"My past came with sharp teeth, and I didn't enjoy letting it bite me."
Gideon Black has just returned from a grueling visit to the Fae realm with a stronger grip on his abilities, both as a half-Fae and the DeathSpeaker. But none of that prepared him to be kidnapped and dragged into a fight against a god.
When the Duchenes' master, an ancient and powerful Other who's taken the name of the voodoo god Papa Legba, summons the family for attempting to defy him, Denei Duchene invokes a promise Gideon made long before he knew that promises could kill the Fae. Now he must travel to New Orleans with the secretive siblings and free them from their bonds -- or die trying.
But Legba isn't the only danger lurking in the Louisiana swamps. Milus Dei, the cult dedicated to wiping out the Others, has been recruiting a new breed of hunter. The most dangerous, lethal poachers they can find, heavily financed and retrained to target and capture all types of non-humans.
And the group currently hunting the bayou is all too familiar to Gideon.
~*~ I DON'T PUT ANY SPOILERS BEHIND TAG. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED ~*~
This book marked the first time that Gideon working closely together with the Duchenes family, since Tereal and Sadie are going for a mini-holiday and Daoin stays in Arcadia. Apparently, the elder of the Duchene, Zoba, is both 'cursed' and indebted to the powerful voodoo god, Legba, and if they cannot be free from Legba, he will be dead. Gideon is then asked (well, forced kind of) to help by Denei ... and so Gideon, Reun, and the Duchenes are off to New Orleans to fight a god.
Sometimes I feel really bad for the hero (and heroines) in Urban Fantasy genre. It's like they cannot take a break *lol*. The event in this book happened only two weeks after Realm of Mirrors. Not only that, Gideon must fought his oldest demons ... his family of hunters, the Valentines. Apparently, the Valentines were also recruited by FBI agent (!) who is part of the Milus Dei organization, so imagine their glee when they were able to capture Gideon. Poor, poor, Gideon. At least the tortures were off-page.
At first I was quite pissed with Denei's trick to ask Gideon's for help -- by drugging and kidnapping him, and then asked him to take a deathly oath. How could you, Denei?!? But then understanding what happened to Zoba helped calm my anger. And the Duchene didn't really walk out of the fight without casualties. Their youngest, Rex and Senobia, were both dead.
The part where Gideon met the previous DeathSpeaker, the Mad Kelwyyn, was intriguing. I wonder what the powerful Word is. And of course, that ending, where Redfield (the FBI Agent) are releasing the Valentines again, as well as this mysterious creature ... I am sure that book 5 will be another intense battle for Gideon and the gang.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
If you haven't delved into the DeathSpeaker's Codex yet, start with book one, NOW! Do not hesitate even for one moment, and you'll find yourself immersed - from page one - into one of the most unique worlds and characters in Urban Fantasy today!
I'm not going to get into the plots, you have the summary's for that, but suffice to say, this is hands down, one of my top three favorite authors and relatively new series going! Her writing will NOT disappoint!
Dans ce tome Gideon se retrouve obligé d'aider les Duchenes, qui sont ses colocataires / amis. Ceux ci on été contraints il y a bien longtemps de se mettre au service d'un très puissant surnaturel qui depuis les oblige à répondre à ses appels et à faire ce qu'il leur dit, tel des esclaves.
Ce tome m'a vraiment fait traverser de fortes émotions, de la tristesse à la colère, en passant par le dégoût. La situation dans laquelle sont les Duchenes est vraiment tellement injuste qu'on ne peux pas s'empêcher de les plaindre, même si c'est vrai qu'ils n'ont pas vraiment utilisé une bonne méthode pour forcer Gideon à les aider.
Ceci dit, on les pardonne, vu qu'ils n'avaient vraiment pas d'autres choix.
Dans l'ensemble ce tome change un peu des tome précédents et pour ça j'ai trouvé que c'était un bon apport. On découvre de nouveaux surnaturels qui prennent ici une forme un peu originale.
Par contre je dirais que le seul point négatif est qu'à force d'additionner des bouts d'intrigues sur plusieurs sujets en même temps, on fini par ne pas s'y arrêter assez suffisamment vu la taille des livres. Ici ce tome en plus de l'intrigue principale des Duchenes, traitait du passé de Gideon, de son ancienne famille, et du problème en faërie, ce qui faisait trop pour 200 pages.
Du coup c'est un peu le même reproche que pour le précédent, pour moi tout allait un peu trop vite, était un peu trop expédié rapidement.
Mais sinon j'ai passé un bon moment, et je lirais la suite avec plaisir.
I just wasn't feeling this book. My momentum with this series is running out. I even had to take a break in the middle of this book so I wouldn't end up hating and resenting it. It focussed on characters I didn't care about, and excluded the few characters I do care about. Some repetitive stuff, with Gideon getting tortured and then turning out fine with absolutely no lasting damage, every phone conversation with Abe, Sadie's OTT reactions. I miss the characters from book 1- Taeral was an ornery and scary powerful fae with some rare and sweet moments towards Sadie, Sadie was a tough likeable female and Gideon was the exact same as he is now. Maybe I'm being harsh, but nothing majorly new is happening to keep me invested. Yes the plot is moving along, but the character and relationship development is a little sparse. I hope the 5th book isn't as disappointing.
Omgomgomg I've never been so excited to read a book!!!! I happened to check my email this morning and see that this book was just published and couldn't wait to read it! It did not disappoint, let me tell you. It was nice to be concerned about something other than the main threat, but the way it ties back in at the end was perfection. Can't wait for book 5!!
I guess it was too much to hope for that the characters would stay in any way consistent for the whole series. Black is for some reason totally fine with being kidnapped in this book. Despite the thing that defines his whole character being that he was held against his will for 16 years by his "family". His "friends" drug and kidnap him... so he decides to never mention it again and help them exactly like they want. Then he gets captured by the rednecks who tortured him for his entire childhood... so he lets them go free to keep doing the same thing to other people. (He plans to turn them into the FBI, but they're part of the secret society that's already been established as having infiltrated the government. Which is also not mentioned at all.) Bravo.
Then it continues on into some "If you believe in yourself you can do anything" special snowflake bullshit. Which is the single biggest turn off for me in any book. You can have a hero or a chosen one or a messiah or whatever, not a problem but when it turns into a "you can do it because you're special" circle jerk... I'm done.
PS I was going to rate this higher... But writing the review really reinforced how much about this particular book I dislike.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
-4 stars. i really like this series. the book was action packed from the very start and it stayed steadily that way. 43 chapters. each chapter was only 3-5 pages, with the first page of each chapter only a half page. so this skinny little book was way shorter than that. i read this book in one day.
"i tensed, trying to figure out the best way to get off the ground. before i could try anything, zoba bent to help me up. like he'd read my mind. "thanks. for my next trick, i'll take a step." "lord above, handsome. ain't nothin' but pure will holding you up right now, is there?"
"you is as big as you is. means you got all the power you need, long as you got the confidence to use it." great. self-confidence wasn't exactly my strong suit. "right, so believe in myself. anything else i should do? because that seems like...not enough to keep from getting murdered in about five seconds flat."
This new volume adds some voodoo and some past problems.
The fact that this fourth volume includes the shitty adopted family of Gideon is made obvious at the outset. Despite that, their appearance remains slightly delayed, and is not the focus of the book. The real topic is yet another "friend" of Gideon requiring help on a surnatural matter. Since the matter involves death stuff, who better than a Deathspeaker to handle this. This is a minor problem, since even if you know the Deathspeaker team wins in the end, you never really doubt he's going to manage.
When I reviewed book 3 in the series I mentioned it was fairly low key compared to the previous books and that I imagined that book 4 might kick it up a notch. Boy was I right! This story rocked from beginning to end and was near impossible to put down. Gideon continues his growth as Deathspeaker and learns more of what things are in his repertoire of powers. He has some truly excellent battles and the story ends with a bit of a cliffhanger so I'm gonna stop this review now so I can begin the next book!
The Deathspeaker world is becoming more intricate and hinted at parts are elaborated. In this book, the Duchenes feature, there’s New Orleans and swamps, Arcadia and the Mist, the Valentines (who are so truly despicable one wants to see them suffer). This is light and enjoyable reading. No great depth of character development or insight into culture, nor any great connection to place, but a solid plot, solid world building and characters that are easy to care about.
This is the fourth book in (The Deathspeaker Coded Series )
This was a great and emotional read the more that we find out about this organization the more questions I have . This organization is obviously ruthless they take out anyone who fails them even their own this is getting darker and darker . I can't wait to find out who the real player's are in all this I'm sure it will blow me away on too the next book in this series .
This was a worthy installment of the series! Exciting and fast-paced. Gideon continues to grow and develop emotionally and magically. The satellite characters start out prickly and a little scary but develop into integral parts of Gideon's chosen family. Some of things I especially like are the interplay and contrasts between the family that raised him, his chosen family, and his newly discovered birth family.
Sonya continues down the right path with this continuation of the series. The main characters continue to learn and grow, but the challenges they face keep pace. An excellent book.
I'm really loving this series!!! I really wish they'd make it into a television series or a movie, I know it'll be a hit!!!! I have 2 more chapters to read and I've read the whole series of an awesome storyline!! Awesome Job Sonya!!!
I have read the 3 previous deathspeaker books and thoroughly enjoyed them. Bateman has great pacing. I find it lovely to be carried along by the combination of action and emothion. A well crafted protagonist with emotional issues and growth can cover a multitude of plot holes... To be frank I am not looking to urban fantasy to be logical.
That said I have never been embarrassed for an author before and the lack of basic math skills that either the author has or she has strangely chosen to give to her protagonist is a stumbling block to me.
From Return of the Hunters: I could probably figure out around how much time that would be here. With a calculator—I wasn’t smart enough to do it all in my head. My hand was already in the pocket of the new jeans Bastien and Isalie got for me when I remembered I didn’t have my phone. “Hey. Anybody here have a phone?” I said just as Rex came out of the bathroom with a wet towel. Senobia stood. “I do,” she said, pulling one from her front pocket. She woke it up and unlocked the screen. “You makin’ a call?” “No. I need a calculator.” “Okay.” With a slight frown, she tapped the screen a few times and handed it to me. “Thanks.” We’d been in Arcadia for two days, and ten days had passed here. But now, we were working with a matter of hours. I figured out the number of hours for both time frames—at least I could do that much in my head—and then divided the bigger number by the smaller one. The calculator came back with 5. I cleared it and handed the phone back. “All right. One hour there is around five hours here,” I said. “It’s almost seven now, and we’ve got until noon tomorrow. So…seventeen hours. That means if we’re in Arcadia more than three hours, we’re screwed.” Reun raised an eyebrow. “How did you figure that out so quickly?” he said. “You’ve been to Arcadia only once. Even I’ve not determined such a precise comparison of the time difference.” “Er. Two days there, ten days here. Plus math,” I said.
Another terrific book from Bateman . Once again our hero, the death speaker, finds himself exploring the fascinating and deep world where magic monsters and fairy coexist . This time he helps the scary Louisiana clan deal with the ultimate New Orleans monster . One of the great things about Bateman's books, is that all of the character is complex and imperfect , he still knows he has a lot to learn and he wants to do the right thing . I really enjoy the series, and I'm huge fan of Jim Butcher and Ilona Andrews.
Honestly, Sonya Bateman could write twenty plus books in this series and I would buy each one! I can't wait to carry on with this series and there's going to be a seventh book which is fantastic news.
Once again this installment didn't disappoint; it was short and sweet and still full of action, humour and had the story progress naturally. One day I would love a pretty physical bind up on my shelves by I'm more than happy to read the ebooks for now. As long as Bateman keeps writing, I'll keep reading.
As to why, out of all the supernatural fantasies out there I like this one so much...the characters are just so human, and the Deathspeaker doesn't seem to want anyone to die. He has compassion. Only those who try hard enough actually get taken out. Bateman does a good job both in terms of writing and storytelling. Can't wait for the next one...
Each Deathspeaker book may be on the small side, but each is packed with action, interest, characters, and a world of urban (etc.) fantasy that is familiar yet new. The plot thickens, the characters grow, and the story continues to unfold in interesting and unforeseen ways. If you like Harry Dresden then you'll love these gems. Highly recommended.
I like these books because they are a quick easy area. I like the hero and the fact that he is learning and growing with each book but I do have few things that puzzle me. First off, what happened to the coroner, they were supposed to go out then she just disappeared, please explain. And why don't they use Google and do research when going up against their enemies? What's the rush? And hasn't he realized the Milius dei are every where? Other than that I liked it.
Once again a great story worth your time. This time we get a further look into the live of characters from the first book the Duchenes. They get to be much more than filling for a change. And we get to explore more of Gideon's background too. The on going plot keeps getting more interesting and the character development is growing deeper and more meaningful with each book. You get more invested as you read on. I recommend this series very much.
Another great outing for Gideon and his friends, you could almost taste the menace coming from Gideons enemies. As for his former family you would be driven to suicide living with these integrates, he is truly lucky to get away from them, all though it was in bits and pieces. Great storyline and characters, I cannot wait for the next adventure. Fab
As always a totally gripping story. Characters are interesting and the books always have a different plot. Love the way Gideons character is building cannot wait to see what he will be able to do next.
Sonya Bateman what can I say but I love love love you. I'm so looking forward to the next book. I can barely sleep, work, eat or give any attention to my family. These books just keep getting better and better.
Wow, that was really one enjoyable reading material. Main character Gideon has to help out with a problem he did not it see coming but has still too much of a heart to help those who need his help.