Joshua BaderCritiques

I read this book without reading the other three, which I will go back to. From this book alone, I can say that it was well-written and I found myself enjoying it. The plot was great, overall I would recommend this book to all of my fantasy friends. The cover is also curious, i really like it.

Discord is the fourth book in Bader’s Modern Knights series. While a reader jumping into Jacob Darien’s world at this point has considerable backstory to fill, Bader does a creditable job of making sense of Jacob’s busy history without making the current plotline drag. The characters in his life walk into the plot with obvious history and gain dimension through their response to events in the story as narrated by Jacob himself. The internal dialogue between Jacob and his resident demon is witty and entertaining as well as gradually exposing Jacob’s self-doubt and the demon’s questionable motives. This was an engaging and enjoyable read from beginning to end.

Urban horror-fantasy

I originally gave this 2 stars, but I came back and finished it. Maybe I wasn’t ready to read it, or maybe the beginning is too indulgent. The latter part of the book starts ticking along nicely.

Proofreading is not optional. Too many times the wrong word cluttered an otherwise good sentence. Synonyms are the bane of good writing, and spellcheck will not save you.

I liked where the book ended far more than where it started. Dresden-y with more of a subtle horror thing.

Urban horror-fantasy

I originally gave this 2 stars, but I came back and finished it. Maybe I wasn’t ready to read it, or maybe the beginning is too indulgent. The latter part of the book starts ticking along nicely.

Proofreading is not optional. Too many times the wrong word cluttered an otherwise good sentence. Synonyms are the bane of good writing, and spellcheck will not save you.

I liked where the book ended far more than where it started. Dresden-y with more of a subtle horror thing.

This was received as a Library Thing early Reviewer copy. Well written and convoluted plot. This really cannot be read without reading the previous two books in the series. I could work out some things, but there were holes in my understanding. I am still working out if I want to read parts 1 and 2 to then read this (part 3) in sequence.

Faceless is the third book in the Modern Knights urban fantasy series by Joshua Bader. Colin Fisher is the personal wizard for the shadowy head of a multinational corporation. After surviving a battle with a demon possessed wizard in Las Vegas, he decides he needs to understand more about the source of his own magic and the disappearance of his fiance. He puts himself into a coma to take a spirit journey to find the truth.
Left behind to protect his body are his girlfriend, Veruca Wakefield, a demon blooded assassin, and FBI agent Andrea Deveraux. They face threats from a mysterious secret organization determined to kill Colin as well as a powerful man trying to kill Colin’s boss.
Bader’s series has elements of urban fantasy as well as Lovecraftian horror. Although, this is the third book in the series, it isn’t difficult to figure out who the characters are and what is happening. All the characters have interesting back stories as well as secrets that they are keeping, even from themselves.
Even though Colin Fisher is the main protagonist of the series, this book opens with him in a coma and much of the first third is told from the perspective of Andrea and Veruca. They are both capable and suitably kick-ass heroines and I enjoyed their interactions. I found Andrea’s motivations and choices a bit hard to believe. She takes the word of Colin’s boss that Colin is in a coma and in danger from the mysterious organization without any proof, and rushes off to confront the villain. Perhaps more is yet to be known about her character and background that would clarify her actions.
I found the second part of the book, Coin’s spirit journey, slower and less interesting. Without going into spoilers, there are details about reincarnation and the nature of the universe that I didn’t think added much to the novel. (Question: if everyone on earth is a reincarnated soul, how to deal with the fact that the population of the earth is, and has been, increasing throughout history? And what about life on other planets in the universe?). After the climactic battle with Colin and the two women were some chapters about the demon possessed wizard from the previous book who is in prison. I didn’t really care about that character or what happened to him, and the chapters seemed pointless and presumably were to set up events in the next installment. The end of the book gave a tease about the villains our the Modern Knights will face next.
Overall I enjoyed the first part of the book. The characters were interesting with a sense that there was more to learn about them. There was a lots of action and some funny dialogue. I found the rest of the book less engrossing and the ending anticlimactic and prolonged. I would think reading the first two installments of the series might help the enjoyment of this one. Readers who enjoy Lovecraftian elements might enjoy this book more than readers looking for a urban fantasy noir type of book.½

This was another big surprise, all the bigger for its being a very pleasant surprise. This was one of those books I regretted requesting almost as soon as it was too late, partly because I had (as always) such a backlog, and partly, quite honestly, because it was not apparently traditionally published.

It didn't take long, though, to discover that (despite a scattering of typos and editorial errors which hopefully got picked up) the writing was good. (I sincerely hope the homonym problems and so on got fixed, because the story deserves better.) This is another example of how storytelling ought to be done. Colin Fisher has a dark cloud of bad luck hovering over his head, but the details are not divulged all at once – they're doled out effectively over the course of the book, as he decides to stop running from the cloud and take advantage of a dubious (but very lucrative) opportunity. The danger in the story feels very real; with a first-person narrator there's obviously a 99.7% chance that that character at least is going to survive a book, but there's a whole lot of pain between fine and dead, and it seems consistently probably that Colin is going to suffer. Terrible things happen - and it is very much in doubt whether or not Colin will be able to stop them. He's good at what he does, his own unique brand of magic – but he's outnumbered.

Not only terrible things happen – funny things do too, and, happily, they actually are funny. There's a good balance of humor and terror – similar, as others have pointed out, to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files – but it doesn't try to be a carbon copy of Butcher or anyone else. It's a well-realized world that Colin inhabits, beautifully detailed and absolutely believable, with a terrific cast of characters, human and otherwise. This is the beginning of a series – and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

This is book two of Mr Bader's Modern Knights series and having won this book as an early reviewer, I just had to get the first book so I could follow the story. I enjoyed book one and after I read "Two Wizard Roulette", I was hooked on the series, and I am now awaiting the next book. Colin's use of magic and how he deals with his "possession" is fun ( a real plus for H P Lovecraft followers) and intriguing. His demon girl friend Veruca is fun and we all await how his relationship with his FBI girl is going to develop. The one part of the story that I would like to see develop more is his relationship with his boss. Overall for a very good story line, some good magic and lots of action this book and the series is a great read. Recommended.½

I won this book as a library thing early reviewers give away. I loved this book. Its book two in the series, so I went ahead and read the first book so I wouldn't be lost. Wow! Both books were awesome! The premise of the book is really cool. Its not your normal urban fantasy plot. I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed this book, and found it to be a fast and fun read. I'm interested in the rest of the series, for certain. When you have the fae and the Necronomicon in the same world, you know things are going to get interesting.

The good: An easy read, with enjoyable, well-rounded characters, and an intriguing plot. Very interesting worldbuilding, and lots of shades of gray. Action and introspection are well-balanced.

The not-so-good: Skips and glosses over time in a slightly clumsy fashion at times, and the ending seems to just trail off in mid-paragraph.

Received as ARC.