Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Echoes of the Past (Demon Squad #4)

by Tim Marquitz (Goodreads Author)

4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 · rating details · 43 ratings · 7 reviews

Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Not when you're the Devil's nephew.

An unexpected message gives Frank the answer he's sought for years--Where did God and Lucifer go?--but the knowledge brings its own dilemma as inter-dimensional war looms, threatening to engulf the Earth.

Tasked with the planet's defense, Frank scrounges for a plan and finds a piece of his past better l...more

Paperback, 1, 206 pages

Published May 1st 2012

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 97)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 09, 2012 Maja rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: are-you-kidding-me, arc-2012, 2012-favorites, cliffhanger-ending, favorites, demons-can-be-hot-too, dark-urban-fantasy, highly-anticipating-2012, horror, male-pov, so-many-vampires, just-another-book-crush, totally-saw-that-coming, urban-fantasy, werewhatevers, zombies-zombies-everywhere, reviewed-in-2012

EDIT 05/07/12: Stop by The Nocturnal Library to read a guest post by Tim Marquitz about my favorite underdog, Frank Trigg, and enter for a chance to win a paperback copy of Armageddon Bound (INT).

Every time I get my hands on a new Demon Squad book, it feels a lot like Christmas. Admittedly, it’s a dirty Christmas, full of drunken groping and inappropriate comments, but it’s Christmas nevertheless. It is not often that urban fantasy is written and delivered with such boldness and abandon – Tim...more EDIT 05/07/12: Stop by The Nocturnal Library to read a guest post by Tim Marquitz about my favorite underdog, Frank Trigg, and enter for a chance to win a paperback copy of Armageddon Bound (INT).

Every time I get my hands on a new Demon Squad book, it feels a lot like Christmas. Admittedly, it’s a dirty Christmas, full of drunken groping and inappropriate comments, but it’s Christmas nevertheless. It is not often that urban fantasy is written and delivered with such boldness and abandon – Tim Marquitz does not only overstep the lines of good taste, he completely ignores them and then he laughs in your shocked face. And I love it.

Where is God now? I guess we’ve all asked ourselves that question at some point in our lives, some of us every day even, but when Frank asks, he actually hopes to get an answer. God has been missing, or rather, he left us to fend for ourselves, and to make matters more interesting, Lucifer has done the same. Two armies with no one strong enough to lead them are a sure recipe for disaster, but with a few more hostile universes in the mix, the Earth has very little hope of survival.

Enter Frank Trigg, Lucifer’s reckless nephew. After a long period of silence, his uncle sent him a message warning him about God’s old creations, all bigger and more powerful than us. Trigg is supposed to gather his allies and come up with strategies to defend Earth. But what makes him so special? Why should he carry this weight on his shoulders? To answer that, he’ll have to take a long, hard look into his past and maybe even kill an angel or two in the process.

This time around, Frank gave a whole new meaning to the word underdog. Nobody wanted him around for too long and there were far too many people (I use the term loosely here) trying to kill him. When you add to that a few shocking revelations about his family’s history, it’s no wonder I had the urge to hug him and comfort him just a teeny tiny bit (although he’d probably grab my butt or something, dirty bastard that he is, and then I’d have to shoot him with his own gun… not that he ever gets to keep it for long anyway).

The beginning of Echoes of the Past was a little bit rough for me. I was just getting comfortable in the Demon Squad universe, and suddenly there were more universes to consider, more powers, more creatures, more everything. It was all too much too fast and it took me a while to adjust, but the second half more than made up for it. In it, Marquitz showed that he’s not afraid to add layers to his main character. The emotional depth he showed, the seriousness with which he approached certain subjects while keeping Frank true to himself stunned me. It made me forget about the first half. It even made me less grumpy about the cliffhanger. I’ll always put character development first and that part was done perfectly.

