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90th out of 197 books
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9 voters
My rating:
add to my books
The Man With the Golden Torc (Secret Histories #1)
For ages, Eddie Drood and his family have kept humanity safe from the things that go bump in the night. But now one of his own has convinced the rest of the family that Eddie's become a menace, and that humanity needs to be protected from him. So he's on the run, using every trick in the book, magical and otherwise, hoping he lives long enough to prove his innocence...
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
June 3rd 2008
by Roc
(first published March 17th 2007)
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Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress"
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Recommends it for:
Fans of James Bond and Action-Oriented Urban Fantasy
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2011-reading
Five stars stands for awesome, and that's what this book is! I loved it. I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it as much as the Nightside series, but boy was I wrong.
This book takes my love of James Bond spy movies and supernatural stories and makes a wonderful hybrid, but it has Simon R. Green's own stamp and spin on it. He incorporated all the humor which will make me laugh out loud, the angsty moments, and some thrilling/scary/downright horrific moments as well.
...more
This book takes my love of James Bond spy movies and supernatural stories and makes a wonderful hybrid, but it has Simon R. Green's own stamp and spin on it. He incorporated all the humor which will make me laugh out loud, the angsty moments, and some thrilling/scary/downright horrific moments as well.
...more
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Edwin Drood is a member of the legendary Drood family, a family dedicated to protecting humanity from threats. At least, that's what he thought until he was declared rogue and had the entire familly on his trail. Now, with Molly Metcalf, infamous witch, in tow, Edwin must find out the sinster secret at his family's heart. The only people that can tell him: the people he's been fighting against his entire adult life...
The Man With the Golden Torc is typical Simon Green. You have m...more
The Man With the Golden Torc is typical Simon Green. You have m...more
Another where I'd like to have either a "half star" or 10 star system. I was torn here as there are 4 star books I've liked better but I believe it rates more than 3. So...3.5+ equals a 4 star rating I guess.
The book is good, it's recognizably Green I believe if you've read any Nightside. Eddie (or Shaman Bond) puts me in mind of John a bit, but maybe a bit more openly a "good-guy". Any of you who've read my reviews will know That would appeal to me a bit more tha...more
The book is good, it's recognizably Green I believe if you've read any Nightside. Eddie (or Shaman Bond) puts me in mind of John a bit, but maybe a bit more openly a "good-guy". Any of you who've read my reviews will know That would appeal to me a bit more tha...more
Green's style is a unique fusion of rich, imaginative, almost Lovecraftian noir fantasy and somewhat cliche'd, but brilliantly used themes from various other genres. His early series mixed it with various styles of detective fiction - from police tales in the Guards of Haven series, to private investigator fiction in the Nightside series. In The Man With the Golden Torc, he gives tribute to the spy action genre and its iconic character, the superspy James Bond.
Remaining loyal to the ...more
Remaining loyal to the ...more
The Flooze (Michelle M.)
rated it
Edwin Drood has more gadgets than you can imagine: golden armor, a portable door, a self-aiming gun with never-ending bullets, and much more.
But he also has more problems than you can shake a stick at. He's the supernatural answer to James Bond, and he's just been declared rogue. Now everyone (including his family) wants him dead, while all Eddie wants is the truth.
It took about 50 or 60 pages for this book to hit its stride. But once it did, it was unstoppable. The pac...more
But he also has more problems than you can shake a stick at. He's the supernatural answer to James Bond, and he's just been declared rogue. Now everyone (including his family) wants him dead, while all Eddie wants is the truth.
It took about 50 or 60 pages for this book to hit its stride. But once it did, it was unstoppable. The pac...more
Overall, I liked this book very much. It was more substantive than his Nightside series (which I also like, but not quite as well). It wasn't quite as dark, also. It felt a bit more like a combo of the action in his Deathstalker space opera with the horror/dark fantasy of the Nightside books. More humor, a very likable protagonist and a fun new premise to explore. There were a few of his classic divergences into long descriptions of the weird creatures he's imagined without any real impact on th...more
I good idea gone horribly wrong with padding. This is a 398 paged fantasy novel that could remove everything between pages 102 through 277 (that would be Chapters 8 through 17). The story is about mankind being protected since Roman times by a magical family, the Droods, who wear magical golden torcs that cover their bodies in golden armor. The Droods have prevented wars, stopped supernatural beings, and alien invasions (yes, this novel dips occasionally into that genre, and it shouldn't have). ...more
First off, don't read this review if your'e likely to get influenced by my opinions. I know a few books that have been ruined for me as a reviewer highlighted errors I would normally have missed - and as such made me dislike the book. Make up your own mind really.
