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Hope Blackwell #1
Greek Key
All Hope Blackwell wanted out of her spring break was a quiet Mediterranean vacation. Sun, sand, local cuisine…and tracking down Archimedes’ ghost to learn if he’s been tampering with the fabric of reality. But when you’re a psychic whose specialty is communicating with the dead, a trip to Greece means you’ll come face-to-face with legendary heroes And monsters. As Hope and her friends explore the lost ruins of an ancient civilization, she soon learns she has attracted the attention of one of the most famous women in history. Helen of Troy is nothing like her stories, and she’s got a problem she thinks Hope can solve. Hope isn’t too sure about that—if righting a 2,500-year-old wrong was that easy, wouldn’t Helen have found the time to do it herself?
298 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2015
32 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
K.B. Spangler
25 books125 followersK.B. Spangler lives in North Carolina with her husband and two completely awful dogs. They live in the decaying house of a dead poet. She is the author and artist of the webcomic, "A Girl and Her Fed," and author of novels and short stories. All projects include themes of privacy, politics, technology, civil liberties, the human experience, and how the lines between these blur like the dickens.
If you enjoy mysteries, you want to read the RACHEL PENG books.
If you enjoy fantasy adventures, thrillers, and necromancers with ADHD, you want to read the HOPE BLACKWELL books.
If you enjoy sexy romances with sexy people who solve unsexy crimes, you want to read the JOSH GLASSMAN books.
And if you enjoy coming-of-age stories with intergalactic intelligences, you want to read STONESKIN.
If you enjoy mysteries, you want to read the RACHEL PENG books.
If you enjoy fantasy adventures, thrillers, and necromancers with ADHD, you want to read the HOPE BLACKWELL books.
If you enjoy sexy romances with sexy people who solve unsexy crimes, you want to read the JOSH GLASSMAN books.
And if you enjoy coming-of-age stories with intergalactic intelligences, you want to read STONESKIN.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
April 17, 2016
This is somewhat more confusing then the Agent Peng books, but I think that's because Hope's inner voice is like a squirrel on crack, so the writing was pretty much what I expected. (in case this is confusing, I liked the book but I don't like feeling lost. There's a lot going on in this universe and it's sometimes hard to keep track of it all.)
December 7, 2015
So, I have talked about the A Girl and Her Fed universe before. If you read any of my reviews about the Rachel Peng books, then you will be running into some familiar faces here.
We have Speedy and Hope as the primary protagonists this time around. Rachel’s not the focus here and we are, instead, introduced to the universe through Hope’s eyes and seeing her try to solve a mystery that has a lot more to do with the origins of how OACET and the ghosts work in the A Girl and Her Fed universe.
I’m not spoiling much in this review, but if you haven’t read A Girl and Her Fed yet, you might want to back out and go read it before you read on because some of this will go into spoilage as to how the rules of the Universe there work.
SPOILER TAG
SPOILER TAG
SPOILER TAG
The main mystery revolves around an artifact, a piece of the Antikythera mechanism, that is commented on in both the comic and in the Peng novels. They have a piece of a machine that is out of place and out of time for the development of the period. Hope, Speedy, and the Ghost of Benjamin Franklin (I’m not sure if that’s a title or not…maybe I’ll tweet the author to ask) have been discussing the limits of how a ghost can work and how time flows in the A Girl And Her Fed (AGAHF for short) universe.
It boils down to this: ghosts can move backward and forward in time. However, this requires a great deal of power. A ghost gets its power from his/her effect on the world. Also, a ghosts power appears to be limited to the culture in which it was created. This means that most ghosts are quite limited in their power. Benjamin Franklin’s ghost is very powerful in the United States (as are the other ghosts of the Founding Fathers. And Lincoln…oh dear lord, Lincoln). However, when Hope travels outside of the U.S., Franklin can’t follow / can’t manifest (side-note: given his years in Europe, I wonder if he can manifest there as well…).
We already know from AGAHF that Franklin can time travel. He did it to help Hope play the stock market so she didn’t have to focus on gaining money and could instead prepare for the coming of OACET and Sparky and a few other slightly more world shattering elements coming to the U.S. (and the world) than whether or not she could pay the bills. Of course she originally thought he was a drug induced hallucination, but that would be getting off topic and into AGAHF rather than Greek Key.
Panel Post
I’ll just leave this here as an explanation Image is Copyright (C) K.B. Spangler
The point being, his power lets him jump forward in time and, unlike many ghosts, he can bring back elements of what he finds in the future. In the comic, he brings back a ring that is linked to OACET so she can call in help from Sparky whenever she needs it. This takes a tremendous amount of power and the ring is only a small thing.
The mechanism piece? It’s a bit bigger. Which means a lot more power would be needed. Not only that, but we’re looking at a time jump that would make Doc Brown jealous.
And without a DeLorean.