It’s too early to start thinking about book 5, but I can’t help it, not after that cliffhanger, and I’m excited and terrified in equal amounts. I don’t know what’s coming next for poor Frank, but I’m sure it won’t be pretty.

Also posted at The Nocturnal Library

(less)

24 likes · like · see review

Dec 13, 2012 Seak (Bryce L.) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-review, 2012, urban-fantasy

For some reason I have a really hard time reviewing sequels. Obviously, I've read this far (especially 4 books in), so I'm a big fan at least of the first ones. Then again, readers couldn't possibly be accused of being OCD when it comes to finishing right?

And while I realize they could have "jumped the shark" (has this phrase jumped the shark yet?), I still find it difficult to review. Are you allowed to assume people will know to read at their peril? Do you have to do big spoiler warnings? Are...more

15 likes · like · see review

May 05, 2012 Mihir rated it 4 of 5 stars

Full review originally over at Fantasy Book critic

ANALYSIS: Nearly three years ago I happened to come across a book called “Armageddon Bound” and it proved to be a thrill ride with some ferocious wit that would make most people blush or chuckle depending on their disposition. It was a debut that marked Tim out among the many debutantes of 2009, since then I have kept an eye for further books in the demon squad series to follow the misadventures of Frank Trigg, Lucifer’s nephew and all-round s...more
Full review originally over at Fantasy Book critic

ANALYSIS: Nearly three years ago I happened to come across a book called “Armageddon Bound” and it proved to be a thrill ride with some ferocious wit that would make most people blush or chuckle depending on their disposition. It was a debut that marked Tim out among the many debutantes of 2009, since then I have kept an eye for further books in the demon squad series to follow the misadventures of Frank Trigg, Lucifer’s nephew and all-round screw-up. He’s a character that endears himself to you as much as hangovers do, but eventually one does manage to gain a soft spot because of his inherent goodness that might be found after some real deep soul searching.

Echoes Of The Past begins a bit after the events of “At The Gates” and past readers will know how it ended, so the reader is immediately clued into what is happening and the most primal of mysteries about this series is given a resounding answer, namely what happened that lead God and Lucifer to have a sit-down and then disappear to unknown places. Readers clamoring for an answer will get the desired explanation and then we get to see Frank as he returns to his home however another nasty surprise awaits him and this time it’s the government. And that’s just the beginnings of his troubles as remnants of the war to topple heaven make their way towards Frank as do alien entities that have previous connections to his lineage. This book basically deals with a lot of revelations and answers for Frank and the reader and finally the author manages to end the book with a cliffhanger that manages to upend the one featured in Resurrection. This book will leave you utterly hanging and clamoring for book V.

To begin with, in regards to the previous three books, Echoes of the Past is a vastly different book. It is more introspective and deals with a lot of revelations, secrets and intricacies of this universe. For a reader invested in these books, this is the payoff however be warned that this is not the penultimate book of the series and so akin to LOST, these answers while satisfying will lead to more questions gleaned from those very answers. Thematically this book is about identity and the quest to find it. Frank has always wondered about his past and recent events occurring the past books have escalated that need. In this book he finally gets an avenue to explore those needs however the answers he finds might not be the ones he thought they would be. If you didn’t emphathize with Frank before, you’ll definitely do so after reading this one.

This book also has more than its share of plot twists, I would go so far as to say that this one is the most twisted of all the Demon Squad books. While previous books did have the twists, none of them were so caustic as these to Frank. After all the recent deaths in the previous two books, the author does continue the trend not in number but in terms of important personage. I was very much surprised by the turns of the plot as the author constantly kept on switching tracks and thereby made the ending that much more unpredictable. Characterization-wise this book is the most accomplished of all however it focuses solely on Frank. With these books Frank has always been the sole narrator, but with the last two books, the focus was widened on the side character cast however with this one the scope is again narrowed down to Frank. This kind of narrative while having its plus points also makes it a problem if the reader doesn’t connect with the story. However with Frank, the reader is always left stunned with the amount and importance of information revealed and this just makes the next book that much more enticing especially when Frank reunites with those that have wronged him.