Still, if you want to know read on...
This was an interesting read, and I found the whole story captivating and worth the effort. It was fast paced, had what I thought was an original, innovative idea and was well wri...more
Still, if you want to know read on...
This was an interesting read, and I found the whole story captivating and worth the effort. It was fast paced, had what I thought was an original, innovative idea and was well wri...more
I'm a huge fan of the Nightside series, so I was looking forward to reading the first book in Simon R Green's Secret Histories series.
Eddie Drood - aka Shaman Bond - is an agent of good who comes from an ancient and very powerful family. The Drood family protect the world from supernatural threats that humans have no idea are going on around them. They also have golden torcs around their necks that turn into full body armour. He's good at his job as a field agent, but when he's attac...more
Eddie Drood - aka Shaman Bond - is an agent of good who comes from an ancient and very powerful family. The Drood family protect the world from supernatural threats that humans have no idea are going on around them. They also have golden torcs around their necks that turn into full body armour. He's good at his job as a field agent, but when he's attac...more
Something just didn't gel right with this book. I don't know if it had to do with the weird, disjointed narrative style, the characters, or the actual plot itself, but it was not that good. I won't say it was bad....because it raised some interesting ideas, but it definitely was not good. It starts well, I was liking Eddie Drood, somewhat of a smartass, a black sheep, but still trying to do good in the world, pretty bad ass. I was okay with seeing the Drood family as a sort of crazy cult. I was ...more
In the future, I will stick to Jim Butcher's 'The Dresden Files' for my hard-boiled urban fantasy needs. Not that there's not room in the genre for a novel with cars that eat people, or anything.
After discovering Simon R. Green through his Nightside series, I was looking forward to this new series. While The Man With the Golden Torc is occasionally entertaining, overall I was underwhelmed.
The culprit in this case is a repetitiveness on the part of the author. He reuses certain phrases often, and it's not clear whether this is done intentionally, for the sake of irony, or if he's just not that inventive. Also, is this book supposed to be set in the same universe as the Nig...more
The culprit in this case is a repetitiveness on the part of the author. He reuses certain phrases often, and it's not clear whether this is done intentionally, for the sake of irony, or if he's just not that inventive. Also, is this book supposed to be set in the same universe as the Nig...more
Wow, what a mess..here is how story unfolds : we have our softhearted and naive agent/killer with a long list of gadgets to start with - indestructible golden armor, hand-watch to turn back time, auto aiming gun with unlimited bullets and portable door. He meets a series of almighty bad guys who happen to have weapons to counter his gadgets, but not to worry, our hero just keeps finding bigger and better gadgets - super-powerful shaman from another dimension, badge to confuse the whole universe ...more
This was highly recced to me, urban fantasy, I think, but very British? We'll see!
I'm back. Listened to it, found it highly entertaining! From the titles in the series to Eddie Drood's alternate name of Bond, it's clear that these books owe a bit to James Bond, international spy with all sorts of fun and ridiculous weapons. And it works.
Sidebar: I have always been annoyed by titles like Julia Quinn's Bridgerton Series--It's In His Kiss, The Viscount Who Loved Me, The Duke...more
I'm back. Listened to it, found it highly entertaining! From the titles in the series to Eddie Drood's alternate name of Bond, it's clear that these books owe a bit to James Bond, international spy with all sorts of fun and ridiculous weapons. And it works.
