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Ancient Enemy #2
The Shadow's Touch: Ancient Enemy #3
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The new "Captivating" and "Original" urban fantasy series, Ancient Enemy continues with "The Shadow's Touch" wherein Finn gets his first small taste of humanity's ancient foe.
The new "Captivating" and "Original" urban fantasy series, Ancient Enemy continues with "The Shadow's Touch" wherein Finn gets his first small taste of humanity's ancient foe.
The World According to Finn
Sometimes during the journey of life, it seems like life is trying to tell you something. Sometimes it tells you to be more careful. Sometimes it tells you to be more bold. Sometimes it tell you to stay in bed and pull the covers over your head.
Once in a great while life tells you that the world is not what it seems, that everything you thought you knew is wrong, that magic and evil exist, and that reactions to your actions can be way bigger than you can imagine.
That summer, life taught me all those lessons and several more: Killer sex is not as fun as it sounds; Don't play with dead things; With great power comes great pain; And, having me for a friend is hazardous to your health.
Then, there is perhaps the most important lesson: The third law of thermodynamics can be restated as “things get worse”.
399 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 20, 2012
1 person is currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
R. Scott VanKirk
9 books11 followersR. Scott VanKirk has been devouring SF and Fantasy all his life. He has always been interested in writing but he has many interests which seemed like they might pay better and has indulged many of them over last few decades.
He spent twenty years as a programming consultant. Most of that time was spent in Denver Colorado, but he spent a year in Curacao writing software for online Casinos and Sports-books. When the US decided that the only type of gambling they wanted to see was Lotto, Scott returned to the states and continued as a programmer for hire working on the bleeding edge of computer technology.
It turns out that twenty years on the bleeding edge of technology was enough masochism for one life and Scott switched careers. Figuring that 'It's good to be the boss' was an excellent motto, Scott began starting companies. Being a cutting edge guy, Scott founded several companies around the cutting edge inventions of three mad scientists. He found out the hard way that mad scientists tend to believe more in themselves than physics.
Around that time he also started a real estate investment company. 30 years of increasing property values made this seem like a good bet. He teamed up with a long time friend and gaming buddy to renovate broken down houses. It worked well for the first four houses so they bought 5 more. At that point the housing market crashed and Scott learned first hand the wonders of being a landlord of properties that were experiencing what is called in the biz, 'Negative Cash Flow.'
While his other companies were languishing, Scott discovered the wonders of being a PV installer. The local utility company was paying big rebates and the Federal government instituted a 30% tax credit. PV took off in Denver like a chariot drawn by 50 horses. Soon, Scott discovered several things. First, basing your business off of a rebate from a company that viewed you as a leach to be destroyed is not the best business model. Second, doing construction really, really, really sucks. Third he found 'It's good to be the Boss' became increasingly inaccurate. The recession deeply wounded the company since it is hard to sell anything if no one has any money but the company soldiered on. Scott's solar career came to an abrupt end when the local utility company decided to stop offering rebates without warning. His company went from being a 5 million dollar company to zip practically overnight.
Scott was crushed between the solar and the real estate crash and learned the joys of bankruptcy. Thus motivated to try something different, Scott is brushing off the large collection of story ideas that have occured to him over the years and is now in the process of writing them down.
Scott now lives with his amazing and beautiful wife who provides more love and support than any three people. He also lives with his amazing and talented daughter and his equally amazing Mother. (Everyone who meets them agrees!)
Author: This proves that God has a sense of humor. These are three of the most wonderful, kind, caring people on the planet and they got me.
He spent twenty years as a programming consultant. Most of that time was spent in Denver Colorado, but he spent a year in Curacao writing software for online Casinos and Sports-books. When the US decided that the only type of gambling they wanted to see was Lotto, Scott returned to the states and continued as a programmer for hire working on the bleeding edge of computer technology.
It turns out that twenty years on the bleeding edge of technology was enough masochism for one life and Scott switched careers. Figuring that 'It's good to be the boss' was an excellent motto, Scott began starting companies. Being a cutting edge guy, Scott founded several companies around the cutting edge inventions of three mad scientists. He found out the hard way that mad scientists tend to believe more in themselves than physics.
Around that time he also started a real estate investment company. 30 years of increasing property values made this seem like a good bet. He teamed up with a long time friend and gaming buddy to renovate broken down houses. It worked well for the first four houses so they bought 5 more. At that point the housing market crashed and Scott learned first hand the wonders of being a landlord of properties that were experiencing what is called in the biz, 'Negative Cash Flow.'