Or a Flux Capacitor.
This machine piece that they have found, however, appears to have come from someone a bit more…universal. Think mathematics. Like Universal mathematics.
It’s Archimedes. Yes, that Archimedes.
I told you it was Universal Mathematics.
This has everyone baffled and a bit worried as it was found in a stash that was being supervised by the main antagonist of AGAHF.
Hope, being one of the few who knows the ghost connection in OACET, decides to investigate and she takes along Mike. The pair are psychic and are able to use that ability to tap into the ghost spectrum – though neither is particularly good at it. You do what you can with what you have.
Then we run into an archaeologist, Atlas, (who’s probably not on the up-and-up) and his sister, Darling (who’s definitely not on the up-and-up) and they get involved in examining the mystery as well.
Helen of Troy also ends up entangled.
It’s…complicated.
The story is also a lot of fun. As a fan of AGAHF, I got a lot of satisfaction out of reading the story. Hope is a fun character and Speedy is a highlight as well. They play their typical roles, but those roles are written quite well.
Hope is a strong protagonist. It is immediately obvious that she is in charge of herself and her choices; there’s no damsel in distress here. No one is ‘letting’ her do the things that she does. She is doing them through her action and through her conscious choice. It’s a good message and one that shouldn’t have to be said, but I’m pointing it out because that message is often lost in other media and stories. Hope’s a character that is strong on her own and she happens to be female.
Speedy is still a hyper-intelligent Koala. I don’t really feel the need to elaborate there, but he is enjoyable. However, I’m a Speedy fan and I hear there are those that disagree with him. That’s your choice – I can assure you that he doesn’t care in the slightest.
The mystery of Archimedes’ machine is the central plot of the story and its practically a character in and of itself. The jumping and shifting of ideas and ‘OK, that didn’t work, next plan’ is a lot of fun.
For me this book had a lot to tell. It establishes quite a bit of the rules for the AGAHF universe. The world building is fascinating and I enjoyed those elements a lot.
My major complaint comes from only two elements. My first is Hope’s attraction to Atlas. It seems overplayed and not especially relevant to the plot. I get that it is part of the character of Hope to be easily distracted, but I just did not like the Atlas bit at all. It’s a personal element, but I feel it detracts from Hope’s character to have that be a focus of her distractions. The rest of her jumps, however, are hilarious and/or plot related and I enjoyed them, but the Atlas ones didn’t ping right for me. Maybe it’s my sense of humor.
Which brings me to Atlas himself. As a character and an antagonist (I won’t go far enough to call him a villain) he’s in the gray area. It could be argued that he’s not even really an antagonist so much as a stumbling point. He’s a pretty face and something for Hope to get distracted by given his amazing Mediterranean body and that’s pretty much it. There is some effort at characterization by having him have a rivalry with his sister, but it doesn’t come off as particularly effective. His reveal and subsequent plot related items come off as convenient and/or out of place when reading and that appeared to defeat the purpose of having him in play. He helps the plot along and gives Hope a few things to think about, but it doesn’t really bring out anything new or interesting in the characters and so he falls flat.
On the whole, though, Greek Key is a strong novel with an interesting mystery. Hope, Mike, and Speedy make up for the lack of a traditional antagonist by fighting with the mystery surrounding the Archimedes device. The solution is a fascinating twist and turn as Spangler develops her world and reveals new and fascinating bits about how the world works in her universe of ghosts and government. For AGAHF fans, this will be a lot of fun. For inductees and those new to the universe, it will be an exciting adventure with a strong protagonist and companions that will lead you into a complex and fun world.
Characters: 4.0 / 5
Plot: 5 / 5
Action: 4 / 5
Value: 5 / 5
Writing: 5 / 5
Overall: 4.2 / 5
We have Speedy and Hope as the primary protagonists this time around. Rachel’s not the focus here and we are, instead, introduced to the universe through Hope’s eyes and seeing her try to solve a mystery that has a lot more to do with the origins of how OACET and the ghosts work in the A Girl and Her Fed universe.
I’m not spoiling much in this review, but if you haven’t read A Girl and Her Fed yet, you might want to back out and go read it before you read on because some of this will go into spoilage as to how the rules of the Universe there work.
SPOILER TAG
SPOILER TAG
SPOILER TAG
The main mystery revolves around an artifact, a piece of the Antikythera mechanism, that is commented on in both the comic and in the Peng novels. They have a piece of a machine that is out of place and out of time for the development of the period. Hope, Speedy, and the Ghost of Benjamin Franklin (I’m not sure if that’s a title or not…maybe I’ll tweet the author to ask) have been discussing the limits of how a ghost can work and how time flows in the A Girl And Her Fed (AGAHF for short) universe.
It boils down to this: ghosts can move backward and forward in time. However, this requires a great deal of power. A ghost gets its power from his/her effect on the world. Also, a ghosts power appears to be limited to the culture in which it was created. This means that most ghosts are quite limited in their power. Benjamin Franklin’s ghost is very powerful in the United States (as are the other ghosts of the Founding Fathers. And Lincoln…oh dear lord, Lincoln). However, when Hope travels outside of the U.S., Franklin can’t follow / can’t manifest (side-note: given his years in Europe, I wonder if he can manifest there as well…).
We already know from AGAHF that Franklin can time travel. He did it to help Hope play the stock market so she didn’t have to focus on gaining money and could instead prepare for the coming of OACET and Sparky and a few other slightly more world shattering elements coming to the U.S. (and the world) than whether or not she could pay the bills. Of course she originally thought he was a drug induced hallucination, but that would be getting off topic and into AGAHF rather than Greek Key.
Panel Post
I’ll just leave this here as an explanation Image is Copyright (C) K.B. Spangler
The point being, his power lets him jump forward in time and, unlike many ghosts, he can bring back elements of what he finds in the future. In the comic, he brings back a ring that is linked to OACET so she can call in help from Sparky whenever she needs it. This takes a tremendous amount of power and the ring is only a small thing.
The mechanism piece? It’s a bit bigger. Which means a lot more power would be needed. Not only that, but we’re looking at a time jump that would make Doc Brown jealous.
And without a DeLorean.
Or a Flux Capacitor.
This machine piece that they have found, however, appears to have come from someone a bit more…universal. Think mathematics. Like Universal mathematics.
It’s Archimedes. Yes, that Archimedes.
I told you it was Universal Mathematics.
This has everyone baffled and a bit worried as it was found in a stash that was being supervised by the main antagonist of AGAHF.
Hope, being one of the few who knows the ghost connection in OACET, decides to investigate and she takes along Mike. The pair are psychic and are able to use that ability to tap into the ghost spectrum – though neither is particularly good at it. You do what you can with what you have.
Then we run into an archaeologist, Atlas, (who’s probably not on the up-and-up) and his sister, Darling (who’s definitely not on the up-and-up) and they get involved in examining the mystery as well.
Helen of Troy also ends up entangled.
It’s…complicated.
The story is also a lot of fun. As a fan of AGAHF, I got a lot of satisfaction out of reading the story. Hope is a fun character and Speedy is a highlight as well. They play their typical roles, but those roles are written quite well.
Hope is a strong protagonist. It is immediately obvious that she is in charge of herself and her choices; there’s no damsel in distress here. No one is ‘letting’ her do the things that she does. She is doing them through her action and through her conscious choice. It’s a good message and one that shouldn’t have to be said, but I’m pointing it out because that message is often lost in other media and stories. Hope’s a character that is strong on her own and she happens to be female.
Speedy is still a hyper-intelligent Koala. I don’t really feel the need to elaborate there, but he is enjoyable. However, I’m a Speedy fan and I hear there are those that disagree with him. That’s your choice – I can assure you that he doesn’t care in the slightest.
The mystery of Archimedes’ machine is the central plot of the story and its practically a character in and of itself. The jumping and shifting of ideas and ‘OK, that didn’t work, next plan’ is a lot of fun.
For me this book had a lot to tell. It establishes quite a bit of the rules for the AGAHF universe. The world building is fascinating and I enjoyed those elements a lot.
My major complaint comes from only two elements. My first is Hope’s attraction to Atlas. It seems overplayed and not especially relevant to the plot. I get that it is part of the character of Hope to be easily distracted, but I just did not like the Atlas bit at all. It’s a personal element, but I feel it detracts from Hope’s character to have that be a focus of her distractions. The rest of her jumps, however, are hilarious and/or plot related and I enjoyed them, but the Atlas ones didn’t ping right for me. Maybe it’s my sense of humor.
Which brings me to Atlas himself. As a character and an antagonist (I won’t go far enough to call him a villain) he’s in the gray area. It could be argued that he’s not even really an antagonist so much as a stumbling point. He’s a pretty face and something for Hope to get distracted by given his amazing Mediterranean body and that’s pretty much it. There is some effort at characterization by having him have a rivalry with his sister, but it doesn’t come off as particularly effective. His reveal and subsequent plot related items come off as convenient and/or out of place when reading and that appeared to defeat the purpose of having him in play. He helps the plot along and gives Hope a few things to think about, but it doesn’t really bring out anything new or interesting in the characters and so he falls flat.
On the whole, though, Greek Key is a strong novel with an interesting mystery. Hope, Mike, and Speedy make up for the lack of a traditional antagonist by fighting with the mystery surrounding the Archimedes device. The solution is a fascinating twist and turn as Spangler develops her world and reveals new and fascinating bits about how the world works in her universe of ghosts and government. For AGAHF fans, this will be a lot of fun. For inductees and those new to the universe, it will be an exciting adventure with a strong protagonist and companions that will lead you into a complex and fun world.
Characters: 4.0 / 5
Plot: 5 / 5
Action: 4 / 5
Value: 5 / 5
Writing: 5 / 5
Overall: 4.2 / 5
October 14, 2017
If you've read any of the Rachel Peng books, then you know something about Hope Blackwell, but this is the other side of her, the side you see in the web comic, 'A Girl and Her Fed.' While the Peng books feel like police procedural/sci-fi, this one is far more obviously fantasy, but with a bit of sci-fi thrown in, along with a lot of martial arts, and a super-intelligent, talking koala.
'Greek Key' is funny in ways the Peng books are not and that makes up for a good bit, but the story is first person and a little long-winded. Getting into 'Greek Key' takes a bit of effort and the assumption that things will pick up when the plot gets moving. It does. I'm assuming there will be more; the ending leaves a lot of threads hanging.
Unless you're totally averse to fantasy, if you've read the Rachel Peng books, especially the third one, you'll likely enjoy this one.
'Greek Key' is funny in ways the Peng books are not and that makes up for a good bit, but the story is first person and a little long-winded. Getting into 'Greek Key' takes a bit of effort and the assumption that things will pick up when the plot gets moving. It does. I'm assuming there will be more; the ending leaves a lot of threads hanging.
Unless you're totally averse to fantasy, if you've read the Rachel Peng books, especially the third one, you'll likely enjoy this one.
December 21, 2023
a girl and her fed, now in novel form.
The author has created a whole universe and a couple of book series around a group of people who were given implants in their brain that gave them something approaching superpowers. This book is about Hope Blackwell, who is married to the leader of this group. This universe started as an online only comic years ago, at agirlandherfed.com, starring Hope, her soon to be husband, a talking koala, and the ghost of Benjamin Franklin.
Spangler has done a good job at translating Hope’s character and voice from an online web comic to novel form. This adventure finds Hope and her koala headed to Greece to track down a mysterious artifact. Along the way, they encounter the ghost of Helen of Troy, find a room full of golden treasure, and Hope uses her judo skills to beat up lots of goons. It’s a fun adventure and I highly recommend it.
The author has created a whole universe and a couple of book series around a group of people who were given implants in their brain that gave them something approaching superpowers. This book is about Hope Blackwell, who is married to the leader of this group. This universe started as an online only comic years ago, at agirlandherfed.com, starring Hope, her soon to be husband, a talking koala, and the ghost of Benjamin Franklin.
Spangler has done a good job at translating Hope’s character and voice from an online web comic to novel form. This adventure finds Hope and her koala headed to Greece to track down a mysterious artifact. Along the way, they encounter the ghost of Helen of Troy, find a room full of golden treasure, and Hope uses her judo skills to beat up lots of goons. It’s a fun adventure and I highly recommend it.
September 6, 2020
I am very clearly not the target audience for this book. This is weird, because I am very much the target audience for A Girl and her Fed, and I mostly enjoyed the Rachel Peng series, all set in the universe.
However, I recognize that there's a lot of good stuff going on in this book. I found Hope to be a wildly frustrating narrator, but I can see how a different reader might find her compelling. There's also some weird editing glitches, like when Hope suddenly feels like reminding us that Speedy is a Queensland koala for a couple of chapters, before going right back to just referring to him as a koala.
However, I recognize that there's a lot of good stuff going on in this book. I found Hope to be a wildly frustrating narrator, but I can see how a different reader might find her compelling. There's also some weird editing glitches, like when Hope suddenly feels like reminding us that Speedy is a Queensland koala for a couple of chapters, before going right back to just referring to him as a koala.
August 16, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this. The rendering of settings is fantastic, and the addition of chapters from Helen's POV add a depth and richness to the setting of modern Greece. Speedy is a foul-mouthed delight, and Mike's Zen kickassery was awesome. Warning: The food descriptions will make you want to eat nothing but amazing Greek food.
March 1, 2017
Hard to get through. Mostly because I kept stopping and couldn't bring myself to pick it back up again. The main character is pretty Mary Sue-ish, and the talking Koala sidekick just seems like a stupid idea that never really pays off.
December 28, 2019
Hope meets Helen of Sparta
I love reading from Hope’s point of view — she’s really fun. Also, I liked the retelling of Helen’s life with a bit more agency. And the final resolution of the problem made me tear up a bit. Really fun book!
I love reading from Hope’s point of view — she’s really fun. Also, I liked the retelling of Helen’s life with a bit more agency. And the final resolution of the problem made me tear up a bit. Really fun book!
July 16, 2023
Fun side story to the web comic A Girl and Her Fed. Hope Blackwell goes to Greece at the behest of Ben Franklin's ghost to investigate the origins of the Antikythera Mechanism, and encounters Helen of Sparta (of Troy) and her nemesis.
May 25, 2017
A little more one-dimensional than the Rachel Peng books (maybe I'm just biased) but still plenty of fun.
July 17, 2017
Lots of fun
I enjoyed learning quite a bit more about Helen. It made me want to do a lot more research about her and about Greece, both modern and ancient.
I enjoyed learning quite a bit more about Helen. It made me want to do a lot more research about her and about Greece, both modern and ancient.
February 7, 2018
Well written, great characters. I really enjoyed seeing more of Hope, Speedy and Mike. Like a couple others mentioned, I learned stuff about Helen of Troy/Sparta that I didn't know!
May 4, 2018
Read the webcomic A Girl and Her Fed, first. At least a couple months of it, if not the entire archives.
October 18, 2018
Guessing on read dates. Great story but fairly erratic writing. No hope of making sense of it if you don’t read the comic - so everyone should start there because it’s an awesome comic.
July 2, 2016
I love Spangler's A Girl and Her Fed web-comic, and absolutely adore the spin-off Rachel Peng technothrillers. Greek Key takes Hope Blackwell (the Girl), protagonist of AGAHF, and gives her a novel in which to shine.
It starts with the maguffin from the latest Rachel Peng novel (State Machine), a previously unknown fragment of the Antikythera Mechanism, which Rachel retrieves and Hope gets to see because her husband (the Fed) is Rachel's boss. Despite that, the novel actually starts with Hope face down in her living room with a policeman's boot pressing her into the carpet. This isn't because she's being arrested, it's to protect the four thugs who made the mistake of breaking into her house to assault her. Hope's a flutter-brain at times, and physically tiny, but she's also a world-class martial artist with a violent streak (and they brought a crowbar).
Hope's also a medium, with Ben Franklin as mentor/spirit guide (all long since explained in AGAHF - Franklin picked her as his physical proxy to keep an eye on the continued development of the US) , and when Rachel turns up with the artefact the alarms go off, because there's suddenly a possibility the Antikythera Mechanism is an artefact adrift out of time, something produced by a powerful ghost who continued working after their death - which is a problem as causality tends to shut down timeloops where that happens and stomp them into dust. There's a pretty obvious candidate, Archimedes, but ghosts can't really travel outside their home country, so Hope finds herself despatched to Greece to track down where the artefact came from.
Hope takes her two usual sidekicks with her. Mike Reilly is another medium cum martial artist, though in his case from a long line of mediums - who hate him for being gay (but not as much as they hate Hope for not belonging to one of the old medium families). Unlike Hope he espouses a policy of non-violence, which doesn't stop him being an even better martial artist than she is, it just means he practises Aikodo rather than Judo. And then there's Speedy. Someone decided to see how far he could get with selective breeding/genetic engineering for intelligence (similar to the Russian experiments with foxes), and koalas have a lot of room for improvement. At generation 26 he got Speedy, and who euthanized who got reversed... Speedy is 3 feet of hyperintelligent, pissed-off, sex-obsessed koala, with a talent for languages, code and patterns, so he's along to translate.
Once our heroes are in Greece, they quickly pick up a pair of guides, warring cousins who are both on the shady side of legit, if not outright tomb raiders. They also pick up Hope's usual entourage of tails and potential kidnappers - her husband's agency is really not popular. Both sets of add-ons serve mostly to provide light entertainment; threatening two top martial artists is a sure step towards getting your nose eaten by an angry koala. And then Hope acquires another artefact, a pair of beads, and the story takes an unexpected step.
The beads once belonged to Helen of Troy, but the stories have forgotten who she was first, Helen of Sparta, and a Spartan princess was no simpering beauty. Helen's tale isn't quite done, and she needs Hope to finish it.
The dual narrative is unexpected, Hope tracing clues in the present. while reliving parts of Helen's story each time she sleeps, and much as I love Hope, I think it is Helen's story which is the more compelling one.
The conclusion takes an unexpectedly dark turn, and once you've seen the cover you'll know where it ends, but it does it in a way that's true to both of the stories leading up to it. One slightly odd aspect stylistically is that the story is presented as Hope narrating it in the first person, and she isn't averse to breaking the third wall. However that's entirely in accord with her character. It's a very different story to the Rachel Peng novels, because Hope is privy to a side of the AGAHF universe that Rachel isn't, but still one I very much enjoyed and I hope there'll be more to come.
It starts with the maguffin from the latest Rachel Peng novel (State Machine), a previously unknown fragment of the Antikythera Mechanism, which Rachel retrieves and Hope gets to see because her husband (the Fed) is Rachel's boss. Despite that, the novel actually starts with Hope face down in her living room with a policeman's boot pressing her into the carpet. This isn't because she's being arrested, it's to protect the four thugs who made the mistake of breaking into her house to assault her. Hope's a flutter-brain at times, and physically tiny, but she's also a world-class martial artist with a violent streak (and they brought a crowbar).
Hope's also a medium, with Ben Franklin as mentor/spirit guide (all long since explained in AGAHF - Franklin picked her as his physical proxy to keep an eye on the continued development of the US) , and when Rachel turns up with the artefact the alarms go off, because there's suddenly a possibility the Antikythera Mechanism is an artefact adrift out of time, something produced by a powerful ghost who continued working after their death - which is a problem as causality tends to shut down timeloops where that happens and stomp them into dust. There's a pretty obvious candidate, Archimedes, but ghosts can't really travel outside their home country, so Hope finds herself despatched to Greece to track down where the artefact came from.
Hope takes her two usual sidekicks with her. Mike Reilly is another medium cum martial artist, though in his case from a long line of mediums - who hate him for being gay (but not as much as they hate Hope for not belonging to one of the old medium families). Unlike Hope he espouses a policy of non-violence, which doesn't stop him being an even better martial artist than she is, it just means he practises Aikodo rather than Judo. And then there's Speedy. Someone decided to see how far he could get with selective breeding/genetic engineering for intelligence (similar to the Russian experiments with foxes), and koalas have a lot of room for improvement. At generation 26 he got Speedy, and who euthanized who got reversed... Speedy is 3 feet of hyperintelligent, pissed-off, sex-obsessed koala, with a talent for languages, code and patterns, so he's along to translate.
Once our heroes are in Greece, they quickly pick up a pair of guides, warring cousins who are both on the shady side of legit, if not outright tomb raiders. They also pick up Hope's usual entourage of tails and potential kidnappers - her husband's agency is really not popular. Both sets of add-ons serve mostly to provide light entertainment; threatening two top martial artists is a sure step towards getting your nose eaten by an angry koala. And then Hope acquires another artefact, a pair of beads, and the story takes an unexpected step.
The beads once belonged to Helen of Troy, but the stories have forgotten who she was first, Helen of Sparta, and a Spartan princess was no simpering beauty. Helen's tale isn't quite done, and she needs Hope to finish it.
The dual narrative is unexpected, Hope tracing clues in the present. while reliving parts of Helen's story each time she sleeps, and much as I love Hope, I think it is Helen's story which is the more compelling one.
The conclusion takes an unexpectedly dark turn, and once you've seen the cover you'll know where it ends, but it does it in a way that's true to both of the stories leading up to it. One slightly odd aspect stylistically is that the story is presented as Hope narrating it in the first person, and she isn't averse to breaking the third wall. However that's entirely in accord with her character. It's a very different story to the Rachel Peng novels, because Hope is privy to a side of the AGAHF universe that Rachel isn't, but still one I very much enjoyed and I hope there'll be more to come.
December 25, 2016
less good than her Rachel Peng series, but adds to it
Pros: book is well written and the plot is interesting and fast paced.
Cons: the main character.
I have a hard time with Hope. I really like Spangler's Rachel Peng, but Hope's voice just irritates me. I tried reading the Girl and Her Fed comic, but didn't get past chapter two as I hate comics--the stylized art reads as crude to me, and the semaphore-like expressions on the characters' faces and bodies can't substitute for the nuance possible when describing emotions, choices and actions in words. My issue with Hope's voice is that it's a combination of snarky, arrogant and entitled. I used both arrogant and entitled because she sees things purely from her own viewpoint and arranges all outcomes to fit; plus she assumes that there's nothing she can't get to work in the way she wants it by throwing her money, her brains, Sparky or Speedy at it. Hope doesn't seem to doubt herself much if at all, and everything easily goes her way--which makes her both less interesting and less human than Spangler's other characters.
I liked Mike a lot better than either Speedy or Hope. He's a lot more emotionally complex: he has a history and issues, and he knows that and still works to do what's moral in his world view. It also helps that unlike Hope, Mike doesn't have a bottomless well of ego and money to throw at problems. He is self-confident, but more willing to tread lightly in difficult situations.
So why four stars? Because the book still meets my criteria of well-written, readable, and able to keep my attention throughout. It also offers me a wider view into Rachel Peng's universe (though a somewhat less grounded one, as Hope's character and experience are more of a comic and less a novel). I especially liked the first chapter where Hope has an internal dialogue about how she feels about Rachel's empathic abilities, and how Hope's differ, along with the glimpse we get of Hope's and Patrick's relationship and life.
Pros: book is well written and the plot is interesting and fast paced.
Cons: the main character.
I have a hard time with Hope. I really like Spangler's Rachel Peng, but Hope's voice just irritates me. I tried reading the Girl and Her Fed comic, but didn't get past chapter two as I hate comics--the stylized art reads as crude to me, and the semaphore-like expressions on the characters' faces and bodies can't substitute for the nuance possible when describing emotions, choices and actions in words. My issue with Hope's voice is that it's a combination of snarky, arrogant and entitled. I used both arrogant and entitled because she sees things purely from her own viewpoint and arranges all outcomes to fit; plus she assumes that there's nothing she can't get to work in the way she wants it by throwing her money, her brains, Sparky or Speedy at it. Hope doesn't seem to doubt herself much if at all, and everything easily goes her way--which makes her both less interesting and less human than Spangler's other characters.
I liked Mike a lot better than either Speedy or Hope. He's a lot more emotionally complex: he has a history and issues, and he knows that and still works to do what's moral in his world view. It also helps that unlike Hope, Mike doesn't have a bottomless well of ego and money to throw at problems. He is self-confident, but more willing to tread lightly in difficult situations.
So why four stars? Because the book still meets my criteria of well-written, readable, and able to keep my attention throughout. It also offers me a wider view into Rachel Peng's universe (though a somewhat less grounded one, as Hope's character and experience are more of a comic and less a novel). I especially liked the first chapter where Hope has an internal dialogue about how she feels about Rachel's empathic abilities, and how Hope's differ, along with the glimpse we get of Hope's and Patrick's relationship and life.
February 4, 2016
This was incredibly interesting, and I liked a lot of it a lot -- the characters were great, and I really liked Hope, Mike and Speedy and how they interacted. The take on Greek mythological history was also neat and convincingly done; I liked that aspect a lot too. Some of the world building was a little tricky to grasp immediately; I think part of that was a deliberate characterisation choice (which makes sense) but I did stop a few times early in the book with the feeling that I'd missed something like a prequel book or comic. Some of the violence - largely action movie/comic-book-y in tone - was a bit more casual than I tend to prefer although it was at least not involving innocent bystanders. The footnote jokes and sense of humour through the book were for the most part bang on, I did enjoy that aspect a lot.
I'd probably pick up more in this series, but the tone is a little bit inconsistent - I wasn't sure who the audience was meant to be, and I'm not sure the book is either.
Content note: there is no onscreen rape/sexual assualt, but there is reference to it having happened (or potentially happening) to minor characters. I did not appreciate the fact the main characters didn't seem very bothered by the strong implication a Hot Guy had previously assaulted his cousin. The text didn't seem to approve or disapprove, but as a character note it wasn't endearing.
I'd probably pick up more in this series, but the tone is a little bit inconsistent - I wasn't sure who the audience was meant to be, and I'm not sure the book is either.
Content note: there is no onscreen rape/sexual assualt, but there is reference to it having happened (or potentially happening) to minor characters. I did not appreciate the fact the main characters didn't seem very bothered by the strong implication a Hot Guy had previously assaulted his cousin. The text didn't seem to approve or disapprove, but as a character note it wasn't endearing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 18, 2015
This was a bit slow at first but got better toward the end.
-- I felt a bit cheated, to be honest.
So I guess I wish this book did a better job of answering the questions it asked.
Still fun for fans of the webcomic.
-- I felt a bit cheated, to be honest.
So I guess I wish this book did a better job of answering the questions it asked.
Still fun for fans of the webcomic.
April 30, 2021
This is not a Rachel Peng book, but it is set in the same universe. This book is from the point of view of Hope Blackwell. Hope knows a lot of secrets that Rachel doesn’t. Wait until you finish Rachel’s series to read this. It does tie up a lot of the loose ends that were left in State Machine, as well as explain the things being actively kept from Rachel.
The Greek Key tells about how she goes to Greece to find out some information about the fragment of the Antikythera mechanism found in state machine. As the world's “second worst psychic” Hope makes contact with the ghost of Helen of Troy, who really should be known as Helen of Sparta. Helen helps her with her information search but in return Hope has to do something for Helen, although she won't say what straight out. She just keeps sending memories of her life into Hopes dreams. Most of them are at least a little unpleasant. She teams up with her friend Mike (the only psychic worse than her, Speedy the talking Koala, and a two local treasure hunters who hate each other.
The Greek Key tells about how she goes to Greece to find out some information about the fragment of the Antikythera mechanism found in state machine. As the world's “second worst psychic” Hope makes contact with the ghost of Helen of Troy, who really should be known as Helen of Sparta. Helen helps her with her information search but in return Hope has to do something for Helen, although she won't say what straight out. She just keeps sending memories of her life into Hopes dreams. Most of them are at least a little unpleasant. She teams up with her friend Mike (the only psychic worse than her, Speedy the talking Koala, and a two local treasure hunters who hate each other.
December 1, 2016
Much as I enjoyed the Rachel Peng novels that I recently devoured, I loved Greek Key more. Hope and Speedy are, after all, my first friends in Spangler's universe and returning to Hope's ADHD fueled bounciness and Speedy's curse-laden sarcasm was a bit like coming home. The foot note comments were often hilarious, and definitely helped add to the feeling of following Hope's flickering attention.
A couple other reviewers have mentioned being confused or feeling like they've missed something; I'd recommend reading the first book of the A Girl And Her Fed webcomic for back story before diving into Greek Key; Hope is not the most straight-forward narrator and getting used to the tone of the comic may help follow her in prose. Also, it's a fun comic and you should read it anyway. Then read this and the Rachel Peng books, and then go re-read the comic to find the things you missed the first time through :)
A couple other reviewers have mentioned being confused or feeling like they've missed something; I'd recommend reading the first book of the A Girl And Her Fed webcomic for back story before diving into Greek Key; Hope is not the most straight-forward narrator and getting used to the tone of the comic may help follow her in prose. Also, it's a fun comic and you should read it anyway. Then read this and the Rachel Peng books, and then go re-read the comic to find the things you missed the first time through :)
January 2, 2018
If you have ever wondered what it is like to live with a person with ADHD, this book very much gives an idea of it. Which is mostly excellent: it contributes to characterization and voice without being entirely about the disorder.
The ideas in the story about culture and imagery and identity is really fascinating, though it never quite coalesced straightforwardly to me - which makes sense in that it's meant to be complicated and it's more addressed in the comic after the time-jump in which these novels occur, but was still kind of frustrating to me because I don't like not getting things.
Helen of Sparta is an amazing character, and this was a really fantastic interpretation of the stories while still fitting in the rules of the A Girl And Her Fed universe.
The ideas in the story about culture and imagery and identity is really fascinating, though it never quite coalesced straightforwardly to me - which makes sense in that it's meant to be complicated and it's more addressed in the comic after the time-jump in which these novels occur, but was still kind of frustrating to me because I don't like not getting things.
Helen of Sparta is an amazing character, and this was a really fantastic interpretation of the stories while still fitting in the rules of the A Girl And Her Fed universe.
October 31, 2015
Another fun installation in the A Girl & Her Fed universe. I quite enjoyed the "here's what the Greek heroes of legend were really like" aspect. The first person narration sounded a little juvenile at times, but it worked. Spangler has done a really good job shading in the world with the different flavors based on which series (the comic has a different ton/focus from the Rachel Peng books, which are also different from this one) so it's fun to see other character's perspectives and insights into each other.
November 14, 2015
I finished this book then went right back to the beginning and read it again. It's that good, the story is that involved and Hope is that - well - Hope.
Hope is like the Tony Stark of the agahf world. I feel like a complete wuss (can't outrun bad guys, turn a marketplace into a holding cell, channel Helen) and I don't think I want to be Hope, but maybe yea, for a day. Would love to spend a day with Speedy.
Hope is like the Tony Stark of the agahf world. I feel like a complete wuss (can't outrun bad guys, turn a marketplace into a holding cell, channel Helen) and I don't think I want to be Hope, but maybe yea, for a day. Would love to spend a day with Speedy.
December 24, 2015
This was a fun adventure from Hope's POV (from the webcomic A Girl and her Fed). I didn't find this book to be as good as the Rachel Peng books, but I think that was mostly because Spangler does a good job of writing in the voice of her POV character. Hope is a lot more ADD and scattered in her thoughts that Rachel is, so the story bounced around a lot more as well. Hope is easier to follow in the web comic format.
Still an overall enjoyable addition to the A Girl and her Fed world.
Still an overall enjoyable addition to the A Girl and her Fed world.
August 11, 2016
I loved this story. The characters (especially the koala) were vivid and felt like they all had their own thing going on outside of the story I was reading.
I also liked that I wasn't immediately able to class it into a specific genre.
The back cover isn't really descriptive of what's going on though, which was... it would have been disappointing except that the actual story was SO MUCH BETTER.
I also liked that I wasn't immediately able to class it into a specific genre.
The back cover isn't really descriptive of what's going on though, which was... it would have been disappointing except that the actual story was SO MUCH BETTER.
February 12, 2020
Followed the comic for years. Finally getting to sit down and read the novel rocks socks, even if I did come in on this book rather than on the first set. Seriously impressed with the crafting on this, and very much looking forward to reading the other books Spangler's put together. In correct order, henceforth. I hope.
July 6, 2023
This is part of a great 'verse of stories.
Hope is badass, Speedy shows his chops, and Greek mythology gets shown off to great effect.
If you like the webcomic or the Rachel Peng series, gonna love this book.
Hope is badass, Speedy shows his chops, and Greek mythology gets shown off to great effect.
If you like the webcomic or the Rachel Peng series, gonna love this book.
December 16, 2016
Forcing myself through the massive recap at the beginning was difficult. But the rest of this book was lots of fun, just like Spangler's other "Girl & Her Fed" novels. I like her books even more than the comic.
November 30, 2015
This book is lots of fun and should make sense generally even if you don't read the comic.
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