Sidebar: I have always been annoyed by titles like Julia Quinn's Bridgerton Series--It's In His Kiss, The Viscount Who Loved Me, The Duke...more
I have to admit, I read one of Simon R. Green's short stories in a collection of supernatural detective fiction a while back and was only lukewarm on it. However, the concept behind this novel and the fact that it was on sale convinced me to give the author another try.
Unfortunately, I just don't think Green is for me. The book, which follows the adventures of Eddie Drood - a James Bond-esque spy who tackles supernatural threats - is written in first person, and the narrative voice...more
Unfortunately, I just don't think Green is for me. The book, which follows the adventures of Eddie Drood - a James Bond-esque spy who tackles supernatural threats - is written in first person, and the narrative voice...more
This was my first Green novel and I think now I understand more why that is. I have seen his name come up over and over in urban fantasy context genre but when I first picked up his Nightside series I just couldn't get into it. I had the same problem with this book. BUT two of my best friends had read and enjoyed the book so I knew there had to be something there. I pushed through my normal "meh, next!" response to books I don't quite feel and finished reading the book based on the...more
The biggest problem that I have with Simon R Green is his inability to set good rules. He has excellent characters with good dialog, arcs that make sense and interesting concepts, but his books are always missing a certain consistency. I find it almost impossible to believe any of the conflict, or any threat to the characters, because of the apparent arbitrariness of the magic system. This has been a problem in his Nightside series, and it is present in this book as well. He writes good set ...more
His name is Drood. Edwin Drood.
Cover name: Shaman Bond.
His whole life, he’s been taught that his only reason for being is to protect mankind and maintain order in a world saturated with magic, super-science, aliens, and monsters. Around his throat, Eddie wears a magic torc–it’s retractable armor and an invisibility cloak all rolled into one. But trouble is stirring–there are evil powers that want to take the Drood family down, and a traitor in the family. So when Eddie is...more
Cover name: Shaman Bond.
His whole life, he’s been taught that his only reason for being is to protect mankind and maintain order in a world saturated with magic, super-science, aliens, and monsters. Around his throat, Eddie wears a magic torc–it’s retractable armor and an invisibility cloak all rolled into one. But trouble is stirring–there are evil powers that want to take the Drood family down, and a traitor in the family. So when Eddie is...more
MB
rated it
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review of another edition
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Recommended to MB by:
Fantasy & SciFi Group
Shelves:
fantasy-urban-fantasy-paranormals
Enjoyable...lots of fun. An interesting hybrid of spy/mystery/fantasy. As other reviewers have mentioned, it was like Harry Dresden crossed with James Bond.
My thought on reading it is that it would have better functioned as a graphic novel due to the rapid pace and minimal exposition. (Or a movie, since it was mostly action and quips.) It was like this happened...bang! Then this happened...explosion! Then this happened...cataclysm! On and on and on. Most of it was crying out ...more
My thought on reading it is that it would have better functioned as a graphic novel due to the rapid pace and minimal exposition. (Or a movie, since it was mostly action and quips.) It was like this happened...bang! Then this happened...explosion! Then this happened...cataclysm! On and on and on. Most of it was crying out ...more
This is one of those times I wish I was allowed to give half-stars. This wasn't a bad book by any means. The writing was great (minus a few bits of dialogue I felt were over the top and rather ridiculous even for the setting) and I loved the story in general. However, it took me roughly one entire month to finish it. Some of it was the holiday season, but the rest of it was that there were times when I felt I had to slog through it.
Some of my dislike might be that, while good, this...more
Some of my dislike might be that, while good, this...more
Edwin Drood, AKA Shaman Bond, secret agent of the Drood family (descended from the ancient Druids) is shaken, not stirred when he discovers that he has been declared rogue, and is now targeted for termnation by the vey organization he once served. He survives an assassination attempt and sets out to discover why he's been declared rogue. Along the way, he learns that his family is not as lily-pure as he thought, and that it is protecting a crucial secret. He visits some of his former enemies, lo...more
Just reread this one. Eddie Drood comes from a very powerful family and he has been working as a secret agent for years. Everything is true, the monsters under the bed, the aliens that walk amongst us and the terrifying things that go slash in the night. And Eddie has been fighting them for years that is until his own family turns against him and decides he is Enemy number one. But Eddie is the best of the best and he doesn't take anything lying down.
This is action, fantasy and humour...more
This is action, fantasy and humour...more
What an odd book. I bought it cheaply in a book sale, and read the first 20 pages and hated it. The first 30-50 pages read like a teenage boy telling you how wonderful he is, and how much like James Bond (in keeping with the puntastic title) he is. I put it down, with no intention of reading it again. I acidentally took it away with me on holiday a couple of weeks ago, and found that once you got past that first 50 pages, the story was good, reasonably original and fun. The first 50 pages read l...more
This was a very interesting story with a very unique world and characters. The ideas that the Sceneshifters had about the world were very strange...I'd never heard anything like them before.
I gave Simon R. Green another chance after hating one of his other books. Unfortunately, this book suffers from the same lazy writing I found in the NightSides book I read. Once again Green creates a magic system with no clear rules then proceeds to use magic to resolve any conflict or story point. It's as if he comes to a point in his writing where he doesn't know where to go and instead of rewriting or thinking it through he just pulls a convenient magical device out of his ass to resolve i...more
Picked this series up after I finished Nightside, and was sadly disappointed. Too James Bond, not enough Nightside.
I assumed, in fact, that Secret Histories came first, before Nightside, both by the content and the writing. However, Something for the Nightside was published in 2003, and The Man with the Golden Torc in 2007 - so why does Torc feel like less accomplished writing?
There are tie-ins to Nightside (and in the second book of the series a tie-in to the Deathstalker s...more
I assumed, in fact, that Secret Histories came first, before Nightside, both by the content and the writing. However, Something for the Nightside was published in 2003, and The Man with the Golden Torc in 2007 - so why does Torc feel like less accomplished writing?
There are tie-ins to Nightside (and in the second book of the series a tie-in to the Deathstalker s...more
Mix some Dresden Files with some X-Files, throw in a little James Bond and a bit of Dr. Who/Torchwood and you get some idea as to the flavor of this book. I was expecting a straight ahead urban fantasy where the protagonist would do battle with various creatures from the dark parts of the world, but Mr. Green manages to mix in a bit of sci-fi and spy-novel. It was an enjoyable read, a quick read, a fun read, but not a book to make you think too hard. Still, there is always room for this kind ...more
My sister bought me this book a year or so ago and I have to admit that at first I was taken aback by its pace more then anything else. Short chapters and action all the way through. It was almost like reading a James Bond movie which of course is a part of its inspiration. But its not a traditional fantasy novel such as I'm used to, its urban fantasy, and the stunning pace of the book works well for it in the end, even if at times I was left breathless trying to make sense of all the twists and...more
Meh...I liked it enough that I am now reading the third book of the series, but I was hoping for another DResden Files and this ain't it. Green's characters are more like caricatures . . . there's something about them that keeps you from developing any real attachment. And the Mr. Stab character--who is admittedly a minor presence in this particular book--is just a total waste. Mindless entertainment, sure. But it feels like it was written for juvenile male sci-fi nerds. And don't get me wrong ...more
As popcorn UF books go, this one isn't so bad.
Reluctant hero, feisty heroine, magic and mayhem, blood and battle and betrayal...
The usual mixture you'd expect in a UF book/series.
On the surface, it doesn't seem as good as the authors other UF series, Nightside. That may be due to the fact he tended to use similar/exactly the same phrases throughout this book that I've seen in his Nightside series and thus it seemed like a retread at times. Or maybe the qualit...more
Reluctant hero, feisty heroine, magic and mayhem, blood and battle and betrayal...
The usual mixture you'd expect in a UF book/series.
On the surface, it doesn't seem as good as the authors other UF series, Nightside. That may be due to the fact he tended to use similar/exactly the same phrases throughout this book that I've seen in his Nightside series and thus it seemed like a retread at times. Or maybe the qualit...more
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Simon Richard Green is a British science fiction and fantasy-author. He holds a degree in Modern English and American Literature from the University of Leicester. His first publication was in 1979.
His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirst...more
More about Simon R. Green...
His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirst...more
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