The only things that went against the enjoyment factor was that the book ends on a massive cliffhanger and combined with the expectation of things to come, that makes the wait for the next book hard. The second point would be that the book also has revelations that gives answers but further creates questions that will leave the readers perplexed. But both these issues are minor ones and wouldn’t affect the overall reading experience.

CONCLUSION: Tim Marquitz takes a new direction with the fourth book that showcases improvement on all authorial fronts. This is another great entry in the Demon Squad series, if you haven’t started it yet then you should definitely do so. This is one of those series that has almost been under most readers radar. Tim Marquitz continues his excellent run and makes this book another standout volume.(less)

6 likes · like · see review

May 06, 2012 Ryan Lawler rated it 4 of 5 stars

***SPOILER WARNING*** - This review talks about some big events from the first three books, and I would recommend that you read those three before starting Echoes of the Past.

There are many words I could use to describe Tim Marquitz, from creative wellspring through to twisted and disturbed. But one word starting to stand out is prolific - Echoes of the Past is after all the fourth book in the Demon Squad series and has come out mere months after the release of At The Gates. So strap on your hel...more ***SPOILER WARNING*** - This review talks about some big events from the first three books, and I would recommend that you read those three before starting Echoes of the Past.

There are many words I could use to describe Tim Marquitz, from creative wellspring through to twisted and disturbed. But one word starting to stand out is prolific - Echoes of the Past is after all the fourth book in the Demon Squad series and has come out mere months after the release of At The Gates. So strap on your helmets people, it is time to enter the mind of Marquitz and follow the demonic Frank Triggaltheron in his latest adventure, digging up his past so that he can save the future.

The story is set just after the events of At The Gates with Frank deep into recovery mode after waking up the Metatron and saving Heaven from an onslaught of nephilim and werebeasts. As you can probably guess, Frank has barely had time to warm the cushions when the first of many assaults come - those werebeasts that Frank screwed over during the whole of the last book are looking for some good old fashioned payback, the Department of Supernatural Investigation have been given clearance to deal with Frank as they see fit, and a new demon with a penchant for summoning storybook creatures has decided to tear up the place. Things are looking pretty bad but here comes the kicker, those weird metal guys from the last book have a message from Lucifer - he needs Frank to start preparing the Earth for inter-dimensional war. That means delving into history that Frank would have preferred remain a mystery. Echoes of the Past is a book of revelations where we really get to see what makes Frank tick. Dont worry, there is plenty of sex, violence and guilty pleasures to indulge yourself in throughout the book, but these sequences are definitely subdued so that the revelations can take centre stage. Want to know where God and Lucifer went all those years ago? Want to know what all those demons saw in Frank's human mother? Want to know how and why Frank killed his father? You get it all, plus a bit more that you didn't bargain for. Marquitz readily provides the answers to all these questions because he knows that for every mystery that is paid off, two more are created. Damn you Marquitz!!!

The characters we know and love are all back, but they play much more of a secondary role to Frank's story than they have before. This is a real bummer for me because I am really quite fond of those other characters, but this book is not about them and to have too much of them would be to distract from the main story. We get to go deep into the twisted mind of Frank this time around, and it's not exactly pretty. He is one messed up guy, he has had a very hard life, and you get much more an appreciation of how hard he fights every day to stay in control of his demonic nature. It's weird, but by really demonising Frank throughout this book, Marquitz has made him seem even more human. Marquitz jests that Frank is a very simple guy whose life is based around consumption of the basic urges, but behind all those layers lies a very complex person, and it is the act of peeling away those layers just to get a glimpse at the inner Frank that makes these books so appealing.

In terms of writing, this book follows the Demon Squad trend of being better written than its predecessors. The prose is much more clean and crisp, the overt sexualism has been dialled back just a touch, and all of this has been done without sacrificing any of Frank's personality. This book is slower that the previous instalments, it is less driven by action, there is no clear indication of where this book is going, but it still manages to work quite well. I would consider this book more of a palette cleanser when compared to the three previous volumes, one that is preparing you for what is yet to come. That is probably my only real gripe with this book, that everything is written with an eye on the future instalments, but introducing us to a whole new side of the Demon Squad universe is a huge undertaking and I am really glad that Marquitz decided to take his time and introduce it over the space of a couple of books rather than trying to cram everything in all at once.

I said that Echoes of the Past is a book of revelations, but as I write this review I am realising this is more a book of transition. There are significant shifts in plot, character, and setting, and I am very exciting in the new directions Marquitz is taking the series. But in saying that, at the very core this is very much a Demon Squad book with all the charm, humour, and sex that you come to expect from this series. This is not quite my favourite Demon Squad book, but with so many awesome revelations and a big cliffhanger at the end, my anticipation for the next Demon Squad book could not be any higher.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2012 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, horror

How I rate--

FIVE – the story has changed my life, the way I view the world, or has altered the way I write.
FOUR – the story has exceeded my expectations, this was truly a fabulous weave.
THREE – I liked it, my expectations were met, I got exactly what I paid for.
TWO – I was disappointed by this story and it wasn’t what I’d hoped for.
ONE – I’m not going to save this one from any Nazi Bar-B-Ques.

Echoes of the Past is the 4th installment of the Demon Squad series. I thought it was the best written...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 05, 2012 Gordon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-my-kindle

The last one written and the best yet. OK so I admit it I'm a Frank fan total underdog having the worst time possible due to all those pesky supernaturals who's plans he just happens to stumble in the way of and in this one he stumbles in the way A LOT! So the story of Frank takes a massive leap in this one meet the new Devil not like the old Devil, wasn't a suprise but definately well worked in the story to lead up to the point of realisation. Where this goes next who knows but with the interdi...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 28, 2013 Tyson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi-fantasy

My review here.

like · see review

May 25, 2013 Nikos Ververis marked it as to-read

May 18, 2013 Arthur Zhang rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 18, 2013 Pam marked it as to-read

May 09, 2013 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apr 27, 2013 Taylor marked it as to-read

Shelves: books-to-buy, wishlist

Apr 24, 2013 Oezay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apr 23, 2013 Taskeen Ahmad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apr 21, 2013 Viv marked it as to-read

Shelves: must-have

Apr 20, 2013 Helldeacon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apr 19, 2013 Jennifer marked it as to-read

Apr 19, 2013 Matt K rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apr 18, 2013 Monica marked it as to-read

Apr 18, 2013 Mark Schmid rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apr 03, 2013 David marked it as to-read

Mar 29, 2013 Ivan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 28, 2013 Rob Enderle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 26, 2013 Fredrik rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mar 17, 2013 Kelly marked it as to-read

Shelves: ebooks, urban-fantasy

Mar 16, 2013 Acerav rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 11, 2013 Trey Stinson marked it as to-read

Mar 06, 2013 Mike marked it as to-read

Feb 26, 2013 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Feb 26, 2013 Robert Medeiros rated it 4 of 5 stars

« previous 1 2 3 4 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

Genres

Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

6 users

Fantasy

2 users

Horror

2 users

See top shelves...

About Tim Marquitz

Dark Fantasy Author

"Horror becomes art when it flows from the pen of Tim Marquitz." ~ Bobby D. Whitney - BookWenches

"Witty, sarcastic and hilarious." Michelle - Publishers Weekly

More about Tim Marquitz...

Books by Tim Marquitz

Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Echoes of the Past

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Echoes of the Past
avg rating	preview: Echoes of the Past Goodreads rating: 4.30 (43 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13608638-echoes-of-the-past?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1334849273l/13608638.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13608638-echoes-of-the-past?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Echoes of the Past by Tim Marquitz[/url]