Favorite Greywalker Novel

[Sakutian]

In the interest of generating some conversation on here a simple question is offered. Please name your favorite Greywalker book and if you feel so inclined explain why that particular book is your favorite. Oh and if there happens to be a Harper short story or novella that's your favorite then cast your vote for that one.

As for me I'm going to have to say that Underground is my favorite currently followed closely by Greywalker. Underground won out for two reasons those being that the vampires were pulled back just a bit to make room for a more interesting enemy in this case Sisiutl. The second factor was that this wasn't the first book so there wasn't as much need to explain things. The Greywalker Will will always beat the Underground version hands down though.

[Hagelrat]

I love them all but Greywalker is still my favourite. Although the writing keeps getting better and the characters keep getting more complex the idea was just so novel and the whole book and concept were deliciously fresh and exciting. I loved Poltergeist because everyone really started to develop and I loved Underground because it moved into more unusual territory and as a Brit, unfamiliar mythology.

[Sakutian]

I love them all but Greywalker is still my favourite. Although the writing keeps getting better and the characters keep getting more complex the idea was just so novel and the whole book and concept were deliciously fresh and exciting. I loved Poltergeist because everyone really started to develop and I loved Underground because it moved into more unusual territory and as a Brit, unfamiliar mythology.

I'm hesitant to admit this because I don't want to upset anyone but Poltergeist made me want to stop reading the series. Honestly after that one I just set the book down and kind of filed it away. I picked up Underground for some reason unknown even to me, I'm flighty. Obviously I'm glad I did because that book broguth me firmly back under the Greywalker banner but yeah. The cover for Poltergeist is my favorite of all the books so far though.

[Harper]

I, of course, always like the one that's newest.... ;)

It's funny, Poltergeist is a lot of people's least-favorite book. It sells the worst and it knocked some Fantasy fans out of the series (but at the same time it pulled a lot of Mystery fans into the series so it's not a dog.) It had a lot of hard marks to hit and it had one big, horrible thing against it: it's the second book. It'll never be the exciting new idea that Greywalker was, it's much more a detective book than a fantasy thriller, it's got a lot of characters who aren't likeable, and I had to deliver in a year, rather than the five years I had on Greywalker. (Though it does have one of my favorite minor characters in it. No, I'm not saying who.)

I'd wanted to do that particular story for a long time. Maybe it was stale by the time I got to it.... I still like the book and I think it's not bad, but it's not as magical as Greywalker or as well-written as Underground.

And frankly, none of them are as good as the novella or as Vanished is going to be.

Underground was very hard to write, and Vanished has been a nightmare due to a lot of outside issues. But I always hope to write a better book than the last one. Sometimes that is a subjective "better" however. In terms of craft, Poltergeist is better written than Greywalker, but if you don't enjoy it, craft doesn't matter very much, does it?

I'm always interested to find out why something works or doesn't work from a reader's perspective. I am way too close to the material to be objective. Let's see where else this conversation goes.... this is fun!

[Sakutian]

Honestly I can't quite remember what I didn't like about Poltergeist, flipping through it now I can't even find it. I was sad that Will wasn't in it because I really like dhim in the first book but aside from that I can't quite place it. Maybe I'll read through it again this evening because now it's picking at me.

[nerdgirl]

Greywalker is my favourite so far. I think it is because it was new and refreshing and it really pulled me in. Like biting into an apple, the whole thing is really good but the first bite is the most flavourful.
Poltergeist is my least favourite although I too don't know why. I was flipping through it last night and I couldn't figure it out. Maybe it is time for a re-read.

[Thing One]

Greywalker blew my socks off. It was just so original and daring.
I mean, we were there when Harper DIED. OMG!

And experiencing the Grey with Harper just as she sees it - amazing.

I loved the Jamaican family in Poltergeist - it was good to see more of Harper's other friends.

Poltergeist was hard, since it was about negative energy and was chock full of awful people who created something bad. But it has Rhino boy, and Quinton, and one hell of an amazing ending.

Underground was great - though i wish more than anything that there had been a MAP included - so what if the book doesn't match the real Seattle, I want Harper's map of the Underground. I got lost a little in descriptions of places, where I could have just flipped to a map and nodded to myself.

The Mean Streets Novella is so incredible I was actually squeeling. Yes, I am a fan girl about this series! I also love the Day of the Dead, and had an amazing chance to go to a Vodun ceremony in New Orleans - WOW. So to find out about Mexican tradition - the little kids OMG...

One of the reasons I like the rest of the series, though Greywalker is favorite, is I really DON'T like Will. I would like to punch him. People who don't respect someone they are with make me angry as hell. If you really care about someone you don't try to change them. I mean, its not like Harper chose the Grey! Sheesh.

Go Quinton Go!

I hope that we will see the Emo kid again - wow was he interesting.

I like it as more people come into the series. I mean, Mara and Ben are great - (kick-Albert's butt!) but Harper needs to be less isolated.

[Sakutian]

Will's desire to change Harper was one thing about him I didn't like. I was always kind of shouting in my head at him, espcially during Underground, "Shut up! She's nice and she really likes you! Shut up and leave it alone before you ruin it!" I don't think Will's a bad guy or anything, he's just very normal.

[Harper]

Thing One: "emo kid"? Do you mean Mickey from "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog"? Oh man... he was fun. I got really lucky with the copyeditor on that book since she was Hispanic and checked all my Spanish and cultural stuff. She left in the swear words and even fixed the spellings so Mickey doesn't come out all clean and boring.

And my editor loved the dog, so there is much, much love for that story. (Chaos has competition in her eyes for "cool pet" now.)

[Hagelrat]

I liked that Poltergiest took a different track, it's not my favourite in the series but I read a fair amount of mystery too and I thought it brought out the old gumshoe noir wonderfully.

[Harper]

At one point I was hoping to make each book a different "type". Like the first one would be pretty solid Urban Fantasy, then a Detective book, then an Adventure, then ... whatever, but that's not quite how it's worked out....

[Sakutian]

That actually would have been pretty interesting, might have been fun to have Harper in a solid romance at some point haha.

[Harper]

Oh no. I'm not a romance writer. There's plenty of that in the market and I suck at it, so better not to try that one....

[Ginger Lewis]

I'm new to the forum, having found the link to here from her website, and joined mainly to express how much I love these books (and hopefully be quick on the draw when the fourth one comes out). I only found these books recently, so I can only vote out of the two I've read so far (Greywalker and Poltergeist). I have Underground on order and can't wait for it to arrive.

To me, Greywalker was much the better book of the two, and part of what made it better was the several intertwining storylines: there was Harper's learning about the Grey, there was the search for the organ, and there was the vampire story with Cameron. Poltergeist has only one storyline running through it in isolation and it seems a bit "thinner" (even though it's not, in physical terms, it just feels that way). As I read Greywalker I could easily imagine it as a movie. Not so much with Poltergeist.

[Ginger Lewis]

First of all, this... :not_worthy:

And second...

Oh no. I'm not a romance writer. There's plenty of that in the market and I suck at it, so better not to try that one....

Is that the real reason why Will ended up in England? :D

[Sakutian]

Oh no. I'm not a romance writer. There's plenty of that in the market and I suck at it, so better not to try that one....

You do write the flirting well, that's something I demand of my urban fantasy books so hey you're better of than most.

[Harper]

I love those old "screwball comedy" films from the 1930s and 40s that relied on witty banter so I have a soft spot for clever flirting. I don't think I'm on a par with, say... Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story, but I try.

Ginger... you came her just for me? And yet you have the perfect Avatar sub-title! I love that.

I did write a Romance back when I was working my first Journalism job out of college. It's a Historical set in California during the period when it was a Mexican republic full of interloping gringos. about 30 years before the Gold Rush. I blatantly copped the plot from an author named Kat Martin and had more fun with the history and culture than the sex and intrigue. Oh how it stunk! You could smell it in Newfoundland.

[Ginger Lewis]

Ginger... you came her just for me? And yet you have the perfect Avatar sub-title! I love that.

I did come here just for the Greywalker forum, but I've been a roleplayer for many years too. Call of Cthulhu was my first ever game, and I still have a soft spot for it. It's a nice bonus to find your fan forum amidst a bunch of RPG geeks. :)

[Sakutian]

I did write a Romance back when I was working my first Journalism job out of college. It's a Historical set in California during the period when it was a Mexican republic full of interloping gringos. about 30 years before the Gold Rush. I blatantly copped the plot from an author named Kat Martin and had more fun with the history and culture than the sex and intrigue. Oh how it stunk! You could smell it in Newfoundland.

Feh the sex in romance novels bores me, the flirting is the fun part anyway, at least that's the case when it manages to be clever or cute. For some reason now I really want to read said horrible romance.

[BlueNinja]

It's a nice bonus to find your fan forum amidst a bunch of RPG geeks. :) Yer welcome. ;) I lobbied our site admin, Starhawk, to let us set up this forum, and I'm glad it seems to be attracting more than a handful of fans - and that some of them are branching out! :grin:

[Thing One]

*waves at Ginger*
I am here for Kat and the Greywalker series too!

Kat - yes Mickey (my brother has the book right now so I couldn't check easily)
He ROCKED and the dog was amazing. The whole Novella was just fricken amasing.
The whole tea party with toys for the kiddies still gives me chills. And Mickey has power, so it makes me wonder what he will end up doing, and whether he could come back or go to visit Harper in a later book....

And Kat - Lois McMaster Bujold does that different 'type' in her Vorkosigan series. It was awesome. I like the idea.

Can I just say that Philidelphia Story with Hepburn and Grant is my favorite movie and I just watched it at Christmas with His Girl Friday? *sigh* I love banter. And I think there are tons of great books that don't have to have every single sex act spelled out. It is what makes this series more Noirish and Urban, rather than Paranormal and romancy.

[Harper]

I aims t'please (and thanks again to Blue Ninja and the Admin for letting us take up the space). I mean.. c'mon: I'm a huge geek myself, I play RPGs and computer games, I wrote the first draft of Greywalker while I hung out at another game forum, and I read physics and history books for fun. What better place for a forum about my books? It's sure to cross-pollinate some interesting ideas.

Oh Loyal Minion, I see we have similar taste in films... His Girl Friday is hilarious!

[Sakutian]

Oh Harper you should read The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios if you haven't done so already it's a really neat explanation of physics, super powers, and the like. It'd probably be boring to an expert on the subject but it's pretty entertaining.

For the record I came to the for the Greywalker goodness too, I've never played rpgs and don't really know anything about them.

[Sakutian]

So I 've been reading Poltergeist again today because I want to see what it was that truned me off to the book, haven't come across it yet, but I did find one of my favrotie things about the book that really worked and made me smile. I love the scenes with Harper and Brian more than any of the others they have together in the Greywalker novles. They just work really well. He's this cute energy riddle kid and Harper just doesn't really know how to be around that, and since she usually handles herself well it's interesting to see her a bit uncertain. Just wanted to applaud that.

[Ginger Lewis]

My friends have a daughter who is just like Brian. She's now 7, and extremely intelligemt, with an incredibly vivid and precocious imagination, but she's so much hard work. I feel for Ben and Mara, they have many years of hard work ahead with that kid.

[Harper]

Brian's original behaviour was more wild. My editor thought it unrealistic and asked me to tone it down. But I have a brother and the experience of a friend's son at that age who were terrors far worse than Brian. Guess who Brian is based on...?

[Ginger Lewis]

Okay I voted for Greywalker, when I'd only read the first two. Now I'm halfway through Underground and I already want to change my vote. I love this story.

[Sakutian]

Okay I voted for Greywalker, when I'd only read the first two. Now I'm halfway through Underground and I already want to change my vote. I love this story.

Hooray that means Greywalker and Underground are even now although it isn't reflected that way in the pole.

[Sakutian]

I finally finished reading throug Poltergesit for the second time, it's been a really busy time so it took me forever to find ttime to read it. Anyway I couldn't find any cause for what gave me such negative feelings about it the first time through. I guess it was a result of having to compete with the first book and one otehr factor. One of my favorite things about Greywalker and Underground is that there is just so much going on in them, there's plenty in Poltergeist but it's still not as much as the others. Sorry if that doesn't make much sense.