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The Collector #2
The Wrong Goodbye
Meet Sam Thornton, Collector of Souls.
Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance – provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.
Which sounds all well and good, but when the soul Sam’s sent to collect goes missing, Sam finds himself off the straight-and-narrow pretty quick.
Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance – provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.
Which sounds all well and good, but when the soul Sam’s sent to collect goes missing, Sam finds himself off the straight-and-narrow pretty quick.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
10 people are currently reading
473 people want to read
About the author
Chris F. Holm
8 books22 followersThis author also publishes under the name Chris Holm.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
December 11, 2012
4.5 stars
This series is flipping fantastic! I feel like it's been written just for me. It has everything in it that I love right now and want to be reading to escape from life and have a helluva good time. I blew right through this one in a day and a half, not realizing there won't be another Sam Thornton adventure until Summer(?) 2013. Boo. But these are well-crafted, crazy mash-up fantastical noir crime novels that need time to grow. I get it. You take all the time you need Mr. Holm, just keep them coming!
This time around we learn a lot more about Sam's life as a Collector of doomed souls, the rules involved and the wicked dangers. The world-building here is so fine. I could eat it up with a spoon. Lilith (yes, that Lilith) is becoming more of a character and I love her. Femme-fatale indeed. One of the addicting things about this series is that the stakes are always so astronomically, apocalyptically high. I can't get enough of the scenarios. I am totally buying what Holm is peddling. Listen to me, I'm raving like a fangirl. Is what I'm writing even making sense?
No matter. Look, this series isn't going to be for everyone. But it just might be for you. If you like crime stories with a noir bent, if you like road movies and buddy pictures, if you enjoy a well-meaning sarcastic narrator with a past who is as funny and clumsy as he is smart and tough then you just might love this. If the fantastical elements of angels, demons, heaven, hell and the Inter-World intrigue you, then I know you will love this. Give it a chance, you really have nothing to lose. But start with Book 1, Dead Harvest.
This series is flipping fantastic! I feel like it's been written just for me. It has everything in it that I love right now and want to be reading to escape from life and have a helluva good time. I blew right through this one in a day and a half, not realizing there won't be another Sam Thornton adventure until Summer(?) 2013. Boo. But these are well-crafted, crazy mash-up fantastical noir crime novels that need time to grow. I get it. You take all the time you need Mr. Holm, just keep them coming!
This time around we learn a lot more about Sam's life as a Collector of doomed souls, the rules involved and the wicked dangers. The world-building here is so fine. I could eat it up with a spoon. Lilith (yes, that Lilith) is becoming more of a character and I love her. Femme-fatale indeed. One of the addicting things about this series is that the stakes are always so astronomically, apocalyptically high. I can't get enough of the scenarios. I am totally buying what Holm is peddling. Listen to me, I'm raving like a fangirl. Is what I'm writing even making sense?
No matter. Look, this series isn't going to be for everyone. But it just might be for you. If you like crime stories with a noir bent, if you like road movies and buddy pictures, if you enjoy a well-meaning sarcastic narrator with a past who is as funny and clumsy as he is smart and tough then you just might love this. If the fantastical elements of angels, demons, heaven, hell and the Inter-World intrigue you, then I know you will love this. Give it a chance, you really have nothing to lose. But start with Book 1, Dead Harvest.
April 14, 2013
Excuse me whilst I say meh to this series.
The second in the Collector series is as frustrating as the first. Sam Thornton is an interesting character with a good narrative voice, the scenario of a man who made a deal with a demon for his soul ending up collecting souls for eternity works for me too but the stories are just so much magnolia.
The word that sprung to mind again and again whilst reading was perfunctory, scene after scene of perfunctory events just to provide obstacles without furthering the plot or the character's development. It might be straight out of ancient literature but IT'S BORING!
And boy does the author love to describe his imaginary creations in great depth. As the man says, "try not to write the parts that people will skip anyway" and boy did I have to resist skipping pages at a time with this one.
As with the first book Holm created interesting sidekick characters only to use them essentially as filler, except this time they were much more interesting people than the protagonist and merely served to highlight what a total dick Sam Thornton is. The author states in his afterword that the intention is that Sam would always act with the best of intentions but if that's the case in The Wrong Goodbye his best intentions are all completely selfish and something tells me that the two are not entirely compatible.
It's not a bad book it's merely a serviceable popular fiction urban fantasy noir with a really great cover.
The second in the Collector series is as frustrating as the first. Sam Thornton is an interesting character with a good narrative voice, the scenario of a man who made a deal with a demon for his soul ending up collecting souls for eternity works for me too but the stories are just so much magnolia.
The word that sprung to mind again and again whilst reading was perfunctory, scene after scene of perfunctory events just to provide obstacles without furthering the plot or the character's development. It might be straight out of ancient literature but IT'S BORING!
And boy does the author love to describe his imaginary creations in great depth. As the man says, "try not to write the parts that people will skip anyway" and boy did I have to resist skipping pages at a time with this one.
As with the first book Holm created interesting sidekick characters only to use them essentially as filler, except this time they were much more interesting people than the protagonist and merely served to highlight what a total dick Sam Thornton is. The author states in his afterword that the intention is that Sam would always act with the best of intentions but if that's the case in The Wrong Goodbye his best intentions are all completely selfish and something tells me that the two are not entirely compatible.
It's not a bad book it's merely a serviceable popular fiction urban fantasy noir with a really great cover.
February 5, 2013
Following Dead Harvest, what do you give the guy who nearly brought upon the apocalypse? Why, a second chance of course!
Sam Thornton is tasked with the collection of a soul belonging to a feared drug lord. Following a meeting with an old friend and fellow collector, the soul Sam had acquired goes missing; replaced with that of another. The search for his stolen property takes Sam in unexpected directions as well as providing unwanted attention from those he’d like to avoid. As Sam’s journey continues, the window for retrieving the soul starts to close and his opportunity to stop yet another potential apocalyptic event becomes less and less likely.
If you read my review, you’d already be aware of how much I enjoyed Dead Harvest. When I was told the sequel – The Wrong Goodbye – was just as good, if not better, you couldn’t hold me back from picking it up.
With The Wrong Goodbye, I feel like the series gained a lot of ground in terms of Sam’s development. Sam laments about being stuck in his role as a collector but doesn’t whine and mope about it. He knows that he’ll always have Lillith down his neck and with the added pressure of those who granted him a reprieve following his actions in book one, he knows he can’t afford to make a mistake. Despite these factors that he must always be mindful of, you never feel like he loses any of what makes him a great character. He’s still a smart-ass and he still lets his darker, more comedic side come out to play. In fact, there’s this:
"He slammed me into the rock wall behind me. My head hit so hard I thought I’d puke. Then I did puke, so, you know, yay for being right."
As a Collector, the path laid out before him is only wide enough for one person. People may drift in and out of his life but given the nature of his employment, they’re never around for long. Given his circumstances, you could grab the low hanging fruit and fill Sam’s attitude with gloom and doom but it’s really important to make him an interesting and entertaining character by mixing it up a bit.
There’s a scene where Sam and his sidekick, Gio, are traveling in a stolen vehicle. Gio brings up the past and asks Sam about his wife. Sam’s response, tightening his grip around the steering wheel and thinking twice about dragging his history out, reinforces why despite his witty remarks and snappy dialogue, at his core he’ll always be a tragic figure. Thornton has the rest of eternity to wonder if the choice he made was the right one; something that will most likely never be easier for him to deal with.
Overall, I feel like this series is only getting stronger. The third book is due out this summer and again, has a fantastic cover. One thing I believe I didn’t speak about in my review for Dead Harvest was it’s excellent cover art. The designs provided by Amazing 15 continues a trend of vintage-style artwork.
****
Also posted at Every Read Thing
Check out my interview with Chris.
Sam Thornton is tasked with the collection of a soul belonging to a feared drug lord. Following a meeting with an old friend and fellow collector, the soul Sam had acquired goes missing; replaced with that of another. The search for his stolen property takes Sam in unexpected directions as well as providing unwanted attention from those he’d like to avoid. As Sam’s journey continues, the window for retrieving the soul starts to close and his opportunity to stop yet another potential apocalyptic event becomes less and less likely.
If you read my review, you’d already be aware of how much I enjoyed Dead Harvest. When I was told the sequel – The Wrong Goodbye – was just as good, if not better, you couldn’t hold me back from picking it up.
With The Wrong Goodbye, I feel like the series gained a lot of ground in terms of Sam’s development. Sam laments about being stuck in his role as a collector but doesn’t whine and mope about it. He knows that he’ll always have Lillith down his neck and with the added pressure of those who granted him a reprieve following his actions in book one, he knows he can’t afford to make a mistake. Despite these factors that he must always be mindful of, you never feel like he loses any of what makes him a great character. He’s still a smart-ass and he still lets his darker, more comedic side come out to play. In fact, there’s this:
"He slammed me into the rock wall behind me. My head hit so hard I thought I’d puke. Then I did puke, so, you know, yay for being right."
As a Collector, the path laid out before him is only wide enough for one person. People may drift in and out of his life but given the nature of his employment, they’re never around for long. Given his circumstances, you could grab the low hanging fruit and fill Sam’s attitude with gloom and doom but it’s really important to make him an interesting and entertaining character by mixing it up a bit.
There’s a scene where Sam and his sidekick, Gio, are traveling in a stolen vehicle. Gio brings up the past and asks Sam about his wife. Sam’s response, tightening his grip around the steering wheel and thinking twice about dragging his history out, reinforces why despite his witty remarks and snappy dialogue, at his core he’ll always be a tragic figure. Thornton has the rest of eternity to wonder if the choice he made was the right one; something that will most likely never be easier for him to deal with.
Overall, I feel like this series is only getting stronger. The third book is due out this summer and again, has a fantastic cover. One thing I believe I didn’t speak about in my review for Dead Harvest was it’s excellent cover art. The designs provided by Amazing 15 continues a trend of vintage-style artwork.
****
Also posted at Every Read Thing
Check out my interview with Chris.
August 28, 2012
This review was originally posted at my blog.
I'm sure you all remember a few months ago when I read Chris F. Holm's first The Collector book, Dead Harvest . Even if you don't that's okay. I'll pretend to wait impatiently while you go read my review. Anyway, I really liked that book and kind of got all gushy about the cover. That cover kind of had nothing on this one BUT I'M NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE COVER TODAY. No, really.
If you remember (and even if you don't, I really don't care [just kidding, love you guys!]) I liked Holm's main character Sam Thornton well enough, but there were tiny things that knocked it down from a five star book to just above 4. 4.1, I think? [runs to check] Yes, 4.1. Well! You'll all be thrilled to know, I'm sure, that I did Mandy's Review Rubric on The Wrong Goodbye last night and it scored an amazing FOUR POINT SEVEN stars! That's almost five stars, guys, and is definitely nothing to sneeze at!
I liked Sam even more this time than I did last time (which is saying something, because he was pretty cool to begin with), but what really made this book exceptional were the new characters and situations. Without giving too very much of the plot away, there's a road trip with the body of Abe Frohman (if you don't know who the Sausage King of Chicago is, I really don't want to be your friend anymore), junkie demons, some creepy as hell non-aligned creatures and of course references to both the apocrypha and pop-culture.
I giggled, I was uncomfortable, I gasped (in what I hope were all the appropriate places) and I turned the last page (figuratively, dur - it's an ebook, don't you know me by now?) with a slight feeling of sadness. I started 3 other books yesterday after finishing this one, and not one of them was able to hold my attention. It's kind of win:lose - I loved this, but now nothing else seems to be worth reading. [sigh]
Shortly after my review of Dead Harvest, I had a twitter conversation with Mr Holm where he said he hoped things would work themselves out better in this book (I'm totally paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to scroll back through two months of tweets, c'mon), and I can assure both you (my lovely readers) and him that the things that bothered me about the first book have pretty much disappeared in this second volume.
You don't necessarily have to have read Dead Harvest to follow the events of The Wrong Goodbye, but if you're a completist like me, you'll want to anyway. There are lovely little in-jokes in this one that you won't get if you haven't read the first, but again - not necessary for enjoyment.
If you're into pulpy noir-ish prose and think adding fantastic elements to that is a great idea, you'll love these books. If you HATE that kind of stuff, you probably won't - but don't blame me, because I totally warned you.
The Wrong Goodbye will be out Sept. 25 in the US and Oct. 4 in the UK. Pricing and sales information can be found over at Angry Robot (the lovely folks over there were kind enough to provide me with this eARC). You can find Mr Holm on twitter and his blog. Like most of the Angry Robot authors, he's pretty awesome about interacting and answering questions. I love that!
So...what are you waiting for? Go pre-order this book, already.
Post Script - Kind of weird because I was just discussing this album with a few different people the other day - but a little after halfway through, I started singing this song to myself. Anyway, I think it goes well with this book.
I'm sure you all remember a few months ago when I read Chris F. Holm's first The Collector book, Dead Harvest . Even if you don't that's okay. I'll pretend to wait impatiently while you go read my review. Anyway, I really liked that book and kind of got all gushy about the cover. That cover kind of had nothing on this one BUT I'M NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE COVER TODAY. No, really.
If you remember (and even if you don't, I really don't care [just kidding, love you guys!]) I liked Holm's main character Sam Thornton well enough, but there were tiny things that knocked it down from a five star book to just above 4. 4.1, I think? [runs to check] Yes, 4.1. Well! You'll all be thrilled to know, I'm sure, that I did Mandy's Review Rubric on The Wrong Goodbye last night and it scored an amazing FOUR POINT SEVEN stars! That's almost five stars, guys, and is definitely nothing to sneeze at!
I liked Sam even more this time than I did last time (which is saying something, because he was pretty cool to begin with), but what really made this book exceptional were the new characters and situations. Without giving too very much of the plot away, there's a road trip with the body of Abe Frohman (if you don't know who the Sausage King of Chicago is, I really don't want to be your friend anymore), junkie demons, some creepy as hell non-aligned creatures and of course references to both the apocrypha and pop-culture.
I giggled, I was uncomfortable, I gasped (in what I hope were all the appropriate places) and I turned the last page (figuratively, dur - it's an ebook, don't you know me by now?) with a slight feeling of sadness. I started 3 other books yesterday after finishing this one, and not one of them was able to hold my attention. It's kind of win:lose - I loved this, but now nothing else seems to be worth reading. [sigh]
Shortly after my review of Dead Harvest, I had a twitter conversation with Mr Holm where he said he hoped things would work themselves out better in this book (I'm totally paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to scroll back through two months of tweets, c'mon), and I can assure both you (my lovely readers) and him that the things that bothered me about the first book have pretty much disappeared in this second volume.
You don't necessarily have to have read Dead Harvest to follow the events of The Wrong Goodbye, but if you're a completist like me, you'll want to anyway. There are lovely little in-jokes in this one that you won't get if you haven't read the first, but again - not necessary for enjoyment.
If you're into pulpy noir-ish prose and think adding fantastic elements to that is a great idea, you'll love these books. If you HATE that kind of stuff, you probably won't - but don't blame me, because I totally warned you.
The Wrong Goodbye will be out Sept. 25 in the US and Oct. 4 in the UK. Pricing and sales information can be found over at Angry Robot (the lovely folks over there were kind enough to provide me with this eARC). You can find Mr Holm on twitter and his blog. Like most of the Angry Robot authors, he's pretty awesome about interacting and answering questions. I love that!
So...what are you waiting for? Go pre-order this book, already.
Post Script - Kind of weird because I was just discussing this album with a few different people the other day - but a little after halfway through, I started singing this song to myself. Anyway, I think it goes well with this book.
January 17, 2016
This is the second of the collector series, it is part standalone story and to a lesser part, building on the story arc started in the first book.
One thing I would like to say is that I guess at times I felt that I had read this book before - not for the story line which I thought was fun and fast paced but more the characters. The wise cracking black humoured cynical character seems to be the de facto choice these days and as much as I find it entertaining I do sometimes think one model the next and so on.
Now I know this is a petty point and one that could be pointed towards the genre more than the author or the general mood of publishing at the moment but with so many similar books out there I do worry that it will burn itself out maybe I am right more than likely I am wrong.
But what of the book well it was highly enjoyable and full praise to Chris Holm - he was able to take a character who by his very nature we should be booing and by the end of the book we are hoping he has survived and made a go of it - and I am not meaning Sam Thornton either.
So where does the third and it seems final book in the series go, I have no idea but I fully plan on finding out.
One thing I would like to say is that I guess at times I felt that I had read this book before - not for the story line which I thought was fun and fast paced but more the characters. The wise cracking black humoured cynical character seems to be the de facto choice these days and as much as I find it entertaining I do sometimes think one model the next and so on.
Now I know this is a petty point and one that could be pointed towards the genre more than the author or the general mood of publishing at the moment but with so many similar books out there I do worry that it will burn itself out maybe I am right more than likely I am wrong.
But what of the book well it was highly enjoyable and full praise to Chris Holm - he was able to take a character who by his very nature we should be booing and by the end of the book we are hoping he has survived and made a go of it - and I am not meaning Sam Thornton either.
So where does the third and it seems final book in the series go, I have no idea but I fully plan on finding out.
September 25, 2012
“An explosive follow up to Dead Harvest, two out of two for Chris F. Holm, urban fantasy fans will love this. Sam Thorton is a protagonist to be reckoned with.” ~The Founding Fields
The first novel in The Collector Trilogy was released earlier this year, which I loved. So, when the second novel was avaliable for an eARC download from Angry Robot, I eagerly snapped up the chance and almost as soon as it appeared on my IPod I began reading, and couldn’t put it down. If the third novel in The Collector Trilogy rounds off the series nicely and continues to be as good as the first two, then I honestly believe that Sam Thorton will be up there battling with the likes of Harry Dresden, and other similar male protagonists of the urban fantasy genre (although, Dresden and Thorton both come from different backgrounds, and aren’t quite as similar as I made them out to be).
Meet Sam Thornton, Collector of Souls.
Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance – provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.
Which sounds all well and good, but when the soul Sam’s sent to collect goes missing, Sam finds himself off the straight-and-narrow pretty quick.
File Under: Urban Fantasy [ Missing | Soul Provider | Call Collect | Demon Child ]
For those of you who haven’t read Dead Harvest yet, don’t worry, you don’t have to. Chris F. Holm does a great job of catching the reader up with what happened last time in a way that doesn’t affect the breakneck pace of the book. You won’t feel lost at any point during the book mainly due to the fact that it sticks to Sam’s first person narrative all the way through, allowing you to get a clear view inside the Collector’s head. As well as being a pulp urban fantasy novel, The Wrong Goodbye also doubles up as a road trip, the car involved being a Cadillac. This makes the story more interesting and enjoyable, adding something fresh that I haven’t seen in an urban fantasy novel before. (Alex Verus stuck in London, and Dresden stuck more or less in Chicago.)
The novel is fast paced, and continues the style of Dead Harvest that for those who have read that book will be familiar with. The characters in this novel are believable, and the action is pretty much non stop after the flashback to introduce a new character to our tale, Danny – who is more important to the plot than you will initially think. Chris F. Holm writes in a way that will keep you turning the pages, and if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to put it down. I loved The Wrong Goodbye even more than I enjoyed Dead Harvest. It’s what The Dark Knight was to its prequel - more explosive, more epic, and a lot more enjoyable even though both Begins and Dead Harvest were still good in their own right.
Read the rest of the review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/09/....
The first novel in The Collector Trilogy was released earlier this year, which I loved. So, when the second novel was avaliable for an eARC download from Angry Robot, I eagerly snapped up the chance and almost as soon as it appeared on my IPod I began reading, and couldn’t put it down. If the third novel in The Collector Trilogy rounds off the series nicely and continues to be as good as the first two, then I honestly believe that Sam Thorton will be up there battling with the likes of Harry Dresden, and other similar male protagonists of the urban fantasy genre (although, Dresden and Thorton both come from different backgrounds, and aren’t quite as similar as I made them out to be).
Meet Sam Thornton, Collector of Souls.
Because of his efforts to avert the Apocalypse, Sam Thornton has been given a second chance – provided he can stick to the straight-and-narrow.
Which sounds all well and good, but when the soul Sam’s sent to collect goes missing, Sam finds himself off the straight-and-narrow pretty quick.
File Under: Urban Fantasy [ Missing | Soul Provider | Call Collect | Demon Child ]
For those of you who haven’t read Dead Harvest yet, don’t worry, you don’t have to. Chris F. Holm does a great job of catching the reader up with what happened last time in a way that doesn’t affect the breakneck pace of the book. You won’t feel lost at any point during the book mainly due to the fact that it sticks to Sam’s first person narrative all the way through, allowing you to get a clear view inside the Collector’s head. As well as being a pulp urban fantasy novel, The Wrong Goodbye also doubles up as a road trip, the car involved being a Cadillac. This makes the story more interesting and enjoyable, adding something fresh that I haven’t seen in an urban fantasy novel before. (Alex Verus stuck in London, and Dresden stuck more or less in Chicago.)
The novel is fast paced, and continues the style of Dead Harvest that for those who have read that book will be familiar with. The characters in this novel are believable, and the action is pretty much non stop after the flashback to introduce a new character to our tale, Danny – who is more important to the plot than you will initially think. Chris F. Holm writes in a way that will keep you turning the pages, and if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to put it down. I loved The Wrong Goodbye even more than I enjoyed Dead Harvest. It’s what The Dark Knight was to its prequel - more explosive, more epic, and a lot more enjoyable even though both Begins and Dead Harvest were still good in their own right.
Read the rest of the review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/09/....
October 5, 2012
'The Wrong Goodbye', the second in the very cool 'Collectors' series is more mature and true to the PI formula than 'Dead Harvest'. A collection gone bad sees Sam on the hunt for a former friend which will once again place him and his handler Lilith at the mercy of a much higher and devastating power.
The opening sequence in the Amazon jungle has a distinct pulp feel to it reminiscent of a Gabriel Hunt novel. The subsequent discovery of a stolen soul amidst the bloody jungle chaos prompts a flash back to the collection of a doll makers soul some time ago, written equal to a well nourished short story brimming with tension and overt, in-you-face horror. A mere glimpse into the more macabre side of Sam’s profession. I sure hope Holm explores Sam's past escapades further - there is a lot of scope for some decent stories here.
'The Wrong Goodbye' comes with a more hardened edge to it. Sound allegiances are found to have subtle cracks, murder doesn't equate to the end, and collection becomes part of a drug-like trade. I loved the introduction of the skim-joint, a sort of drug haven for the damned and physically misplaced where a glimpse of life is provided at a cost – a kind of supernatural drug house, only this one is based in a former sanatorium. Holm continues to hone in the deviant activity paramount through his world building series. Skim joint aside, another side of Lilith is exposed, and a new character - a creepy crawly creature of seemingly unknown origins is introducted- all these elements provide further evidence that something big is brewing.
Demons, angels, soul collectors, and murderous individuals - it's all within the pages of 'The Wrong Goodbye'. The plot itself is interesting with a layer of complexity added with each revelation alongside Sam's journey to track down Danny. Gio – a humours sidekick provides some nice comic relief and is a great teaming with Sam. Gio also lightens Sam tough guy persona as we see the collector express more emotion and second guess any violent encounter.
This is one hell of a book and I cant wait for third instalment.
At the end of the book, Holm labels his work as fantastical noir and he's pretty damn close in that description of this series. It's got elements of the supernatural, the traditional hallmarks of noir (as Holm so aptly described in his end of book essay) and damn fine writing. If I were to compare the theme and feel of the series to other fiction, there are aspects of the graphic novel 'Fatal' (horror, noir mash-up), the Joe Pitt Casebooks by Charlie Huston (the supernatural of sorts PI angle), and a splattering of influence by the masters in Cain, Chandler, and Hammett (as the smart title(s) suggest).
My review of 'Dead Harvest' can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The opening sequence in the Amazon jungle has a distinct pulp feel to it reminiscent of a Gabriel Hunt novel. The subsequent discovery of a stolen soul amidst the bloody jungle chaos prompts a flash back to the collection of a doll makers soul some time ago, written equal to a well nourished short story brimming with tension and overt, in-you-face horror. A mere glimpse into the more macabre side of Sam’s profession. I sure hope Holm explores Sam's past escapades further - there is a lot of scope for some decent stories here.
'The Wrong Goodbye' comes with a more hardened edge to it. Sound allegiances are found to have subtle cracks, murder doesn't equate to the end, and collection becomes part of a drug-like trade. I loved the introduction of the skim-joint, a sort of drug haven for the damned and physically misplaced where a glimpse of life is provided at a cost – a kind of supernatural drug house, only this one is based in a former sanatorium. Holm continues to hone in the deviant activity paramount through his world building series. Skim joint aside, another side of Lilith is exposed, and a new character - a creepy crawly creature of seemingly unknown origins is introducted- all these elements provide further evidence that something big is brewing.
Demons, angels, soul collectors, and murderous individuals - it's all within the pages of 'The Wrong Goodbye'. The plot itself is interesting with a layer of complexity added with each revelation alongside Sam's journey to track down Danny. Gio – a humours sidekick provides some nice comic relief and is a great teaming with Sam. Gio also lightens Sam tough guy persona as we see the collector express more emotion and second guess any violent encounter.
This is one hell of a book and I cant wait for third instalment.
At the end of the book, Holm labels his work as fantastical noir and he's pretty damn close in that description of this series. It's got elements of the supernatural, the traditional hallmarks of noir (as Holm so aptly described in his end of book essay) and damn fine writing. If I were to compare the theme and feel of the series to other fiction, there are aspects of the graphic novel 'Fatal' (horror, noir mash-up), the Joe Pitt Casebooks by Charlie Huston (the supernatural of sorts PI angle), and a splattering of influence by the masters in Cain, Chandler, and Hammett (as the smart title(s) suggest).
My review of 'Dead Harvest' can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
July 9, 2013
Yup, I'm in book-love. From the covers to the content, I think Chris F. Holm is doing this series just right, and I am seriously excited that I have the ARC of The Big Reap primed and ready to go on my Kobo. I think if you're a devotee of Hammett and Chandler and the like, not much is gonna get by you in terms of the plotting, but that's okay, I'm just soaking up the ambience.
Looking forward to more of Lilith, and hoping so much we see more of Gio and Theresa. I think that was maybe my favourite thing about this book, among a whole host of favourite things: a dude author getting a trans* person's pronouns consistently right, and treating her no different to any other love interest that might come along. And hey, she kicks ass too. And by the way, she's blind.
Which is not to say this book is perfect, which is a pretty big thing to ask of any book, but it's a lot of fun and tickles me just right.
Looking forward to more of Lilith, and hoping so much we see more of Gio and Theresa. I think that was maybe my favourite thing about this book, among a whole host of favourite things: a dude author getting a trans* person's pronouns consistently right, and treating her no different to any other love interest that might come along. And hey, she kicks ass too. And by the way, she's blind.
Which is not to say this book is perfect, which is a pretty big thing to ask of any book, but it's a lot of fun and tickles me just right.
October 11, 2012
Stop me if you've heard this one. Boy meets corpse. Boy tries to harvest soul from corpse. Boy finds out that someone else already took it. Boy is in big, big trouble. There is no girl. Nor is there a spoon.
It's not even been two months since I read and enjoyed the first book in Chris F. Holm's Collector series, Dead Harvest, so the fact that I was eager to return to it says something, either about what else I've been reading (*cough* too much Dark Tower) or about how much I liked that first book, or both.
Let's say "both."
The Wrong Goodbye is not merely another adventure for our beleaguered soul-collector, Sam, though it would seem like such at first as he slogs through rain-washed jungles of Columbia to gather up the mean, mean soul of one Varela, drug kingpin, power broker and all around bad guy. But then the problem kicks in, and it's a doozy: someone else got there first. Someone who left behind the nastiest crime scene, maybe ever (especially if you don't like insects*). Someone who absconded with Varela's soul and carved a "hey buddy, we have to talk" message to Sam into Varela's corpse.
Before we know it, Sam, victim of a bait-and-switch, is traipsing all over the U.S. in the company of a dead low-level mobster who has been shoehorned into the fat old body of "the sausage king of Chicago" (wink wink) hunting down the guy who stole the soul and left the message. Along the way, we learn a bit more of Sam's incredible backstory, but where in Dead Harvest it was all about how he got to be a Collector, in The Wrong Goodbye the backstory focus is on his early Collecting days, during which he broke a lot of really important rules. Which is to say that even before the near-apocalyptic events of the first book, Sam has been on a lot of supernatural radars, none of them friendly.
Sam and his mobster-cum-sausage king** encounter quite a lot of genuine horror in this book, all of it dealt with extremely effectively. An extended scene exploring a decrepit sanitarium in the New Mexico desert evokes shades of every nightmare you've ever had, and every horror game you've ever had to play with the lights on (Fatal Frame, I'm looking at you) -- while, get this, simultaneously making the reader feel sorry for the demons hanging out there. It's all very complicated and I don't want to spoil it but man, it's a bravura performance Holm has done, there, and worth the price of the book alone.
But wait, there's more! Like two dead guys who are animating two other dead guys' bodies having an argument over whether one is to be allowed to smoke indoors. Giant evil mega-demons quoting The Big Lebowski. A weird carjacking of a vehicle so beautiful even a non gearhead like me can appreciate it. An action-packed final third that riffs on and builds from the action-packed final third of Dead Harvest and turns it all up to eleven -- until comes a twist ending that, even if you did see it coming, is a pretty satisfying payoff.
And through it all, we have Sam, still trying, despite his damned and undead status, to be a decent guy, to do the right thing, to keep the world from being completely destroyed. Again. Because he's Sam, a guy who went into perdition out of pure and selfless love, and who, yes, is bitter about it, but has not given up the struggle to stay good even so. I heart Sam, I really do.
All of this makes for very good, page-turning fiction. One might think she knows where all of this is heading, but one might be wrong. Or not. Either way, very enjoyable.
And yes, there is obviously going to be at least one more Collector book, to which part of me says, jeeze, how many times can one guy save the world, but to which the rest of me says, hey, Sam's a lot more likeable than Buffy...
*And speaking of insects, if you have a phobia about them, this book is going to scare you silly. There are swarms of giant, angry insects -- The Deliverants, who accept and pass collected souls along to Hell -- dogging Sam's every step through this one. They want their two dollars, you guys. A lot.
**Coo, that sounds a bit naughty, doesn't it?
It's not even been two months since I read and enjoyed the first book in Chris F. Holm's Collector series, Dead Harvest, so the fact that I was eager to return to it says something, either about what else I've been reading (*cough* too much Dark Tower) or about how much I liked that first book, or both.
Let's say "both."
The Wrong Goodbye is not merely another adventure for our beleaguered soul-collector, Sam, though it would seem like such at first as he slogs through rain-washed jungles of Columbia to gather up the mean, mean soul of one Varela, drug kingpin, power broker and all around bad guy. But then the problem kicks in, and it's a doozy: someone else got there first. Someone who left behind the nastiest crime scene, maybe ever (especially if you don't like insects*). Someone who absconded with Varela's soul and carved a "hey buddy, we have to talk" message to Sam into Varela's corpse.
Before we know it, Sam, victim of a bait-and-switch, is traipsing all over the U.S. in the company of a dead low-level mobster who has been shoehorned into the fat old body of "the sausage king of Chicago" (wink wink) hunting down the guy who stole the soul and left the message. Along the way, we learn a bit more of Sam's incredible backstory, but where in Dead Harvest it was all about how he got to be a Collector, in The Wrong Goodbye the backstory focus is on his early Collecting days, during which he broke a lot of really important rules. Which is to say that even before the near-apocalyptic events of the first book, Sam has been on a lot of supernatural radars, none of them friendly.
Sam and his mobster-cum-sausage king** encounter quite a lot of genuine horror in this book, all of it dealt with extremely effectively. An extended scene exploring a decrepit sanitarium in the New Mexico desert evokes shades of every nightmare you've ever had, and every horror game you've ever had to play with the lights on (Fatal Frame, I'm looking at you) -- while, get this, simultaneously making the reader feel sorry for the demons hanging out there. It's all very complicated and I don't want to spoil it but man, it's a bravura performance Holm has done, there, and worth the price of the book alone.
But wait, there's more! Like two dead guys who are animating two other dead guys' bodies having an argument over whether one is to be allowed to smoke indoors. Giant evil mega-demons quoting The Big Lebowski. A weird carjacking of a vehicle so beautiful even a non gearhead like me can appreciate it. An action-packed final third that riffs on and builds from the action-packed final third of Dead Harvest and turns it all up to eleven -- until comes a twist ending that, even if you did see it coming, is a pretty satisfying payoff.
And through it all, we have Sam, still trying, despite his damned and undead status, to be a decent guy, to do the right thing, to keep the world from being completely destroyed. Again. Because he's Sam, a guy who went into perdition out of pure and selfless love, and who, yes, is bitter about it, but has not given up the struggle to stay good even so. I heart Sam, I really do.
All of this makes for very good, page-turning fiction. One might think she knows where all of this is heading, but one might be wrong. Or not. Either way, very enjoyable.
And yes, there is obviously going to be at least one more Collector book, to which part of me says, jeeze, how many times can one guy save the world, but to which the rest of me says, hey, Sam's a lot more likeable than Buffy...
*And speaking of insects, if you have a phobia about them, this book is going to scare you silly. There are swarms of giant, angry insects -- The Deliverants, who accept and pass collected souls along to Hell -- dogging Sam's every step through this one. They want their two dollars, you guys. A lot.
**Coo, that sounds a bit naughty, doesn't it?
July 23, 2013
Despite enjoying Dead Harvest, the first book in Holm's Collector series, I thought there were parts kept a little too vague for my liking, and Sam's world wasn't explored as fully as it could have been. Before picking up to read The Wrong Goodbye, I hoped Holm would dive a little deeper into that world. Well, he did--and then some.
