Digital Knight

by Ryk E. Spoor, Jim Baen (Editor)

Jason Wood was just an information specialist - finding data for research, enhancing photos for the police, a nice, usually quiet profession whose only dangers came from and occasional crook trying to eliminate the evidence. The a body with two holes in its neck and no blood left turned up at his back door, and he found himself dealing with the kind of information that can get a man killed, or worse, much worse.

Being chased by things out of myth and nightmare, Jason has only two weapons: his best friend, and his won quick wits.

In a battle against darkness, the brightest weapon is the light of reason.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Vampires, Paranormal

378 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 30, 2003

Reviews

[Ryk Spoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I wrote this, I obviously read it. I vacillated between three and four stars, because I really feel it's about 3.5. Since it's below 3.5 on the overall score, I finally decided on 4.

Digital Knight was my first published novel. The three core ideas that made Jason's first three adventures (the sections titled "Gone in a Flash", "Photo Finish" and "Viewed in a Harsh Light) date all the way back to the 70s, and the first two of those were written in the 1980s, with "Viewed" being written in the 90s. The other three sections were written in early 2002, when Baen indicated interest in the book but said it was too short for publication.

The overall ... theme, if you will, of the book is captured in my summary: "MacGyver meets the X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Jason is an ordinary, if quick-thinking, man who keeps running into supernatural threats and has to deal with them through intelligent deduction and improvisation. In it I also include the theme of "there are things that just can't be covered up", as a sort of antidote to the X-Files and similar books which can have ANYTHING happen and somehow it never affects the world. Starting with the end of "Photo Finish", Jason's world changes, and the changes will continue.

Overall, I was reasonably happy with it. I have, however, recently re-written and expanded _Digital Knight_, retitled _Paradigms Lost_. I've done this for three reasons:

1) Streamline the transition between the adventures, making it somewhat less a fixup that is clearly just separate stories.
2) Include elements of my world, and foreshadowing, that should have been there from the beginning, but which I didn't know at the time I wrote the original stories and didn't quite understand how to fit INTO the stories in 2002 when I had a brief period to do the rewrite ... or not.

These two reasons basically also fall under "I think I've learned more about writing since I started publishing, and cleaning this up will help bring it to the same rough level as my other books".

Reason #2 also includes the fact that I have now published one more novel in that universe (_Phoenix Rising_) and there are connections between the two which needed to be included properly.

3) Add in two more adventures so that the overall novel really provides something worthwhile even for those who already read _Digital Knight_.

I don't like the idea of just doing a rewrite and a rename and potentially having someone think they're getting a new book and then get nothing worthwhile for their trouble. In this case, they'll get the additional info but the additional adventures "Shadow of Fear" and "Trial Run".

Hopefully, Baen Books will decide to take a chance on issuing it (possibly as ebook-only); if not, I can always sell it myself. :)

Even the original version, however, is still good from my point of view. I like Jason's voice, I like the world I created there, and there are certainly some very fun scenes (my favorite remains the scene which climaxes with "Verne Domingo had come calling.")

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another selection from Baen's Free Library, and I must say I really enjoyed it. The book is broken up into six chapters, which are really more like inter-related short stories, and I like it when there are clearly defined places to stop reading for the night. Jason Wood is a professional researcher/general computer geek who gets mixed up in the paranormal, everything from werewolf hackers to vampire drug dealers. And really, I think those two phrases should be enough to get most anybody reading this book. The pace is quick, and the plot twists are sufficiently creative that I didn't get bored waiting for something I knew was going to happen.

I knocked off one star for some gratuitious profanity. I understand that this is how people talk, but it really doesn't add to story, and merely restricts the potential audience, i.e. I wouldn't want my kids reading this till they were older.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a highly-episodic good-guy-vampire teams-up with good guy investigator adventure. It starts well but then bogs down in the middle with some pre-historical origins material that goes on for way too long. The ending picked up some and regained my interest, though one of the major plot points was left glaringly unresolved, which leads me to believe that a sequel was intended but never appeared.

[Scott Vout · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reccomendation from Goodreads.

I really enjoyed it. Would rate it more a 3.5 but of course we cant do that. I gave it a four as the average is around 3.5 and i didnt want to lower that as i feel it is about right.

It is fairly obvious that this book was to be book one in a series. Not sure what happened on that end, but i would like to read more of them.

The book is broken out in what appears to be a bunch of connected short stories. The middle has a lot of "this is how we got here" information, the ground work for setting up this world. That is why i think it is a book one. It is a bit tedious but struggle through it, the book picks up again on the other side.

The characters are great. Well presented and very engaging. Spoor throws in a good deal of humour to counter the seriousness of the situation and i feel he pulls it off quite nicely.

This book also adds a very interesting twist to the whole vampire/werewolf/medussa mythology with a very beleivable theory. Remember it is urban fantasy.

overall a good read, whish there was more.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Available at Baen Free Library.

This was a fun read that I didn't want to put down.

An information specialist/detective, Jason Woods, with vampires, werewolves and a host of other monsters.

I would like to read any sequels.


========================
Vampires are Real—
but Everything You Thought You
Knew About Them is Wrong!
When freelance information specialist Jason Wood found that a suspected drug kingpin didn't appear on photographs, he decided to investigate, suspecting that the kingpin was actually a vampire. But things wouldn't turn out to be that simple, and he soon found he was in danger from the last person he would have suspected. Trying to survive in a bizarre night world, Jason learns not only that vampires and werewolves really exist, but that they are part of a universe stranger than he ever imagined. . . .

Published 10/1/2003
SKU: 074347161X

[Natalie Waddell-Rutter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest writing, and yet I couldn’t put it down. The dialogue in particular was very problematic – stilted, clichéd, and overwrought. There were many times I thought to myself, “No one would actually say that out loud.” Even the action involved a lot of telling, rather than showing. But, it was a fun bit of urban fantasy, with most of the urban fantasy monsters showing their faces at one time or another. The author even managed to shoehorn in a backstory involving Atlantis for good measure. The book actually felt like six novellas strung together into one novel. One monster/problem would be taken care of, and the next chapter in the book would pick up weeks later with a new big bad to fight. There was a bit of a throughline of big agencies in the occult world battling it out and bringing in different operatives to fight their battles, but each story was very self-contained.

[Debbie is on Storygraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a pleasant surprise. The entire book, which is out of print, can be read completely free at [http://www.baen.com/library/074347161...]. I've read enough vampire novels to be hesitant to pick up another, but this one was different. Spoor has a rather unique way of looking at vampires that makes a lot of sense. This is a first novel so the writing and characterization could use some more polish, but the story is sound. Utterly enjoyable and it kept me reading until after 3 AM the other night.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent urban vampire tale with a good twist of scifi mixed in. A series of short novellas strung together in a coherent novel, the plot twists are usually short, but in the end all work together. I am looking forward to reading more of Spoor's writing.

[C Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read in a world not so different from our own. A slightly diffent take on vampires, werewolves, and psychics told from the grounded perspective of a data miner who wants to catalogue the supernatural.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best computer themed fiction I've come across. A little difficult to follow at first because it is a collection of short stories, but well worth the read.

[Eva Salačová · Rating 2 out of 5]

Debut novel, with no character development and very episodic writing.

Contains a promising bromance, and attempts at writing tension.

[Brandon Mehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent take on the vampire and cryptozoological creatures that isn't stale and took some great inspiration. On the other hand, the story could have been a whole series of books. It jumps from an initial encounter with a vampire drug lord, Domingo, and his former partner all the way to art dealership and dealing with large-scale werewolves to a honeymoon and werewolf town. The changes were abrupt and the change from chapter to chapter was just fast.

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the main character really annoying, and everyone in the book thinking he was super cool, whatever he did, just exacerbated this.

[Charl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! An intelligent, engaging set of characters and original takes on standard fantasy fare. Very enjoyable, well worth the read!

[Squeaky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book of vampires and werewolves. And other things!

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read another book by Spoor semi-recently, I saw this one at the used bookstore and thought it might be interesting. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
This book appears to be a series of interconnected short stories about a technical wizard by the name of Jason Wood. In the first story, Jason is working on enhancing a group of digital photos that the police have turned over to him, and discovers something odd in one of the photos. There's a pair of footprints in the photo, where the grass is bent over as if someone is standing in that spot, but there's no one there. Upon investigating, he figures out that it may be a vampire, since if vampires don't appear in mirrors, and the type of camera used has mirrors inside of it, then the vampire wouldn't appear in the photo, either.
The vampire in question is suspected of dealing drugs to high ranking city officials, and the police detective who gave him the photos points Jason in the direction of Verne Domingo. Domingo, of course, turns out to be a vampire, but the plot twists a bit from there, and Jason ends up facing an entirely different vampiric villain, along with his friend/girlfriend Sylvie Stake.
In the end, the whole story turns out to be a shaggy dog, apparently written to use the line "Wood N' Stake, Vampire Hunters."
Things continue to go downhill from there, as Spoor introduces other legendary characters to the mix. The writing is, at best, unengaging. About halfway through, I decided I was wasting my time. Don't waste yours.

[Jess Mahler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read with good characters that takes a fun and unique look at some classic monsters.

Fair warning: about halfway through the book, Ryk turns your understanding of the book's world completely upside down. Took me several reads to get past the "What the fuck just happened here?!" moment. The hints and build up for what he springs on you are all there, but if you don't see them and realize they're import, the book seriously blindsides you. For some people, that makes it even better, for others it's a "throw the book across the room" moment.

(I originally read this as a ebook bought on the Baen website. It has been re-released in an updated and expanded version as Paradigm's Lost)

[Jessica Traverson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Ryk's book. It was kind of confusing in parts because it was written as a series of short stories, so I wasn't sure when things were happening in relation to some others. All the same, I hope Ryk writes more in this world of his!

The best part, for me, was how everything ties together and the main character always learns more. I really liked the Silvie character, she was a lot of fun, though I didn't relate as well to the main character, Jason Wood.

[Viciouscircle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a good read. Nothing profound or over-the-top, but all around entertaining. I've actually read this a few times when between new things to read. Just a good page turner. As has been mentioned, it can be found for free at the baen online library.

[Wil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what I expected from the title, but I enjoyed it. I got it from Baen's Free Library, so you can probably find it there and try it yourself.

[Dark Ape · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a random find in a mom-and-pop bookstore while I was on a cross-country road trip many years ago, but it still has a place of honor on my bookshelf over 10 years later. :)

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pure fun to read. Nothing more and nothing less.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't know what to make of this at first. The characters are great and the writing just flows. If you like vamires, or p.i. novels read this book.

[Steve Smoot]

good ideas presented not very well

[Richard Heever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great I Enjoyed it very Much