While his other companies were languishing, Scott discovered the wonders of being a PV installer. The local utility company was paying big rebates and the Federal government instituted a 30% tax credit. PV took off in Denver like a chariot drawn by 50 horses. Soon, Scott discovered several things. First, basing your business off of a rebate from a company that viewed you as a leach to be destroyed is not the best business model. Second, doing construction really, really, really sucks. Third he found 'It's good to be the Boss' became increasingly inaccurate. The recession deeply wounded the company since it is hard to sell anything if no one has any money but the company soldiered on. Scott's solar career came to an abrupt end when the local utility company decided to stop offering rebates without warning. His company went from being a 5 million dollar company to zip practically overnight.
Scott was crushed between the solar and the real estate crash and learned the joys of bankruptcy. Thus motivated to try something different, Scott is brushing off the large collection of story ideas that have occured to him over the years and is now in the process of writing them down.
Scott now lives with his amazing and beautiful wife who provides more love and support than any three people. He also lives with his amazing and talented daughter and his equally amazing Mother. (Everyone who meets them agrees!)
Author: This proves that God has a sense of humor. These are three of the most wonderful, kind, caring people on the planet and they got me.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 12, 2012
Ahhh the Mighty Finn…
It picks up right where the last one left, which was good, you didn’t miss a beat. Finn’s come into his own more in this book, he’s stronger and by mid point in the book understands how to make his “powers” (for a lack of a better word) work and help in healing people and in figuring out what the darkness was. The relationships in this book are stronger than ever and are well played out. You have got to hand it to Finn and his mom for being ok with the whole rodent thing and his dad, you really have to read the book to find out more on that, it’s a little weird but I actually found it pretty funny too. I was happy to see Jim and Dave play a larger part in this book and was ok with what happens with Greg and Jen.
I actually like the turn around that Anderson did and really liked his character; I guess he’s a hero in his own way too. Holly and Finn’s relationship was just great and glad to see how that played out; I think she will actually be of some help to him in the future.
I will say that I am not loving the whole shared mind thing with Spring where it served its purpose in the first book and mostly in the second, I for one think it’s time for a separation between them, Finn needs to be his own man and having a female inhabiting his mind with him is no longer cool for me, does it make me not want to continue reading the series nope, I’ll defiantly keep reading, I love Finn and his band of merry men.
Moral of the story, it’s a good book and a good follow-up to the first and well played out, it was a natural course of events and none of it felt forced or rushed.
Definitely a recommended read from my list!
It picks up right where the last one left, which was good, you didn’t miss a beat. Finn’s come into his own more in this book, he’s stronger and by mid point in the book understands how to make his “powers” (for a lack of a better word) work and help in healing people and in figuring out what the darkness was. The relationships in this book are stronger than ever and are well played out. You have got to hand it to Finn and his mom for being ok with the whole rodent thing and his dad, you really have to read the book to find out more on that, it’s a little weird but I actually found it pretty funny too. I was happy to see Jim and Dave play a larger part in this book and was ok with what happens with Greg and Jen.
I actually like the turn around that Anderson did and really liked his character; I guess he’s a hero in his own way too. Holly and Finn’s relationship was just great and glad to see how that played out; I think she will actually be of some help to him in the future.
I will say that I am not loving the whole shared mind thing with Spring where it served its purpose in the first book and mostly in the second, I for one think it’s time for a separation between them, Finn needs to be his own man and having a female inhabiting his mind with him is no longer cool for me, does it make me not want to continue reading the series nope, I’ll defiantly keep reading, I love Finn and his band of merry men.
Moral of the story, it’s a good book and a good follow-up to the first and well played out, it was a natural course of events and none of it felt forced or rushed.
Definitely a recommended read from my list!
September 5, 2013
The Shadow’s Touch is the second book in the Ancient Enemy series written by R. Scott Vankirk. Having read the first book in the series, Dryad’s Kiss, I was familiar with the story and enjoyed it a lot. The author has made some changes to the first book and improved it greatly. I was happy to get a chance to read the second one as the first had so much potential and I was not disappointed. The Shadow’s Touch is a fantastic read, filled with paranormal adventure, likeable characters and lots of humour. The only word that can really describe the writing is “fun”. The main character, Finn, is a Doritos loving teenager who finds only he can save his town, and essentially the world, from evil shadows and a huge snake that kills. It’s a little complicated to explain because you should really read the first book but it is very much worth it. I can’t wait to read more from Mr. Vankirk.
March 22, 2012
The Shadow's touch is the sequel to The Dryad's kiss. It takes off right where the Dryad's Kiss left off. Ian Finn Morgenstern is a guy with a lot of problems that were all dumped in his lap. In The Shadow's Touch, he starts to learn about the root causes of those problems and discovers more about who he is and some of his hidden strengths.
The Shadow's Touch is a character driven, fast paced story of a moral young man tossed into the fire, skipping the frying pan altogether.
The Shadow's Touch is a character driven, fast paced story of a moral young man tossed into the fire, skipping the frying pan altogether.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews