No guts, no glory.Being one of the four horsemen sucks. The hours are long, the pay is crap, and every god or monster you meet wants to kill you.
For Lazarus Kerrigan, professional necromancer, even helping the police search for some missing internal organs is a welcome relief. That is, until his ex-girlfriend shows up in the employ of an ancient Egyptian deity, and a faerie queen makes him an offer he can't refuse.
When Laz finds himself pulled into a criminal underworld where human souls are traded like currency, things just go from bad to worse. Unfortunately, his soul might just be worth its weight in gold.
Organ Grind by E.A. Copen and narrated by Travis Baldree is book two in the series but I am already so invested emotionally in this series. I absolutely love the characters, the interplay between the characters, the unpredictable plot, the fantastic fantasy, and great action and emotions! This is full of witty dialogue, humor, suspense, and unique creatures. Travis Baldree is super brilliant making sure the characters all have voices that match their personalities. He is awesome! I can't wait for the next book!
4.5 stars. I do find myself wondering if this series has gone too dark too early, but I suspect the author is going for gritty, rather than straight out and out darkness. I has recalled enough salient points from the first book that I was soon up to speed, and then the action kicked off with a bang, with no apologies. This kept up until the delicious climax, although I do question the wisdom of the main character having been told "under not circumstances are you to touch the big, red, shiny button" and then presses it the first chance he gets. I can't wait to continue with the series.
In book two, Organ Grind, Lazarus finds himself looking for the killer/killers responsible for slicing open people who are fae and organ donors and stealing their innards. Lazarus through a series of meetings and promises has now become the Pale Horseman and is now able to snatch the souls of Gods, immortals and other magical beings as well as the norm's. The story is good and introduces more of the seedy beings in New Orleans and dealing with ghouls. Again a good read but the errors get in the way occasionally.
So I don't usually deal with the undead, except for that one time over in Melbourne when I got pissed as a fart and slow danced with some chick at a pub, except the next morning I realised I was in a funeral home and had just interrupted someone's funeral. To be fair, she was a really cute corpse. But Organ Grind dealt extensively with the dead, along with the fae, organ theft and gods of the dead. And like my last time with the dead, a good time was had by all.
Except for the family of Mrs. Bombeck. They were PISSED.
Organ Grind's plot starts simple enough. Lazarus Kerrigan, our resident New Orleans necromancer has been on a bender for two weeks after finding out his girlfriend was a fae princess of the Summer Court. To get him out of that slump, his landlord Paula enlists his help on behalf of a client. The job is simple: retrieve a small box. Except the client is the fae Queen of the Shadow Court. Then you add in a serial killer targeting people's organs, his previous ex Beth coming to town with her own plans and suddenly things are a lot more complicated.
And I do mean complicated. The sheer number of sidestories that are all mashed together into the book feel like they could have been spread out across two books at least. They're competently put together but there were times when the pacing would suffer as a result. Beth rolls into town - a character we've never seen or heard before - she meets Laz, he's called to the cop shop to examine a corpse. He gets an invite to a Black Market bazaar. Some of it feels a little sloppy. But overall it ties up pretty neatly by the end so I have to give Copen credit.
What I won't give Copen credit for is some of the writing. For starters, either get a new editor or quadruple check the final draft. I found at least a handful of errors that could have been fixed easily. In addition Laz is starting to suffer from a dangerous case of Talking Like A Writer Syndrome (TLAWS). Lazarus is meant to be a working class necromancer. But the sheer number of similes, metaphors and extensive descriptions make him sound less like a person and more like someone straight out of an University Creative Writing course.
COMMUNITY SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT If you or someone you know has become afflicted with TLAWS, contact your local editor immediately. Remember, only you can prevent overly verbose protagonists who don't know when to shut the fuck up.
On the subject of Laz, he's still decently written. His grappling with the job of being one of the Four Horseman is handled okay without too much unnecessary wangsting about it. His hangups about his old love life are okay if a little heavy handed at times, especially since we've seen so little of his ex Odette in the series to this date. But he's determined and brave and all the other qualities you'd expect out of a protagonist in a series like this. Emma Knight still fits the bill of being the friend on the force, sharing more than a few qualities with Karrin Murphy from the Dresden Files but she's passable. Moses Moses is pretty relegated to a side character and the few moments he pops up are okay.
As for new characters, we have Beth, Laz's ex before Odette, the woman who ran out on him on the day of his conviction. I'm not really sure what to say about Beth. She kind of hits all the typical notes of an ex although she's a lot more likeable than most. Some of her characteristics feel a little too convenient (she knows a little magic for example) and at one point her presence felt more than a little suspect (how in the fuck did she get into a Magical Black Market with no foreshadowing?!). But she's relatively inoffensive and decent enough and her and Laz's conversations were decently written without falling over in the schmaltzy cheesy bullshit that a lot of paranormal romance series dive headlong into.
If there is one character I do want to focus on, it's Odette. Odette's a funny one. Her presence in this series to date has been largely skirting around the boundaries and yet by the end, she's suddenly front and centre of the plot. As it ties in with the ending I'll have to get into spoiler territory here so if that's not your thing, I'll give you a five second headstart. You ready?
5....
4....
3...
2...
1..
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They gone? Okay good, I thought they's never leave. Bastards.
Anyway the last time Laz and Odette bumped uglies, he knocked her up. And now she's got a Horseman bun in the oven that threatens to tear the Fae Courts apart. So the Shadow Court kidnapped her, roped Laz into this dog and pony show that is the central plot, all so they could use her as a bargaining chip and him as a loaded gun against the Summer Court. So this is two for two where Odette's presence in the story has been largely on the outskirts and yet by the end, she becomes integral to the plot. I'm honestly not sure where I stand on this. If this ties into a broader myth arc in the series, I think I can get on board with it. The problem is that up to this point, Odette's largely been a non-entity. So any urgency or agency she's had on the plot been used almost like a Maguffin.
That being said, I did like the fact that Laz and Odette are splitsies but will remain friends for the sake of their child. It's nice to see two characters acting like mature adults and also a break from the typical 'these two are destined for each other' bullshit that is so common in the UF genre. That's sometimes what's important: taking something familiar and changing it just enough to feel fresh.
Overall Organ Grind is an fun read. It's not as tightly focused as Death Rites but it does a decent world of fleshing out the world and introducing new characters and ideas to make it feel like its own beast. And while it does suffer from pacing issues and some strange decisions regarding characters, it's still fresh and interesting enough to keep me interested. Unlike that old bitch Mrs. Bombeck.
Sheesh, you do a slow waltz with one corpse and suddenly they think they owe you their brain!
A jumbled rehashed Dresden. The mortician scene. Renanimation at a museum. The threat of being under the thumb of the queen of fairy. The only original part is the humab unnderlord that the lead character is forced to team up with... oh wait, got that too. Ugh. I want to like this series, but is that because I actually want to like a new concept or because it reminds me of an old concept I already like?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
2/5 means bad for me. For this book, it's not the awful kind of bad, that serves as a good conversation topic for you and your friends, but the boring kind of bad, with some nice things sprinkled into a lot of irritating stuff. The disappointing kind, that could've been better.
The book differs from Dresden way more, than the one before, but turns out, that made things worse.
For one, mc never wins. He could literally rip out anyone's soul, he could throw magic around, the kind that you can break locks with, yet he always finds a way to make himself look pathetic by randomly just swinging his stick around, then getting beaten up.
Second, everyone makes incredibly stupid decisions, for no real reasons, other than the authors need to create fake drama. I'm looking at you, 25 years of service. Also, mc's gangster friend just knocks down my suspension of disbelief, but that was more of a problem in the previous book.
Third, mc's love-life got too much of the focus for me. He was always moody, being torn over 3.5 girls he wanted, but also didn't want, almost making his moves, being possessive of them, then deciding, that they shouldn't do anything, when one of the girls responded to him. It quickly became tiring.
Fourth, mc is way too clueless to be believable. You can't just generate mystery by making mc stupid, hoping for your readers to be just as stupid as mc.
It just made me facepalm over and over. I doubt I'll pick up the next one.
Necromancer Lazarus 'Laz' Kerrigan is now the fully-fledged Pale Horseman - one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who signify the end of days - having been appointed by none other than Baron Samedi, aka Death as his substitute when it comes to keeping balance in the universe - even having the power to kill gods too, if they become a threat to the continuation of Life as we know it. The loss of his girlfriend Odette (she turned out to be a Fae Princess of the Summer Court), who returned home to her mother, followed by the unexpected encounter with Odette's predecessor, Beth, leaves Laz unsure if he did the right thing in letting Beth involve him in something that definitely should come with a health warning! Egyptian gods, ghouls, a Fae,Shadow Queen and her Knight (who's a dab hand with his magically-enhanced daggers), a flying giant alligator and others, all seem hell-bent in killing Laz, to stop his mission. Luckily he has the dead to give him a heads-up as to what's going on behind the scenes and a most peculiar tools that keeps him in one piece - so far. Will things go well for Laz? How is Beth able to help Laz? What does Laz learn about Odette that will change his life for ever? Find out when you get your copy of Ogan Grind, Book 2 in The Lazarus Codex by the wonderful E A Copen. Then tell all your friends!!
This is still a pretty good series. It probably doesn’t help that I went from Quincy Harker book 3 to this one given there are a lot of similarities between the two series’. I love the narrator from that series and he always makes me think of Travis Baldree from this one.
I really love Travis Baldree; he’s definitely a natural when it comes to narrating. Some of his accents are out of this world. Because of his accents, it makes it easier (in my mind) to imagine what the character looks like…think of the Baron. He sounds like a cool, interesting-looking guy. If you’ve seen American Horror, I think it was the witch season, the voodoo guy is how I imagine the Baron looking. The suit maker was also an interesting character, both with how he was described as well as his voice/accent. I loved him.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the day/night before Lazarus is confronted with a case or big issue, he’s unable to sleep, so a good majority of the story is him talking about not having slept in so long and being really tired.
The action, mystery and magic from Book 1 was enough to get me to read book 2. However the cringe aspects I had in book 1 (MC being a little bit dumb, bad romance chemistry, and heavy handed foreshadowing) just ratcheted higher in Book 2.
The main issue I had with Book 2 was basically the romance. It's put off by how shallow the female protagonists end up being except maybe Emma Knight. But yes most of them are horribly bland and 2 dimensional made worst by this book.
It also doesn't help that for some reason the main character is even more wishy washy in this book as well. Bouncing back and forth between being a competent investigator to being dumb and rocks.
Action is still good as well as the magic lore. So if you've run out of Urban Fantasy reads, this can be that little junk food snack to consume whilst waiting for other releases.
Somewhat a little sad this series wasn't written better. O n O It had a lot of good potential and lore.
Another journey into the world of Lazarus and The Shadow Court. Man, what a fun ride this series is. Once again, the depth put forth for each character really drew me in. Of particular interest in this entry, Darius and The Baron continue to be favorite characters of mine and I am anxious to see what the future has in store for Darius as he tries to go legit.
All of that said, how can anyone say that sausage is better than bacon? Bacon is the perfect food. But hey, as Liz said when I posted to her author page, the characters views do not necessarily represent her own. Plus, Lazarus is an otherwise awesome character so I can forgive that one viewpoint, haha. Also, listening to the description of Jolene and her smile as she was waiting for hot dogs, BAM! Right in the feels.
Travis Baldree did a fantastic job with narration as he did with Death Rites. Needless to say, I cannot wait for the next book to be released.
I really enjoyed this book - even more than the one before it. Lazarus felt even more like a sympathetic character, as did Emma, (I've got a big ol' soft spot for Emma), and Moses Moses was charming as ever. Lazarus makes some seriously questionable decisions sometimes, and he has a rather large soft spot for the women in his life - often to his own detriment - but I can't help feeling for the guy. It was not remotely predictable, (at least not to me), and the only thing that made me go from 5 stars to 4 was that it was a little convoluted - again, at least to me. The narration was excellent, absolutely no complaints there.
If you thought the first book was interesting well, you will really enjoy this book! Lazarus has his past to contend with and his new job as the Pale Horseman involves Beth from his past, Odette makes an appearance and several Egyptian gods. Emma still has a connection to him and they have discovered that they are sharing some unusual things. There is plenty of action/ mystery and humor has it’s place but the twists and surprises will keep your attention! I look forward to the next book! I will say I highly recommend this book and the series!
The MC is your typical YA clueless idiot running around. He has 0 fighting skills, He's not likeable. The author has to keep people around him to keep reminding him who he is now. He is a one trick pony, I don't understand why the major powers are scared of him. He can only rip peoples souls out from a arm distance and apparently these majors powers have never heard of a simple rifle or a pistol before to deal with said idiot.
Strange book. Lots of action but it was boring! Somehow it felt like the magical interludes had been put in a hat and then it is been shaken and then dumped out on the table and the story sort of unfolded from however the cards fell.
If you like Mindless sword-and-sorcery action with lots of really bad guys, you will love this book!
I'm enjoying Lazarus' grit and willingness to do what needs to be done, even when it isn't easy. Now he has a child on the way, his ex is back in his life, and I think Emma is feeling more than gratitude toward him. Will be curious to see how all this romance fits into his life as he continues dealing with learning what being the Horseman really means. On to book 3 :-)
Pacing world's better in book 2, nice action pieces. Character growth was a lot more natural feeling. Dresden Files also had issues in book 1-3, finally starting to get better in book 4, but not picking up its quality until book 8. I'll Co tinue to read the series and I hope the trajectory continues!
This series keeps getting better and better. That Lazarus is one mean dude.I’m going to be so annoyed when this series comes to an end it’s that good. I am ever so glad this author is on my must read list. Magic, faeries and gods what’s not to like. Highly recommended must read.
This is better than the first. Laz faces danger and an ex girlfriend. it is filled with lots of action. Laz gets himself in trouble at times by not asking questions or not listening to others before he makes decisions. I look forward to the next book in the series.
Lazarus just can’t catch a break. He has some magic, but now he also has a new title and job without the knowledge that should go with them. Catch up on this unlikely hero’s latest adventures, and an twisty plot that will keep you guessing. This book is recommended and thoroughly enjoyable.
I'm still not entirely sure about this series. This book built on the first one, and stand alone pretty well. I am not sure where my reluctance to continue on comes from. It's fun, has some funny scenes, and the a pacing isn't bad. I'm just still lukewarm on it for some ineffable reason.
This is a terrific series, filled with interesting monsters, a captivating main character, and awe-inspiring world building. I highly recommend these books.
I get that this series is supposed to be very similar to Dresden Files but lazily ripping off plot points really diminishes the enjoyment of an otherwise fun book.