Sam Thornton is on a bit of a probation with his handlers. Sure, he prevented a holy war between Heaven and Hell, saved an innocent soul from being collected, but you don't cross the boss. Lilith, his infernal handler, has a new soul for him collect, and he's a real nasty bugger too. But when Sam heads into the jungle to snag himself a drug lord's condemned soul, all he finds is a lot of corpses and a missing soul, and Sam is pretty sure it's been stolen by a fellow collector. Trying to save an innocent soul during the first go-round was dangerous enough, but turns out that was a cake-walk compared to the escalating hellstorm that Sam has to navigate to recover a condemned one.
While the book works well as a stand-alone, you'll definitely have a better appreciation for storyline in The Wrong Goodbye if you've already read Dead Harvest. Holm does a lot to reacquaint readers with the supporting players in the story, as well as the rules of the universe he's created here. Sam is dead after all, and it's his own spirit that has to flit in and out of bodies--basically possessing newly deceased people rather than contending with live people who might not take kindly to being possessed. As for the stakes raised by not delivering the bad guy's soul on time, the Deliverants were an especially creepy addition to the world. Imagine a swarm of various insects with a collective consciousness chasing you down if you're late in bringing them the soul they're owed. Yeah, and that's just one of the headaches Sam has to deal with.
Sam spent much of the first book being pursued, but this novel has him as the one doing all the chasing. The ticking clock comes in two-fold, as he has a deadline to get the missing soul back to the Deliverants before they put the kibosh on him, and the added hangup when he starts to figure out what Danny has planned for the soul, which could put the kibosh on everyone on earth. Plus, there's the added comedy of Sam's conscripted aide, Gio, a dead gangster whose soul Sam has stuffed into an obese derelict and is Sam's best chance at tracking down Danny and the missing soul. The dynamic there, especially when they cross paths with a drunk tycoon named Roscoe, may have been the most entertaining parts of the story.
The blend of hard-boiled mystery and high-octane fantasy make The Wrong Goodbye a tremendous novel that surpasses Dead Harvest and sets a pretty high bar for the third book in the series, The Big Reap. If you like urban fantasy with touches of noir and pugnacity, you really need to check this series out. It started out good and quickly turning to great.
Sam Thornton is on a bit of a probation with his handlers. Sure, he prevented a holy war between Heaven and Hell, saved an innocent soul from being collected, but you don't cross the boss. Lilith, his infernal handler, has a new soul for him collect, and he's a real nasty bugger too. But when Sam heads into the jungle to snag himself a drug lord's condemned soul, all he finds is a lot of corpses and a missing soul, and Sam is pretty sure it's been stolen by a fellow collector. Trying to save an innocent soul during the first go-round was dangerous enough, but turns out that was a cake-walk compared to the escalating hellstorm that Sam has to navigate to recover a condemned one.
While the book works well as a stand-alone, you'll definitely have a better appreciation for storyline in The Wrong Goodbye if you've already read Dead Harvest. Holm does a lot to reacquaint readers with the supporting players in the story, as well as the rules of the universe he's created here. Sam is dead after all, and it's his own spirit that has to flit in and out of bodies--basically possessing newly deceased people rather than contending with live people who might not take kindly to being possessed. As for the stakes raised by not delivering the bad guy's soul on time, the Deliverants were an especially creepy addition to the world. Imagine a swarm of various insects with a collective consciousness chasing you down if you're late in bringing them the soul they're owed. Yeah, and that's just one of the headaches Sam has to deal with.
Sam spent much of the first book being pursued, but this novel has him as the one doing all the chasing. The ticking clock comes in two-fold, as he has a deadline to get the missing soul back to the Deliverants before they put the kibosh on him, and the added hangup when he starts to figure out what Danny has planned for the soul, which could put the kibosh on everyone on earth. Plus, there's the added comedy of Sam's conscripted aide, Gio, a dead gangster whose soul Sam has stuffed into an obese derelict and is Sam's best chance at tracking down Danny and the missing soul. The dynamic there, especially when they cross paths with a drunk tycoon named Roscoe, may have been the most entertaining parts of the story.
The blend of hard-boiled mystery and high-octane fantasy make The Wrong Goodbye a tremendous novel that surpasses Dead Harvest and sets a pretty high bar for the third book in the series, The Big Reap. If you like urban fantasy with touches of noir and pugnacity, you really need to check this series out. It started out good and quickly turning to great.
November 17, 2012
I loved Dead Harvest (the first book) but I ended up loving this one even more. It certainly helps that there are a lot of references throughout the novel (pop culture, I mean---some are very easy to catch and some are harder. I don't want to be more specific because every time I caught one, I was literally joyful).
This series is also just ridiculously fun. Yes, the stakes are high (if you fail, the world may literally end---so no pressure, right?) but Sam is awesome and clever and sarcastic. In short, my favorite kind of narrator. ;) It makes me sad that this series isn't more widely read. I guess I understand it, because this isn't for everyone (would YOU want to cheer for someone who basically sends the deserving to hell?) but it's for everyone worth knowing. (So says my completely unbiased opinion, anyway.)
I found out about the series because a Facebook friend mentioned the author---he was one of over 100 Maine authors to be part of an ad advocating for gay marriage in that state. I'm so glad I did, because this series is basically perfect for me. The two days I spent reading about Sam's adventures were the best days. :)
The worst thing, though, is that the third book won't be out until next year---probably next SEPTEMBER. :( This feels like forever! But don't let that stop you; this book and its predecessor, Dead Harvest, are amazing and I can't imagine that you won't love them. Highly, highly recommended.
This series is also just ridiculously fun. Yes, the stakes are high (if you fail, the world may literally end---so no pressure, right?) but Sam is awesome and clever and sarcastic. In short, my favorite kind of narrator. ;) It makes me sad that this series isn't more widely read. I guess I understand it, because this isn't for everyone (would YOU want to cheer for someone who basically sends the deserving to hell?) but it's for everyone worth knowing. (So says my completely unbiased opinion, anyway.)
I found out about the series because a Facebook friend mentioned the author---he was one of over 100 Maine authors to be part of an ad advocating for gay marriage in that state. I'm so glad I did, because this series is basically perfect for me. The two days I spent reading about Sam's adventures were the best days. :)
The worst thing, though, is that the third book won't be out until next year---probably next SEPTEMBER. :( This feels like forever! But don't let that stop you; this book and its predecessor, Dead Harvest, are amazing and I can't imagine that you won't love them. Highly, highly recommended.
August 18, 2012
Chris Holm's "The Collector" series lives up to the promise of the first novel and then some with this book. It's tighter, more assured, and builds upon the mysteries of that first book without adding so much new stuff you get lost. It's funny, smart, and punches well: if you're into urban fantasy and want something to add to the shelf that holds Dresden & the Nightside books... this is absolutely your best bet. Only start with the first book - you won't regret it.
More about the book (with loose spoilers for Dead Harvest but not this one) at Raging Biblioholism! http://wp.me/pGVzJ-qF
More about the book (with loose spoilers for Dead Harvest but not this one) at Raging Biblioholism! http://wp.me/pGVzJ-qF
October 12, 2012
Earlier this year I read Chris F. Holm's debut novel
Dead Harvest
and was totally blown away by it. I called the best debut I'd read so far this year and almost ten months later it still is one of my favourites. So my anticipation and expectations for The Wrong Goodbye were high to say the least. And while it had the same sense of humour and style I enjoyed about Dead Harvest, the feel of the book was very different, far more buddy road trip than the heroic whodunit mystery tale.
Returning to Sam's adventures was a pleasure. Holm gives us more information about his past as a Collector and about his universe. He shows us there are rules the Collectors have to follow – no fraternizing for one, a soul can only be delivered by the Collector tasked with its taking for another – and that there are consequences when they aren't followed, not just for the Collectors, but for their handlers as well. The thought of Shelving – putting a Collector into a body he can't get out off until the body expires of natural causes or gain a more active consciousness, such as someone in a coma or a newborn – is horrifying and I can imagine Sam wanting to avoid that fate. Holm stresses in both his books that hell is intensely personal; no two doomed persons' hells will be the same. This is reflected by the Deliverants, the spirits that collect the souls from the Collectors. They are different for each person as well: Sam's are insects and Danny's are crows, for example. With the introduction of the Deliverants and their boss, who is never truly named, as he's more of a concept than a person, Holm moves his universe into a larger scope and creates a larger playing field for Sam and his friends. It promises and interesting conflict in the next Collector book.
Most of the humour in the book comes in the form of Holm's characters and their dialogue. He creates great personalities, from bit players such as the poor undertaker to larger secondary characters such as Gio and Theresa. While the parts of Sam's past that are revealed are less tragic than last time, they do explain his wariness of caring for people, and coupled with his losses in Dead Harvest, I found his reluctance to admit that he cared for Gio and Theresa compelling. Ana and Danny, the spectres from his past that return to haunt him, are very cool and sinister, they kept putting me on the wrong foot and Holm had them pulling a bait and switch I hadn't seen coming until it arrived. In addition, the villains are delicious as well. We meet up with Dumas, Sam's demonic maker if you will, who is slick, urbane, witty and oh so very crooked. We also meet some other demons, the ones that function more as monsters than as people, and they rock. I loved the idea of Abyzou – Abby for short – who is big and scary, with a distinct octopus-flavour, and who hunts by enthralling her victims. Similarly, you have Psoglav, a freaky dog demon, who is plain frightening in his casual use and abuse of human souls.
My one peeve with The Wrong Goodbye is that we don't find out what happens to some of the characters. I really would have liked to know how they ended up, whether they got a happy ending or not, especially for Gio and Theresa. Then again, as happy endings aren't really in Sam's business, perhaps it's best that the reader is left with hope for them. As it is, I do hope one day we'll find out what happened to them.
In short, Holm did it again. The Wrong Goodbye is an amazing follow up to Dead Harvest, but stands surprisingly well on its own. One could pick this up without reading the first one and still enjoy the heck out of it, though you'd miss some of the depth of the character development. The story is a hard-boiled supernatural detective, which sees Sam teamed up with a buddy sidekick and kick-ass lady friend and which has a great plot, whose twists and turns are hard to discuss without giving away spoilers. In my opinion Holm has become a must-read author, as I love how his crime is salted with the supernatural.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
Returning to Sam's adventures was a pleasure. Holm gives us more information about his past as a Collector and about his universe. He shows us there are rules the Collectors have to follow – no fraternizing for one, a soul can only be delivered by the Collector tasked with its taking for another – and that there are consequences when they aren't followed, not just for the Collectors, but for their handlers as well. The thought of Shelving – putting a Collector into a body he can't get out off until the body expires of natural causes or gain a more active consciousness, such as someone in a coma or a newborn – is horrifying and I can imagine Sam wanting to avoid that fate. Holm stresses in both his books that hell is intensely personal; no two doomed persons' hells will be the same. This is reflected by the Deliverants, the spirits that collect the souls from the Collectors. They are different for each person as well: Sam's are insects and Danny's are crows, for example. With the introduction of the Deliverants and their boss, who is never truly named, as he's more of a concept than a person, Holm moves his universe into a larger scope and creates a larger playing field for Sam and his friends. It promises and interesting conflict in the next Collector book.
Most of the humour in the book comes in the form of Holm's characters and their dialogue. He creates great personalities, from bit players such as the poor undertaker to larger secondary characters such as Gio and Theresa. While the parts of Sam's past that are revealed are less tragic than last time, they do explain his wariness of caring for people, and coupled with his losses in Dead Harvest, I found his reluctance to admit that he cared for Gio and Theresa compelling. Ana and Danny, the spectres from his past that return to haunt him, are very cool and sinister, they kept putting me on the wrong foot and Holm had them pulling a bait and switch I hadn't seen coming until it arrived. In addition, the villains are delicious as well. We meet up with Dumas, Sam's demonic maker if you will, who is slick, urbane, witty and oh so very crooked. We also meet some other demons, the ones that function more as monsters than as people, and they rock. I loved the idea of Abyzou – Abby for short – who is big and scary, with a distinct octopus-flavour, and who hunts by enthralling her victims. Similarly, you have Psoglav, a freaky dog demon, who is plain frightening in his casual use and abuse of human souls.
My one peeve with The Wrong Goodbye is that we don't find out what happens to some of the characters. I really would have liked to know how they ended up, whether they got a happy ending or not, especially for Gio and Theresa. Then again, as happy endings aren't really in Sam's business, perhaps it's best that the reader is left with hope for them. As it is, I do hope one day we'll find out what happened to them.
In short, Holm did it again. The Wrong Goodbye is an amazing follow up to Dead Harvest, but stands surprisingly well on its own. One could pick this up without reading the first one and still enjoy the heck out of it, though you'd miss some of the depth of the character development. The story is a hard-boiled supernatural detective, which sees Sam teamed up with a buddy sidekick and kick-ass lady friend and which has a great plot, whose twists and turns are hard to discuss without giving away spoilers. In my opinion Holm has become a must-read author, as I love how his crime is salted with the supernatural.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
October 10, 2012
You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/10/...
Deep in the jungles of Columbia, Sam Thornton is on the hunt for the soul of Pablo Varela, drug czar and brutal killer. When he gets to the camp, his whole posse is dead, and a message is carved on the chest of one of the bodies. There’s only one person who could have left the message: Sam’s old friend and fellow Collector, Danny Young. Danny now has the soul that only Sam was supposed to collect, and if he doesn’t get it back soon, the powers that be will be very, very angry. Sam met Danny in 1953 while in Amsterdam for a Collection. Danny wanted to team up, be each other’s support system, and in spite of the strict rules against consorting with other Collectors, a friendship was born. You see, there are two types of people that come up for Collection: contract kills and freelancers. Contract kills are generally good people who’ve made a deal with a demon, many times in order to help someone else. Freelancers are people that revel in the misery and suffering of others(serial killers, psychos, you get the picture…). Both Sam and Danny were contract kills and both ended up as Collectors, as they sometimes do. The way Danny saw it, with the horrible job they had to do, Collectors should stick together, support each other, even if it was against the rules. It also doesn’t help that Sam is still reeling from an angelic confrontation that may have kicked off a war between heaven and hell.
I really enjoyed Dead Harvest, the first book in the Collector series, but in The Wrong Goodbye, Chris F. Holm really brings the awesome. Told in Sam’s voice, we get quite a lot more insight into why he is the way he is, not to mention some insights into his past collections that will chill you. The author has a gift for lush descriptions and his creatures made my skin crawl more than once.
Poor Sam has quite a few enemies to contend with in this one. He’s certainly been under scrutiny since his last big demon/angel confrontation; however, he does find friends in unusual places, such as a former small time hood, Gio, whose soul he places inside another body in order to use him as a sort of dowsing rod in finding the missing soul of Varela. During their trek across the desert, they also meet up with an oilman trying to escape the clutches of his greedy soon-to-be ex-wife, and a blind, transvestite fortune teller.
The action is pretty much nonstop, yet somehow the author managed to balance that with laugh out loud and terrifying moments in equal measure. Their wild journey across the desert will lead them to an L.A. Day of the Dead celebration and a showdown with powerful magic you won’t soon forget Sam is not your usual protagonist. After all, the man changes bodies like we change socks, and since he doesn’t have his looks to rely on, it’s who he is as a man that makes him a worthy hero. And he is worthy. Magic, betrayel, creatures made of bugs. It’s all in a day’s work for Sam.
I couldn’t make this stuff up, but Chris F. Holm can, and it’s a good thing, because we get to have a blast reading it. This series is urban fantasy at its best with subtle noir undertones and the combo just works. Also, if you’re a fan of the classics in hardboiled noir, the title is especially awesome. I wanted to hug this book when I finished (it happens sometimes, don’t judge.) If the author keeps this up, he’ll be giving some of the big UF names a run for their money, very, very soon. If you haven’t discovered this series yet, you’re in for a wonderful ride!
Deep in the jungles of Columbia, Sam Thornton is on the hunt for the soul of Pablo Varela, drug czar and brutal killer. When he gets to the camp, his whole posse is dead, and a message is carved on the chest of one of the bodies. There’s only one person who could have left the message: Sam’s old friend and fellow Collector, Danny Young. Danny now has the soul that only Sam was supposed to collect, and if he doesn’t get it back soon, the powers that be will be very, very angry. Sam met Danny in 1953 while in Amsterdam for a Collection. Danny wanted to team up, be each other’s support system, and in spite of the strict rules against consorting with other Collectors, a friendship was born. You see, there are two types of people that come up for Collection: contract kills and freelancers. Contract kills are generally good people who’ve made a deal with a demon, many times in order to help someone else. Freelancers are people that revel in the misery and suffering of others(serial killers, psychos, you get the picture…). Both Sam and Danny were contract kills and both ended up as Collectors, as they sometimes do. The way Danny saw it, with the horrible job they had to do, Collectors should stick together, support each other, even if it was against the rules. It also doesn’t help that Sam is still reeling from an angelic confrontation that may have kicked off a war between heaven and hell.
I really enjoyed Dead Harvest, the first book in the Collector series, but in The Wrong Goodbye, Chris F. Holm really brings the awesome. Told in Sam’s voice, we get quite a lot more insight into why he is the way he is, not to mention some insights into his past collections that will chill you. The author has a gift for lush descriptions and his creatures made my skin crawl more than once.
Poor Sam has quite a few enemies to contend with in this one. He’s certainly been under scrutiny since his last big demon/angel confrontation; however, he does find friends in unusual places, such as a former small time hood, Gio, whose soul he places inside another body in order to use him as a sort of dowsing rod in finding the missing soul of Varela. During their trek across the desert, they also meet up with an oilman trying to escape the clutches of his greedy soon-to-be ex-wife, and a blind, transvestite fortune teller.
The action is pretty much nonstop, yet somehow the author managed to balance that with laugh out loud and terrifying moments in equal measure. Their wild journey across the desert will lead them to an L.A. Day of the Dead celebration and a showdown with powerful magic you won’t soon forget Sam is not your usual protagonist. After all, the man changes bodies like we change socks, and since he doesn’t have his looks to rely on, it’s who he is as a man that makes him a worthy hero. And he is worthy. Magic, betrayel, creatures made of bugs. It’s all in a day’s work for Sam.
I couldn’t make this stuff up, but Chris F. Holm can, and it’s a good thing, because we get to have a blast reading it. This series is urban fantasy at its best with subtle noir undertones and the combo just works. Also, if you’re a fan of the classics in hardboiled noir, the title is especially awesome. I wanted to hug this book when I finished (it happens sometimes, don’t judge.) If the author keeps this up, he’ll be giving some of the big UF names a run for their money, very, very soon. If you haven’t discovered this series yet, you’re in for a wonderful ride!
October 29, 2012
When we last saw soul collector Sam Thornton at the end of Dead Harvest he’d moved Heaven, Hell and everything in between to avert the Apocalypse and save mankind. You’d think after accomplishing something of that magnitude a guy’d get a medal…or at least a day off or something. Not quite.
See, Sam seriously overstepped his bounds as one of the “devil’s mailmen” with his actions, and as a result he’s on a sort of supernatural double secret probation with both Heaven and Hell. One more screw up or act of insubordination and Sam will be shelved – his soul deposited into “a useless body decades from expiring,” alive and aware but unable to escape. Madness usually arrives before death.
So you can understand Sam’s panic when the latest soul he’s been sent to collect goes missing before he can collect it. Sam’s pretty sure he knows who took it, a fellow Collector with whom Sam had a falling out decades ago, and he sets out to reclaim the soul before the powers that be notice he’s screwed up. What Sam doesn’t initially know is that there’s a lot more riding on him getting that soul back than just his personal well-being, and by the time he realizes it Sam’s once again in the unenviable position of being the linchpin in the quasi-truce between Heaven and Hell…and the denizens of the In-Between.
Author Chris Holm set the world on fire with Dead Harvest, and now he absolutely burns it to the ground with The Wrong Goodbye. Having established the basic framework of Sam’s character and the world he inhabits in the series opener, Holm wastes no time getting down to business in the second outing, bringing his authorial alchemy to bear once again by weaving together elements of Lovecraftian horror, the classic road trip, buddy action films, and the supernatural. The action in The Wrong Goodbye unfolds at breakneck pace through a series of set pieces that are thrilling, hilarious, repulsive, intriguing, and thought-provoking, all carefully stitched together via Sam’s world-weary narrative.
Holm’s ability to switch gears from tongue-in-cheek humor to skin crawling creepiness to theological musings on a dime is a reflection of his supreme command of his craft, and his descriptions and tone setting are nothing short of sublime. From Sam’s creep through a lair for junkie demons (My heart banged out a drum roll in my chest as a massive, unseen hulk shifted noisily beside me in the darkness. But then it settled down again into what I assumed was a skim induced slumber, the awful meter of its breathing like the devil’s own metronome.), to the sound of the gatekeeper of the In-Between (Instead, he spoke, with a voice like wind through autumn leaves, a voice that seemed to come at once from everywhere and from nowhere at all.), to Sam’s wry observations while getting his ass kicked (He slammed me into the rock wall behind me. My head hit so hard I thought I’d puke. Then I did puke, so, you know, yay for being right.), Holm’s writing is pitch-perfect.
The Wrong Goodbye is presented with enough backstory included so you don’t have to have read Dead Harvest to follow the story, but you’ll appreciate it significantly more if you have. (Besides, Dead Harvest is just a killer read, so get it already if you haven’t.) Indeed, Holm’s Collector series is one of the most creative and enjoyable I’ve encountered in quite some time, and considering how seriously Holm stepped up his game from book one to book two, well, I’m betting that the forthcoming third installment, The Big Reap, is going to be a read that will require buckling-up and keeping both hands on the book at all times.
See, Sam seriously overstepped his bounds as one of the “devil’s mailmen” with his actions, and as a result he’s on a sort of supernatural double secret probation with both Heaven and Hell. One more screw up or act of insubordination and Sam will be shelved – his soul deposited into “a useless body decades from expiring,” alive and aware but unable to escape. Madness usually arrives before death.
So you can understand Sam’s panic when the latest soul he’s been sent to collect goes missing before he can collect it. Sam’s pretty sure he knows who took it, a fellow Collector with whom Sam had a falling out decades ago, and he sets out to reclaim the soul before the powers that be notice he’s screwed up. What Sam doesn’t initially know is that there’s a lot more riding on him getting that soul back than just his personal well-being, and by the time he realizes it Sam’s once again in the unenviable position of being the linchpin in the quasi-truce between Heaven and Hell…and the denizens of the In-Between.
Author Chris Holm set the world on fire with Dead Harvest, and now he absolutely burns it to the ground with The Wrong Goodbye. Having established the basic framework of Sam’s character and the world he inhabits in the series opener, Holm wastes no time getting down to business in the second outing, bringing his authorial alchemy to bear once again by weaving together elements of Lovecraftian horror, the classic road trip, buddy action films, and the supernatural. The action in The Wrong Goodbye unfolds at breakneck pace through a series of set pieces that are thrilling, hilarious, repulsive, intriguing, and thought-provoking, all carefully stitched together via Sam’s world-weary narrative.
Holm’s ability to switch gears from tongue-in-cheek humor to skin crawling creepiness to theological musings on a dime is a reflection of his supreme command of his craft, and his descriptions and tone setting are nothing short of sublime. From Sam’s creep through a lair for junkie demons (My heart banged out a drum roll in my chest as a massive, unseen hulk shifted noisily beside me in the darkness. But then it settled down again into what I assumed was a skim induced slumber, the awful meter of its breathing like the devil’s own metronome.), to the sound of the gatekeeper of the In-Between (Instead, he spoke, with a voice like wind through autumn leaves, a voice that seemed to come at once from everywhere and from nowhere at all.), to Sam’s wry observations while getting his ass kicked (He slammed me into the rock wall behind me. My head hit so hard I thought I’d puke. Then I did puke, so, you know, yay for being right.), Holm’s writing is pitch-perfect.
The Wrong Goodbye is presented with enough backstory included so you don’t have to have read Dead Harvest to follow the story, but you’ll appreciate it significantly more if you have. (Besides, Dead Harvest is just a killer read, so get it already if you haven’t.) Indeed, Holm’s Collector series is one of the most creative and enjoyable I’ve encountered in quite some time, and considering how seriously Holm stepped up his game from book one to book two, well, I’m betting that the forthcoming third installment, The Big Reap, is going to be a read that will require buckling-up and keeping both hands on the book at all times.
August 29, 2012
Original Review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/08/...
djinn24 does an advanced review on Derringer Award finalist and a Spinetingler Award winner Chris Holm’s second book in The Collector Series coming out September, 2012 in the US, UK and eBook format by Angry Robot Book.
Sam reminds me of Ash Williams from The Evil Dead series, some bad luck, some demons, total ass kicking story ~ The Founding Field
You think you have a bad job? Meet Sam, he is a collector, a minion of the demons of hell sent to earth to collect the souls of the evil and damned, or those dumb enough to make a deal with the devil. In the first book Sam found himself in a bad situation that he stopped, but in the process managed to piss off people upstairs as well as down. In this book we find Sam trying to keep a low profile after all that happened, it seems some are still holding a grudge and open conflict between the Chosen Ones and the Fallen are becoming much more common, threatening open warfare with civilian causalities. But all of that is trivial after a soul Sam has been put in charge of collecting goes missing. Now he must find it or he faces much worse then anything he has ever had to deal with, something much bigger then Angles and Demons.
I was a big fan of the first book, Dead Harvest (review here, 8/10 score) and was highly anticipating the second book release. Sam is still the same character that he was in the first book, a bit of a loose cannon, and a pain in the ass to his Demon bosses, which to me makes him seem much more human and kind, odd for a minion of hell. If you have read the first book then you know Sam is not a bad guy, he was just in a bad situation when he made his deal with a devil. The pace in this book is nice, a good balance of action and story. I had hard times putting it down and would read it whenever I had the chance too. We get to learn more about Sam and meet some of the people from his past. I do find that this book does suffer some from middle book syndrome. It does stand alone as it’s own story but you can tell quite a bit was added as details and foreshadowing that will be resolved in future books in the series. This is not a bad thing and is common in trilogies or even larger series. This book can be read as a standalone but I highly suggest that you read the first book as it will add a lot to the character of Sam.
This series has a lot of room to grow and may expand beyond just three books, though the next book will be the end of this current story arc. I am really looking forward to see what Chris can pull off with the final book of the arc. I am giving this book a 8/10. I would have loved to have seen some of the other characters in this book expanded upon more, but I can see the difficulties of doing this and keeping the book on focus. If you are a fan of urban fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, or just like a good book then I would suggest grabbing this book when it is released. You have enough time to finish up the first book before this one comes out if you start now!
THE WRONG GOODBYE
Chris F Holm
Fantasy
Cover by Amazing15
UK/RoW
4 Oct 2012
B-format paperback
£7.99 UK
ISBN 9780857662200
US/CAN
25 Sep 2012
mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
ISBN 9780857662217
eBook
25 Sep 2012
£5.49
ePub ISBN 9780857662224
djinn24 does an advanced review on Derringer Award finalist and a Spinetingler Award winner Chris Holm’s second book in The Collector Series coming out September, 2012 in the US, UK and eBook format by Angry Robot Book.
Sam reminds me of Ash Williams from The Evil Dead series, some bad luck, some demons, total ass kicking story ~ The Founding Field
You think you have a bad job? Meet Sam, he is a collector, a minion of the demons of hell sent to earth to collect the souls of the evil and damned, or those dumb enough to make a deal with the devil. In the first book Sam found himself in a bad situation that he stopped, but in the process managed to piss off people upstairs as well as down. In this book we find Sam trying to keep a low profile after all that happened, it seems some are still holding a grudge and open conflict between the Chosen Ones and the Fallen are becoming much more common, threatening open warfare with civilian causalities. But all of that is trivial after a soul Sam has been put in charge of collecting goes missing. Now he must find it or he faces much worse then anything he has ever had to deal with, something much bigger then Angles and Demons.
I was a big fan of the first book, Dead Harvest (review here, 8/10 score) and was highly anticipating the second book release. Sam is still the same character that he was in the first book, a bit of a loose cannon, and a pain in the ass to his Demon bosses, which to me makes him seem much more human and kind, odd for a minion of hell. If you have read the first book then you know Sam is not a bad guy, he was just in a bad situation when he made his deal with a devil. The pace in this book is nice, a good balance of action and story. I had hard times putting it down and would read it whenever I had the chance too. We get to learn more about Sam and meet some of the people from his past. I do find that this book does suffer some from middle book syndrome. It does stand alone as it’s own story but you can tell quite a bit was added as details and foreshadowing that will be resolved in future books in the series. This is not a bad thing and is common in trilogies or even larger series. This book can be read as a standalone but I highly suggest that you read the first book as it will add a lot to the character of Sam.
This series has a lot of room to grow and may expand beyond just three books, though the next book will be the end of this current story arc. I am really looking forward to see what Chris can pull off with the final book of the arc. I am giving this book a 8/10. I would have loved to have seen some of the other characters in this book expanded upon more, but I can see the difficulties of doing this and keeping the book on focus. If you are a fan of urban fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, or just like a good book then I would suggest grabbing this book when it is released. You have enough time to finish up the first book before this one comes out if you start now!
THE WRONG GOODBYE
Chris F Holm
Fantasy
Cover by Amazing15
UK/RoW
4 Oct 2012
B-format paperback
£7.99 UK
ISBN 9780857662200
US/CAN
25 Sep 2012
mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
ISBN 9780857662217
eBook
25 Sep 2012
£5.49
ePub ISBN 9780857662224
September 6, 2012
Sam Thornton is a Collector of souls and you’d think the poor guy could just do his job. Alas, when you’re working for the guys downstairs amid the backdrop of brewing war between Heaven and Hell, you’d think someone might want to cut you a little slack. Not so for poor Sam – he’s been dispatched to collect the soul of a very bad dude and the book starts off with Sam doing just that – the only problem is that he’s been duped. Sam has collected the wrong soul and this unfortunate double cross is pretty much hammered home when he wakes up in a hotel room that is literally carpeted with insects.
Like, bajillions of them.
THE WRONG GOODBYE is the title of the second book in Chris F. Holm’s fantastic COLLECTOR series. It’s urban fantasy for sure, but it’s also a road trip in a classic Cadillac. It’s all hell breaking loose and the promise of spending eternity in nothingness if Sam can’t get the soul he was originally dispatched to collect. Old friendships can be a killer, particularly when you’ve been screwed over by another collector. In this book, we get more back story as to how Sam, a fairly decent sort of agent for the forces of darkness, wound up becoming a collector in the first place. In an earlier review, I’d said that Sam was a little bit doomed and a little bit damned. We learn more about the massive sacrifice Sam made for someone he loved with all his heart and soul – a soul that is now damned for all eternity.
We’ve got body swapping going on – Holm does a fantastic job of explaining to the reader just what it’s like to wake up in a morgue in someone else’s skin. We also meet a lovable sidekick in Gio, another damned soul in someone else’s body – a soul that Sam is going to use to draw out the bad guy. So yeah, Sam is using his sidekick but he’s got three days to find a missing soul that he should have already collected or it’s bye-bye time for Sam.
Oh, and we learn that demons are addicted to skim – tiny shavings from human souls that allow demons to experience minuscule, fragmented vignettes of that soul’s life – a way to actually feel what it used to be like to live amid God’s grace. What a brilliant plot device – and Sam actually goes into the demonic equivalent of a crack house. Also, if you split a human soul in half it’s sort of like a hydrogen bomb – Holm suggests a famous natural disaster was actually a soul that had been split open.
And that brings us to a great calamity about to fall onto the human world if Sam can’t find that rotten, stinking missing soul, let’s just call it Noah Version 2,0.
Listen, if you love urban fantasy with colorful characters and a protagonist who you want to stand up and cheer for, I highly recommend this book. THE WRONG GOODBYE picks up where DEAD HARVEST left off, only this time the stakes are much higher – for Sam – for all of humanity. Sam Thornton is a good guy working for the bad guys – an impossible situation and that’s what makes this series one of the best UF series in bookstores. The hero’s journey is laid out for all to see, only for Sam there is no happy ending - there never can be. Gripping, page-turning realism. THE WRONG GOODBYE is everything that’s right about urban fantasy and one of the best books of the year.
Like, bajillions of them.
THE WRONG GOODBYE is the title of the second book in Chris F. Holm’s fantastic COLLECTOR series. It’s urban fantasy for sure, but it’s also a road trip in a classic Cadillac. It’s all hell breaking loose and the promise of spending eternity in nothingness if Sam can’t get the soul he was originally dispatched to collect. Old friendships can be a killer, particularly when you’ve been screwed over by another collector. In this book, we get more back story as to how Sam, a fairly decent sort of agent for the forces of darkness, wound up becoming a collector in the first place. In an earlier review, I’d said that Sam was a little bit doomed and a little bit damned. We learn more about the massive sacrifice Sam made for someone he loved with all his heart and soul – a soul that is now damned for all eternity.
We’ve got body swapping going on – Holm does a fantastic job of explaining to the reader just what it’s like to wake up in a morgue in someone else’s skin. We also meet a lovable sidekick in Gio, another damned soul in someone else’s body – a soul that Sam is going to use to draw out the bad guy. So yeah, Sam is using his sidekick but he’s got three days to find a missing soul that he should have already collected or it’s bye-bye time for Sam.
Oh, and we learn that demons are addicted to skim – tiny shavings from human souls that allow demons to experience minuscule, fragmented vignettes of that soul’s life – a way to actually feel what it used to be like to live amid God’s grace. What a brilliant plot device – and Sam actually goes into the demonic equivalent of a crack house. Also, if you split a human soul in half it’s sort of like a hydrogen bomb – Holm suggests a famous natural disaster was actually a soul that had been split open.
And that brings us to a great calamity about to fall onto the human world if Sam can’t find that rotten, stinking missing soul, let’s just call it Noah Version 2,0.
Listen, if you love urban fantasy with colorful characters and a protagonist who you want to stand up and cheer for, I highly recommend this book. THE WRONG GOODBYE picks up where DEAD HARVEST left off, only this time the stakes are much higher – for Sam – for all of humanity. Sam Thornton is a good guy working for the bad guys – an impossible situation and that’s what makes this series one of the best UF series in bookstores. The hero’s journey is laid out for all to see, only for Sam there is no happy ending - there never can be. Gripping, page-turning realism. THE WRONG GOODBYE is everything that’s right about urban fantasy and one of the best books of the year.
October 8, 2012
This is just as good as the first!!! I loved the new characters! Gio is a trip. He's totally laugh out loud funny. I really love where this series is headed. It's all very ominous and that's fantastic. I wish Lilith was in the story more along with Theresa! Theresa is awesome!!!! She's the best part of this book and she's not even in it very long. I would love to see Gio and Theresa make a reappearance in this series.
I bought my copy from Robot Trading Co. and it's full of glaring errors. I hope they get fixed soon for future buyers.
I bought my copy from Robot Trading Co. and it's full of glaring errors. I hope they get fixed soon for future buyers.
September 2, 2012
Better than the first, and I loved DEAD HARVEST.
If you read AMERICAN GODS (by Neil Gaiman) and wanted something similar, something as good and as equally original-yet-familiar, something zany and magical and twisted and funny, profane and profound...you would want to find a copy of THE WRONG GOODBYE.
Then you would want to order food you could eat one-handed so you didn't have to put it down.
If you read AMERICAN GODS (by Neil Gaiman) and wanted something similar, something as good and as equally original-yet-familiar, something zany and magical and twisted and funny, profane and profound...you would want to find a copy of THE WRONG GOODBYE.
Then you would want to order food you could eat one-handed so you didn't have to put it down.
November 2, 2012
I loved this book. The premise was new and immediately caught my attention. The main character was tortured, a killer himself, but still redeemable. I found myself rooting for him. I don't want to give anything away, but I would definitely recommend this book. One of my new fave authors!
October 1, 2012
Another triumph.
November 29, 2019
The Wrong Goodbye is the second and penultimate book in The Collector trilogy written by Chris F. Holm. It stars Sam Thornton, a Collector, who takes souls from the damned and sends them into eternal misery.
Deep in the jungles of Columbia, Sam Thornton is on the hunt for the soul of Pablo Varela, drug czar and brutal killer. When he gets to the camp, his whole posse is dead, and a message is carved on the chest of one of the bodies. There's only one person who could have left the message: Sam’s old friend and fellow Collector, Danny Young.
Danny now has the soul that only Sam was supposed to collect, and if he doesn't get it back soon, the powers that be will be very angry. Sam met Danny in 1953 while in Amsterdam for a Collection. Danny wanted to team up, be each other's support system, and in spite of the strict rules against consorting with other Collectors, a friendship was born.
The Wrong Goodbye is written rather well. The narrative is less hardboiled noir than the previous installment, but it was hardboiled and well written nevertheless. Written in Sam’s voice, the reader gets to know the protagonist intimately, and more of his backstory is more fleshed out. The action is pretty much nonstop, yet somehow the Holm managed to balance it with humor and terror in equal measure.
All in all, The Wrong Goodbye is written rather well and is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series, which I plan to continue in the very near future.
Deep in the jungles of Columbia, Sam Thornton is on the hunt for the soul of Pablo Varela, drug czar and brutal killer. When he gets to the camp, his whole posse is dead, and a message is carved on the chest of one of the bodies. There's only one person who could have left the message: Sam’s old friend and fellow Collector, Danny Young.
Danny now has the soul that only Sam was supposed to collect, and if he doesn't get it back soon, the powers that be will be very angry. Sam met Danny in 1953 while in Amsterdam for a Collection. Danny wanted to team up, be each other's support system, and in spite of the strict rules against consorting with other Collectors, a friendship was born.
The Wrong Goodbye is written rather well. The narrative is less hardboiled noir than the previous installment, but it was hardboiled and well written nevertheless. Written in Sam’s voice, the reader gets to know the protagonist intimately, and more of his backstory is more fleshed out. The action is pretty much nonstop, yet somehow the Holm managed to balance it with humor and terror in equal measure.
All in all, The Wrong Goodbye is written rather well and is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series, which I plan to continue in the very near future.
October 12, 2012
Dead Harvest is one of the best supernatural debuts to come out this year. An explosive thriller that gave us Sam Thorton, a body hopping soul collector who just happens to be the lynchpin of the Apocalypse. Sam was given a nigh on impossible task and must see it through while caught in between the manipulations of both angels and demons. A fantastic action packed story that had all the elements of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie!
In The Wrong Goodbye, Sam Thornton is back once again collecting the souls of evildoers. We're quickly thrust into the situation when the soul Sam was meant to collect ends up missing and the person responsible is an old buddy of Sam's. Now Sam must find and inter the soul before his own is blast into nothingness by an angry and ancient god. Joined by a dead mobster and a transsexual fortune teller, Sam takes the road across America as he searches for the missing soul. Sounds like an odd combination right? But you just have to read it to believe it.
You would be glad to know that the thrill and tension that you enjoyed so much in the debut is back and dare I say it, even better in this book. The recently deceased small time mobster, Gio, provides much of the comic relief in this book and makes a good contrast to Sam who can be a little too serious and grim at times. The mythology of the world is further expanded in The Wrong Goodbye and now we realise there are other entities besides angels and demons at play.
The book also references to skirmishes between angels and demons across the world as a result of the events in the first book. To me, it feels like the final book in the trilogy will be about the forthcoming Apocalypse, so I wonder why the angels and demons take a backseat in this book? Although I would have liked a stronger apocalyptic theme in this book, the story here still satisfied my appetite.
You don't need to have read Dead Harvest to enjoy The Wrong Goodbye as the story neatly fills in any gaps that you may have. If you really haven't read the first book then you should definitely get it now. This action packed novel will keep you reading late into the night and provide hours of entertainment. An irresistible treat for all the urban fantasy fans out there. Now that much of the mythology and groundwork has been laid, I look forward to the finale when the end of days draws near!
(Originally posted at http://www.paperlessreading.com/2012/...)
In The Wrong Goodbye, Sam Thornton is back once again collecting the souls of evildoers. We're quickly thrust into the situation when the soul Sam was meant to collect ends up missing and the person responsible is an old buddy of Sam's. Now Sam must find and inter the soul before his own is blast into nothingness by an angry and ancient god. Joined by a dead mobster and a transsexual fortune teller, Sam takes the road across America as he searches for the missing soul. Sounds like an odd combination right? But you just have to read it to believe it.
You would be glad to know that the thrill and tension that you enjoyed so much in the debut is back and dare I say it, even better in this book. The recently deceased small time mobster, Gio, provides much of the comic relief in this book and makes a good contrast to Sam who can be a little too serious and grim at times. The mythology of the world is further expanded in The Wrong Goodbye and now we realise there are other entities besides angels and demons at play.
The book also references to skirmishes between angels and demons across the world as a result of the events in the first book. To me, it feels like the final book in the trilogy will be about the forthcoming Apocalypse, so I wonder why the angels and demons take a backseat in this book? Although I would have liked a stronger apocalyptic theme in this book, the story here still satisfied my appetite.
You don't need to have read Dead Harvest to enjoy The Wrong Goodbye as the story neatly fills in any gaps that you may have. If you really haven't read the first book then you should definitely get it now. This action packed novel will keep you reading late into the night and provide hours of entertainment. An irresistible treat for all the urban fantasy fans out there. Now that much of the mythology and groundwork has been laid, I look forward to the finale when the end of days draws near!
(Originally posted at http://www.paperlessreading.com/2012/...)
September 27, 2012
I liked the whole soul collecting, demons and possession angle this novel was about. I wanted to like this much more but the story felt too long and needed simplifying too much detail less straight to the meat of it.
October 22, 2012
Another great installment in The Collector series. I can't wait for book #3!
October 3, 2018
Of the four books by Holm that I've read so far, this is #4 on the list, but that's not a bad thing. Holm writes a good story and not all will be the best, but his non best is pretty damn good!
We met Sam Thornton in Dead Harvest and Sam is up to his usual agenda of collecting souls, only this time someone beats him to his assigned target. In the underground industry of soul collecting, poaching another's target is a big no no. So Sam tracks down the collector that stole his targeted soul and gets that item back from him. Only he didn't.
Now Sam is in a world of feces. But our intrepid hero. . . wait, intrepid means fearless and Sam is anything but fearless. But our hero is excellent at adapting, thinking on his feet, or at times on his back while being pummeled by a monster, or a demon, or a god. We aren't sure what the pummeler is but we know it's not nice whatever it is.
When Sam got the supposed soul back from the poacher he attempted to offer it up for those that take it to it's final location. It would not be correct to say final resting place. There is no resting for those souls. But whatever the case, this soul was unacceptable. Sam must find and offer up the assigned soul.
But I digress as I so often do.
Sam prevented a war, or at least delayed it, between demons and angels in Dead Harvest. In this book it seems that delayed is the more correct term as those two entities are having a few skirmishes. And those skirmishes come between Sam and his quest to recover the soul he was tasked with collecting and if he doesn't beat the deadline giving by the pummeler mentioned earlier he will be shelved. Shelved is sitting on the sidelines in a body that's inert, aware but unable to do anything but lie there.
Sam begins this adventure in the jungles of Columbia tracking a drug lord, then travels across much of the U.S. from east to west until he winds up in Los Angeles in a confrontation with the poacher and his accomplice. He also picks up a bevy of California troopers and then L.A. cops including SWAT, helicopters and, uh oh, that aforementioned pummeler again.
Along the way we learn more about this world that remains hidden from most of us humans, more about Sam and his history as a collector and a bit about Lily. . . excuse me, Lilith. She doesn't like to be called Lily and damned if I care to make her angry!
A mix of fantasy and horror with a healthy dose of human interaction with demons, angels and even other humans. It's a thumping good read.
We met Sam Thornton in Dead Harvest and Sam is up to his usual agenda of collecting souls, only this time someone beats him to his assigned target. In the underground industry of soul collecting, poaching another's target is a big no no. So Sam tracks down the collector that stole his targeted soul and gets that item back from him. Only he didn't.
Now Sam is in a world of feces. But our intrepid hero. . . wait, intrepid means fearless and Sam is anything but fearless. But our hero is excellent at adapting, thinking on his feet, or at times on his back while being pummeled by a monster, or a demon, or a god. We aren't sure what the pummeler is but we know it's not nice whatever it is.
When Sam got the supposed soul back from the poacher he attempted to offer it up for those that take it to it's final location. It would not be correct to say final resting place. There is no resting for those souls. But whatever the case, this soul was unacceptable. Sam must find and offer up the assigned soul.
But I digress as I so often do.
Sam prevented a war, or at least delayed it, between demons and angels in Dead Harvest. In this book it seems that delayed is the more correct term as those two entities are having a few skirmishes. And those skirmishes come between Sam and his quest to recover the soul he was tasked with collecting and if he doesn't beat the deadline giving by the pummeler mentioned earlier he will be shelved. Shelved is sitting on the sidelines in a body that's inert, aware but unable to do anything but lie there.
Sam begins this adventure in the jungles of Columbia tracking a drug lord, then travels across much of the U.S. from east to west until he winds up in Los Angeles in a confrontation with the poacher and his accomplice. He also picks up a bevy of California troopers and then L.A. cops including SWAT, helicopters and, uh oh, that aforementioned pummeler again.
Along the way we learn more about this world that remains hidden from most of us humans, more about Sam and his history as a collector and a bit about Lily. . . excuse me, Lilith. She doesn't like to be called Lily and damned if I care to make her angry!
A mix of fantasy and horror with a healthy dose of human interaction with demons, angels and even other humans. It's a thumping good read.
August 26, 2013
Sometimes I take my time getting around to things.
It was some time ago that sj started telling me I needed to read Chris F. Holm's Collector series. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her – I did, and I do, especially when it comes to literature – but I just have to defend myself by saying I have a TBR list that’ll last longer than I live. Sometimes I think of it and get super-daunted. I know. There are worse things in the world to stress over. But still. SO MANY BOOKS. SO LITTLE TIME.
I read Chris’s two story collections (and reviewed them here earlier in the year) and was immediately blown away by his talent. The Collector series moved up on my list of things to read, but, as mentioned – there are so many things, you guys. Just so, so many.
(Side note: Chris could not be more delightful on Twitter, and his wife Kat is SIMILARLY delightful, so it made me feel severely terrible that I hadn’t read all of his books yet. How many people are lucky enough to have amazing authors as friends? Not many. I needed to step it up. Also, in news of EXCITEMENT, Chris and Kat are coming to my TOWN! In September! AND I GET TO MEET THEM! Sorry. Sorry. Little geekout, there. It happens. But I had to have them all read by September, right? How could I meet him without having them read? RUDE.)
I did, however, go on vacation a couple of weeks ago. And the power was out the first three days I was there. So it was a little hard to read paper books by candlelight. However, my Kindle worked just fine. And what better to read by candlelight in a dark cabin in the woods than a book about a collector of souls?
Three hours later, at one in the morning, I looked up and REALIZED it was one in the morning.
Yep. Hooked. Like a big ol’ fish.
You guys, these books are severely seven flavors of awesome.
I’m going to try VERY HARD not to spoil any of you. Because I want you all to immediately go out and buy the first one. Which will hook you, like it hooked me. Then you will buy the second one. And the third one. And, like me, sit impatiently waiting for the NEXT one, which will, no doubt, be a while from now because the third one just came out, and DAMMIT am I one impatient little monkey.
In Dead Harvest, we meet Sam Thornton. He accidentally sold – and then lost – his soul to a demon in the 40s; his hell is that he has to live his eternity collecting souls from others in the same situation he was in. All Collectors get a handler; he is handled by Lilith. Yes, that Lilith. She is just as awesome and awe-inspiring as you might imagine.
He is tasked to collect a soul from a teenage girl who slaughtered her family. Easy enough. That’s a soul meant for hell, right? Well, not so much, actually. Because when Sam shows up, the girl’s actually an innocent. And Sam does what a Collector has never done before. He refuses to take her soul.
This does not go down well with the various powers that be that exist in his world.
In The Wrong Goodbye, Sam shows up to collect a soul – only the soul has already been collected. Which sets a series of events in motion that involve Charon, treacherous friends, a low-level mobster on the run, a kickass transgender stripper, and oh, yeah, possibly an event that might wipe a ton of humans off the map. So, just your average day at the office, then.
In The Big Reap (which was released July 30 – it’s sparkly-new, you guys!), Sam finds out he’s been assigned to collect the souls of nine collectors gone rogue. Or possibly die trying, as they’re ancient and powerful and pretty darn evil. Doesn’t matter – once you’re sent on a job, it’s not like you can hide under the bed and wait for it to go away.
That’s all I’m telling you, because I want you to go into these knowing as next-to-nothing as I did.
Here’s what you need to know:
The characters are so fully-formed and realistic you feel like you’re completely in the world the minute you start reading. There aren’t many books, especially in this genre, this realistic. (It’s not an easy thing to do. You’ve got this world of fantasy, yet you’re putting real people in it. It’s easy to give up and make the people as fantastic as the world.) Chris doesn’t cop out. The people are real. And listen. You love them. You finish the first book, you pick up the second book –and it’s like coming home.
For whatever genre this is (fantasy noir? I’m saying that’s what it is. It probably has some fancy-schmancy name I’m not aware of) it’s also two things you wouldn’t expect – funny as hell and truly touching. You’re going to cackle at some of the plot twists and some of the clever turns of phrase, and you’re going to get so close to the characters that their pain is yours (and their triumphs are yours as well.)
Chris is a very, very good writer. He’s got some plot twists that crop up along the way that, when you realize what’s happening, make you thrill with the creativity with them. I lost track of the number of times I exclaimed out loud over something he’d done.
Other than that: you’re on your own. I’m not spoiling you any more than I already have.
You need these books. You need to meet Sam and Lilith; you need to learn why it’s totally a dick move to smoke in a borrowed meat-suit; you need to find out whose soul was the very first that Sam collected; you need to know where you end up if you get killed on the job (Guam. It’s almost always effing Guam.)
Me, I’m going to be waiting over here patiently for the next installment. And for September, when I can properly geek out with the author in person over these books, which have made me so happy I want to yell at everyone who hasn’t read them yet, like sj did to me all those months ago, “WHY HAVEN’T YOU READ THE COLLECTOR SERIES YET?”
Only, you know, in a much less all-caps shouty way. Like the lady I am, dammit.
(Previously published at Snobbery)
It was some time ago that sj started telling me I needed to read Chris F. Holm's Collector series. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her – I did, and I do, especially when it comes to literature – but I just have to defend myself by saying I have a TBR list that’ll last longer than I live. Sometimes I think of it and get super-daunted. I know. There are worse things in the world to stress over. But still. SO MANY BOOKS. SO LITTLE TIME.
I read Chris’s two story collections (and reviewed them here earlier in the year) and was immediately blown away by his talent. The Collector series moved up on my list of things to read, but, as mentioned – there are so many things, you guys. Just so, so many.
(Side note: Chris could not be more delightful on Twitter, and his wife Kat is SIMILARLY delightful, so it made me feel severely terrible that I hadn’t read all of his books yet. How many people are lucky enough to have amazing authors as friends? Not many. I needed to step it up. Also, in news of EXCITEMENT, Chris and Kat are coming to my TOWN! In September! AND I GET TO MEET THEM! Sorry. Sorry. Little geekout, there. It happens. But I had to have them all read by September, right? How could I meet him without having them read? RUDE.)
I did, however, go on vacation a couple of weeks ago. And the power was out the first three days I was there. So it was a little hard to read paper books by candlelight. However, my Kindle worked just fine. And what better to read by candlelight in a dark cabin in the woods than a book about a collector of souls?
Three hours later, at one in the morning, I looked up and REALIZED it was one in the morning.
Yep. Hooked. Like a big ol’ fish.
You guys, these books are severely seven flavors of awesome.
I’m going to try VERY HARD not to spoil any of you. Because I want you all to immediately go out and buy the first one. Which will hook you, like it hooked me. Then you will buy the second one. And the third one. And, like me, sit impatiently waiting for the NEXT one, which will, no doubt, be a while from now because the third one just came out, and DAMMIT am I one impatient little monkey.
In Dead Harvest, we meet Sam Thornton. He accidentally sold – and then lost – his soul to a demon in the 40s; his hell is that he has to live his eternity collecting souls from others in the same situation he was in. All Collectors get a handler; he is handled by Lilith. Yes, that Lilith. She is just as awesome and awe-inspiring as you might imagine.
He is tasked to collect a soul from a teenage girl who slaughtered her family. Easy enough. That’s a soul meant for hell, right? Well, not so much, actually. Because when Sam shows up, the girl’s actually an innocent. And Sam does what a Collector has never done before. He refuses to take her soul.
This does not go down well with the various powers that be that exist in his world.
In The Wrong Goodbye, Sam shows up to collect a soul – only the soul has already been collected. Which sets a series of events in motion that involve Charon, treacherous friends, a low-level mobster on the run, a kickass transgender stripper, and oh, yeah, possibly an event that might wipe a ton of humans off the map. So, just your average day at the office, then.
In The Big Reap (which was released July 30 – it’s sparkly-new, you guys!), Sam finds out he’s been assigned to collect the souls of nine collectors gone rogue. Or possibly die trying, as they’re ancient and powerful and pretty darn evil. Doesn’t matter – once you’re sent on a job, it’s not like you can hide under the bed and wait for it to go away.
That’s all I’m telling you, because I want you to go into these knowing as next-to-nothing as I did.
Here’s what you need to know:
The characters are so fully-formed and realistic you feel like you’re completely in the world the minute you start reading. There aren’t many books, especially in this genre, this realistic. (It’s not an easy thing to do. You’ve got this world of fantasy, yet you’re putting real people in it. It’s easy to give up and make the people as fantastic as the world.) Chris doesn’t cop out. The people are real. And listen. You love them. You finish the first book, you pick up the second book –and it’s like coming home.
For whatever genre this is (fantasy noir? I’m saying that’s what it is. It probably has some fancy-schmancy name I’m not aware of) it’s also two things you wouldn’t expect – funny as hell and truly touching. You’re going to cackle at some of the plot twists and some of the clever turns of phrase, and you’re going to get so close to the characters that their pain is yours (and their triumphs are yours as well.)
Chris is a very, very good writer. He’s got some plot twists that crop up along the way that, when you realize what’s happening, make you thrill with the creativity with them. I lost track of the number of times I exclaimed out loud over something he’d done.
Other than that: you’re on your own. I’m not spoiling you any more than I already have.
You need these books. You need to meet Sam and Lilith; you need to learn why it’s totally a dick move to smoke in a borrowed meat-suit; you need to find out whose soul was the very first that Sam collected; you need to know where you end up if you get killed on the job (Guam. It’s almost always effing Guam.)
Me, I’m going to be waiting over here patiently for the next installment. And for September, when I can properly geek out with the author in person over these books, which have made me so happy I want to yell at everyone who hasn’t read them yet, like sj did to me all those months ago, “WHY HAVEN’T YOU READ THE COLLECTOR SERIES YET?”
Only, you know, in a much less all-caps shouty way. Like the lady I am, dammit.
(Previously published at Snobbery)
June 24, 2024
I kinda liked “Dead Harvest”, first in 'The Collector' series, but “The Wrong Goodbye”, set 10 months later just didn't work for me.
One of Sam Thornton's souls has been stolen. As usual it is either returned pronto or the world goes boom.
The pace is quite slow with occasional action/horror scenes to liven things up.
There's very little attention paid to character growth - Lilith, probably the most interesting secondary character, doesn't get the space she needs.
It's all very opaque - I found it difficult to finish.
It is definitely not my kind of book.
The cover is just odd!
2.5 Stars, raised to 3 Stars.
One of Sam Thornton's souls has been stolen. As usual it is either returned pronto or the world goes boom.
The pace is quite slow with occasional action/horror scenes to liven things up.
There's very little attention paid to character growth - Lilith, probably the most interesting secondary character, doesn't get the space she needs.
It's all very opaque - I found it difficult to finish.
It is definitely not my kind of book.
The cover is just odd!
2.5 Stars, raised to 3 Stars.
August 5, 2017
Holm has created a genre-crossing series here that exceeds expectations. I think the book succeeds as a noir, a mystery, a supernatural tale, etc. The best thing I can say about this book and Holm's writing so far is that he really knows how to keep the story moving and interesting. Very few times in the 400 pages or so of this book is there time to catch your breath. Fast-paced, funny, interesting, and entertaining.
April 14, 2021
Fantastical Noir? Paranormal Horror? Satanic Thriller? Who the hell knows. (See what I did there?) Whatever you call it, it’s a fun read, if you can get down with devils and demons and a world-weary collector of souls. I mean you’d be world weary if you were still working sixty years after you’ve died. Me, I haven’t tired of this series and will most likely finish off the trilogy, if only just to see how you end it even when you’ve already been ended.
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