
May 3, 2013
I read this out of order ( am currently reading #1) I prefer this book over the others. This "Pied Piper" type story. Engrossing and not predictable... However,true of both books, these writers seem to be exercising a vulgarity muscle they can't use in their jobs writing for TV.
April 26, 2015
I read this year's ago in audio. It is the second of a series called Magic Times. There has been an apocalyptic event. Cal's sister was somehow changed. In this second book of the trilogy, Cal and friends are searching for his sister and the evil responsible for the change.
April 9, 2008
Uh I started this trilogy in the middle cause I didn't know it was a trilogy, so I was a little lost a first. Despite that I found this sci-fi fantasy really cool.
July 28, 2008
good fantasy post-apocalyptic book.
March 23, 2009
Written in first person of the various main characters, switches around. First book was better than this one, but it was still pretty good.
Read
February 14, 2012FYI, the four additional names after mine in the credits are the voice artists for the audio book.
February 13, 2015
Barbara Hambly was a hard act to follow and this book did not match her characterization but saying that the action in the latter half kept the pages turning. I will be reading #3
May 21, 2009
not quite as good as the first book, does an okay job of advancing the story.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews