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Hellenic Immortal (Immortal #2)

by Gene Doucette (Goodreads Author)

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 · rating details · 172 ratings · 27 reviews

“Very occasionally, I will pop up in the historical record. Most of the time I’m not at all easy to spot, because most of the time I’m just a guy who does a thing and then disappears again into the background behind someone-or-other who’s busy doing something much more important. But there are a couple of rare occasions when I get a starring role.”

--Adam the Immortal

An ora...more

Paperback, First, 277 pages

Published May 3rd 2012 by The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House (first published May 2nd 2012)

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Nov 01, 2012 Tahlia Newland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

In Immortal, Gene Doucette’s first novel in this series, we met Adam, an immortal man who is not a vampire, simply a man who doesn’t age. Apart from that, he’s an ordinary kind of guy with a wonderful wit, and it’s a pleasure to meet him again in this fascinating sequel, a clever blend of history, mythology, fantasy, adventure, mystery and romance.

Blurb: An oracle has predicted the sojourner's end, which is a problem for Adam insofar as he has never encountered an oracular prediction that didn't...more In Immortal, Gene Doucette’s first novel in this series, we met Adam, an immortal man who is not a vampire, simply a man who doesn’t age. Apart from that, he’s an ordinary kind of guy with a wonderful wit, and it’s a pleasure to meet him again in this fascinating sequel, a clever blend of history, mythology, fantasy, adventure, mystery and romance.

Blurb: An oracle has predicted the sojourner's end, which is a problem for Adam insofar as he has never encountered an oracular prediction that didn't come true . . . and he is the sojourner. To survive, he's going to have to figure out what a beautiful ex-government analyst, an eco-terrorist, a rogue FBI agent, and the world's oldest religious cult all want with him, and fast.
"Very occasionally, I will pop up in the historical record. Most of the time I'm not at all easy to spot, because most of the time I'm just a guy who does a thing and then disappears again into the background behind someone-or-other who's busy doing something much more important. But there are a couple of rare occasions when I get a starring role."
--Adam the Immortal
I love the way ancient history, mythology and present time flow seamlessly together in this story. Here we delve into the Elysusian mysteries, the satyr and the ‘god’ Dionysius. Adam’s extreme age allows up to see how far modern renditions of the rites have departed from their original intent, and how easily such rites can be appropriated for the aggrandisement of a charismatic individual. There’s even a message there for anyone who thinks they can unleash a supernatural power and use it for their own purposes—what if they don’t see things the way you do?

The story is written in an easy conversational tone. It starts fairly slowly, but gives us time to get to know Adam, Mike—one of the supporting characters—and to build the mystery. By the end of the book, it’s really moving along and we’re wondering how Adam is going to get himself out of this alive.

Although it’s an entertaining read and Gene Doucette is a good writer, the book is full of unattached and out of order phrases. I hope that it’s just the version I had and not what’s available for purchase—it came through Netgally as an ARC which are sometimes not the final version.
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May 02, 2012 Astrid Paramita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am always a bit skeptical about sequels. Especially if it’s the second book. Most times, it failed my expectation by either being a preamble to the amazing conclusion for the third book, or just plain boring. I am happy to report this is definitely not the case with Hellenic Immortal.

It continues on the adventures of Adam, some years after Immortal. It follows a Greek cult and mythology background, some crazy environmentalist, packs a lot of action and a little bit of romance.

The beginning sol...more I am always a bit skeptical about sequels. Especially if it’s the second book. Most times, it failed my expectation by either being a preamble to the amazing conclusion for the third book, or just plain boring. I am happy to report this is definitely not the case with Hellenic Immortal.

It continues on the adventures of Adam, some years after Immortal. It follows a Greek cult and mythology background, some crazy environmentalist, packs a lot of action and a little bit of romance.

The beginning sold me right to it. Adam is as sarcastic as ever. He said the craziest things that made me laughing out loud:

“… instead I was drinking in Las Vegas and quietly wishing for a nice plague or two to make the planet a bit less crowded.”

It just shows how honest he is. He definitely says what he thinks, and when you are sixty thousand years old or something, I do believe you would have such confidence. I would be lying if I said I never had any bad thoughts crossing my mind when I came across annoying people, so I find this part very refreshing.

The story picks up nicely after that. I especially love the Greek cult background to this book. It ties the story very well and it gives a nice blend of historical and current events. It also adds a sense of realness to it, making Adam’s character felt very present. It seems like he could be the next guy you saw in a bar. (No, please don’t try to pretend you’re Adam when you met me.)

The only part I’m not too crazy about is the excerpts from Silenus the Younger. Sometimes I felt like it’s more of a distraction to the flow of the story, especially when it’s a longer text. Maybe I’m just not a fan of excerpts taken from some older text / poems in general. But at least, as I got nearer to the end of the book, I realized the importance and connection of the texts. So, if you’re like me, please bear the connection in mind, I think you would probably like it better that way.

Overall, Hellenic Immortal is a great book. I love it even more than Immortal. I don’t even think you have to read the first one to understand what’s going on in this book (although I bet you’ll be sorry if you haven’t read Immortal yet!). It is more of an action packed historical/fantasy adventure so I would recommend this book especially for guys and girls who think like guys. Hey, I don’t mean to be discriminative, but if you only like sappy romances, rainbows and unicorns, this is definitely not for you. If you like sarcastic humor, please read this book! You might find yourself wishing you’re Adam. (You’ve been warned!)

For an interview with Gene Doucette over at my blog, please visit http://astridparamita.com/2012/05/hel...(less)

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Jun 29, 2012 Passion For Pages rated it 5 of 5 stars

Review from http://passionforpages.blogspot.ca/20...

I’m always a little nervous when starting the second book in a series, especially if I loved the first book. Will it live up to my expectations? What if it doesn’t? What if I find it mind numbingly boring because of a crappy plot and characters that lost the zest they had in book one? Will the author’s eagerness to publish the next installment ruin what I loved about the series to begin with?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about any of that...more Review from http://passionforpages.blogspot.ca/20...

I’m always a little nervous when starting the second book in a series, especially if I loved the first book. Will it live up to my expectations? What if it doesn’t? What if I find it mind numbingly boring because of a crappy plot and characters that lost the zest they had in book one? Will the author’s eagerness to publish the next installment ruin what I loved about the series to begin with?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about any of that with Hellenic Immortal.

Adam’s continued journey kept me intrigued and wanting more the entire read. Maybe even more so than Immortal did. I admit I didn’t read the summary before receiving the book – that may have had something to do with me being so damn excited to read it that I really didn’t care what it was about. However, considering how Immortal ended, I expected it to be about Adam going off to find “Eve”. Or maybe even a story about Adam and Clara.

Nope. Not even close. Of course if I had read the summary I would have realized that. The story was so much more than I expected and I once again loved every single page of it. The new supernatural characters Doucette threw into the mix actually made me want to research and see just how much truth there was to the gods he wrote about. Of course I knew some of them were true, but the fact that he made me want to learn more about ancient History is… well, pretty much a miracle.

I had a thing for Mike the second he appeared in Adam’s hotel room. And the more I learned about him, the more I loved him. That also might have had something to do with the mystery behind his being. And I really liked how it was revealed; how Mike didn’t seem to have a clue that he was different.

Ariadne. For a character that didn’t have a whole lot of story time, she sure made up for it towards the end. Although, because of the lack of face time she got in the novel, I found that I didn’t really have any feelings toward her one way or another. I didn’t care about her character or what happened to her even though she turned out to be a fairly important part. I didn’t dislike her, I just didn’t care.

I would have liked some returning characters, like the red-headed woman. It would have been interesting if she had somehow been tied into all that was happening, but I’m not terribly disappointed that she wasn’t part of the book – aside from the little glimpse Adam gets of her at the end. The same can be said for Clara. Considering she’s now also an immortal I fully expected her to be more apart of Adam’s life, but the fact that she wasn’t didn’t really upset me either. And that’s only because Doucette made it to me by writing such fascinating new characters.
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May 03, 2012 Tracy Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Hellenic Immortal” is an amazing continuance in the world of Adam the Immortal. Once again the dynamic adventures of his present day life intermingles with something from his long life’s past, sending him on a quest to undo a previous wrong that he had not intended to do. In his own words, Adam admits to the mistakes he has made and knows without question that it is up to him to find a solution to a very bad situation that has reared its ugly head in the present. With the help of friends, old...more

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Jun 12, 2012 The TBR Pile *Book review site* rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Full Review: http://thetbrpile.weebly.com/1/post/2...

Gene Doucette has created a character with a wonderful, self-deprecating voice and the way the tale is spun is perfectly paced. All the little trailing details come together at the end of the story in a delightful way and the on-going tease of the immortal woman met briefly in the previous novel is added to in this one. With just a few glimpses of supporting characters from the first book, another interesting cast is introduced in this one, an...more

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May 01, 2012 Katrina Tinnon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hellenic Immortal takes place a couple of years after Adam's escape from the compound. Adam has to figure out how to keep an oracle's prediction from happening. She predicts his end, and he can't have that.

We learn that Adam has held some pretty impressive names over his life span. (You'll have to read the book to find them out ;). ) We are also introduced to new breeds of creatures including: satyrs, werewolves, and nymphs.

During Adam's trips into memory lane we get to see Ancient Greece. Gre...more

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May 15, 2012 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who enjoy Fantasy with historical facts

Shelves: arc-netgalley, made-of-win, reviewed-on-blog, snarky-snark-sarcasm, supernatural, nailbiters, fantasy

In this sequel to "Immortal", Gene Doucette delivers another fantastic page-turner that kept me riveted to the pages.

Adam, our immortal man, is nursing a somewhat broken heart in Las Vegas a couple of years after the end of the first book, when he notices a young woman following him. With snark and sarcasm, he soon realizes that her intentions are not quite kosher, especially when he's visited in the middle of the night by a man who identifies himself as an FBI agent.

A bit of action and subterf...more

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May 15, 2012 Sarah (Workaday Reads) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, read-in-2012

This book left me very disappointed. It picked up shortly after the first book ended, but had almost no returning characters and didn't answer many of the questions I had after reading the first book. I did learn quite a bit about a particular period of Adam's history, but there were so many rambling asides that it was hard to keep track of the many storyline.

I found the humour to be much less than in the first book. The story kept my attention in the second half, but it didn't have the same imp...more

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Oct 23, 2012 John Herbert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nine-out-of-ten

This follow-up book to the brilliant IMMORTAL is highly satisfying.
Of course the impact could never be as great as the first book because you know roughly what's coming.
But the Greek God connection is entertaining and the modern day quest to find answers is always gripping.

You could start with this book but I seriously recommend that you start at the beginning with IMMORTAL.

It seems that IMMORTAL 3 is in production and I, for one, can't wait.
Doucette's style makes for a comfortable read, and the...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Dr. Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this better than the first in the series, I think, though they were both enjoyable. This one feels a bit more coherent (possibly because a good portion of world-building is already done) and just does a solid job as a... light-hearted mystery-thriller? I have no idea what genre to call these. There are still overarching mysteries in the story arc to be answered, and I'm hoping we don't get a Lemony Snicket-esque cop-out at the end, but this was a quick and enjoyable read. Plus the main c...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Kristi rated it 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up immediately on finishing the first Adam story and devoted my Sunday afternoon to it. While I had hoped for more resolution to the questions unresolved in the first book, I nonetheless enjoyed this story in its own right. It's addictive-I couldn't put it down once it got started. Adam is such an interesting character, and his story is well-told. It moves quickly but still manages to give all the details. If there was a third book in the series on Amazon, I would have snatched it...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Raymond Masters rated it 5 of 5 stars

Last April, I hosted an excerpt to Gene Doucette’s Immortal to help out his blog tour. As I indicated, it is one of my favorites from recent memory. Naturally, when I heard that Doucette was coming out with its sequel, I jumped all over it. I wasn’t sure if Hellenic Immortal would be better than the original, but I knew it would have to really blow me away for that to happen. Well, let’s just say it happened.

Once again, Doucette gives the reader a fantastic voice to “listen” to in Adam. Oh, but...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not as good or exciting as the first, but notice I still gave it 4 stars. Still a fan of the style and overall tone, just wasn't quite as good as the first. Maybe it's because the first one caught me by surprise. This book is cleverly written fun and extremely easy to read, all pluses in my book, pretty good followup to the first book.

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Sep 01, 2012 Sally Bisbee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh no! I'm almost finished! Luckily, I have a couple dozen other books to keep me busy while I wait for the next installment...

I got confused and read the sequel first. No problem! It was every bit as good as this one and even had some Greek mythology in it. I love Greek mythology!!!

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May 07, 2012 Nathalia rated it 4 of 5 stars

A little weaker than Immortal, but still a fantastic read! Adam is sarcastic as ever, the flash backs are still incredibly enjoyable and we get appearances from new races. I wasn't as interested in this novel as much as I was with Immortal, however it still surpassed my expectations.

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Sep 26, 2012 Sherrie added it

Next read on my list. I loved Immortal. The author is just amazing. What a a fun and imaginative mind he has. Can't wait to get started on his second book.

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Oct 29, 2012 Jared rated it 4 of 5 stars

strong follow up to the first novel....but, the fourth wall acknowledgement to the sandman series was a little off putting. dunno, will see where this series goes...

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Feb 25, 2013 Mel B. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shorter, more settled than the first book. Not quite as good but still enjoyable.

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Sep 15, 2012 Dorothy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thank you, Gene, for sending Adam on another incredibly entertaining adventure.

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Aug 11, 2012 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just as enjoyable as the first book in the series. This is an author to watch.

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Nov 25, 2012 J.B. Sanders rated it 4 of 5 stars

A real treat -- just can't get enough of the unique voice of the main character. So much fun!

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Aug 29, 2012 Shelley Scheepers rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not as good as the first, but still entertaining.

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Jun 11, 2012 Mandy Beyers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed4tbr-pile, my-ebooks

Full Review: http://thetbrpile.weebly.com/1/post/2...

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May 19, 2012 Derek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, e-book

Another good adventure with Adam, and the Grecian element added to the story, it was interesting seeing the Immortals ties with the Grecian gods, a solid sequel to a great debut. If another book is on the horizon, I will be reading it. :)

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Jun 09, 2012 Donna Huber rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, fantasy-sci-fi-paranormal

Maybe my expectations were too high after Immortal, but something seemed off to me in Hellenic Immortal. I'm very character oriented when reading and I just didn't connect with this cast of characters. I'm glad I read it because we learned who the red-headed woman is (more or less). This installment leaned more towards fantasy, than science fiction. Read full review at Girl Who Reads

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May 04, 2013 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a great book! I love reading something that i don't normally read. This was Exciting and I love this books version of the Greek gods. Adam is the MAN!!

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Jul 06, 2012 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, kindle

Enjoyable and snarky as the first.

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Jun 18, 2013 Angela Forrest-Burge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jun 18, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jun 17, 2013 Charles marked it as to-read

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About Gene Doucette

Gene Doucette is the author of Immortal and Hellenic Immortal and the upcoming Fixer, as well as the as-yet untitled third Immortal book.

Gene is also a humorist and an award-winning screenwriter and playwright. He lives in Cambridge MA with his wife and, when the colleges aren't in session, his two children.

Follow Gene on Twitter and Tumblr.

More about Gene Doucette...

Books by Gene Doucette

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Quotes from Hellenic Immortal

“Karyos's people adopted an ingenious, if somewhat perplexing attitude that life was a circle. Not like Disney's circle of life thing, which was really just a nice way to say, "death is normal, children, so suck it up.” — 2 people liked it

“[M]ost of the people I have ever met who claim not to care about money already have more than they could ever need.” — 2 people liked it

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Hellenic Immortal (Immortal #2)

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