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95th out of 294 books
—
435 voters
Ghost Of A Chance (Ghostfinders #1)
View our feature on Simon R. Green's Ghost of a Chance.
A brand-new series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightside novels!
The Carnacki Institute exists to "Do Something" about Ghosts-and agents JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer will either lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice.
A brand-new series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightside novels!
The Carnacki Institute exists to "Do Something" about Ghosts-and agents JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer will either lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasmic arses with extreme prejudice.
Paperback, 260 pages
Published
August 31st 2010
by Ace
(first published January 1st 2010)
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I would like my $7.99 plus tax back, please. Oh, and the hours I spent reading this book.
I love Simon R. Green's "Nightside" series and a number of his other novels, but "Ghost of a Chance" was beyond horrible. I'm pretty sure he spent all of one evening writing it, because it lacks anything resembling character development, plot cohesion, or to be perfectly honest, logic. I guess we all need a paycheck.
I love Simon R. Green's "Nightside" series and a number of his other novels, but "Ghost of a Chance" was beyond horrible. I'm pretty sure he spent all of one evening writing it, because it lacks anything resembling character development, plot cohesion, or to be perfectly honest, logic. I guess we all need a paycheck.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Sigh. I've now read at least one book in most of Simon R. Green's major series, and I think I'm going to give up. I find the concepts of his books tantalizing in general, and even though there's nothing I fundamentally dislike about his books, I'm just somehow the wrong audience type.
Ghost of A Chance is an urban-fantasy action adventure story--basically what you'd get if you mashed together Ghostbusters with James Bond.
HERE IS YOUR BOOK, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT.
THE TEAM:
The Leader: J.C....more
Ghost of A Chance is an urban-fantasy action adventure story--basically what you'd get if you mashed together Ghostbusters with James Bond.
HERE IS YOUR BOOK, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT.
THE TEAM:
The Leader: J.C....more
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I'm starting to think that I'm some kind of literary masochist. The last several books I've read have been downright painful, and Ghost of a Chance does nothing to break my unlucky streak.
The book starts out with the three main characters setting up shop for some ghost catching. Cue the clumsy infodump summarizing each character. There's a rapid buildup for something scary--it's terrifying and off the scales and eeeeeeevil! But their leader, stereotypically brash, oh-so-handsome and overconfide...more
The book starts out with the three main characters setting up shop for some ghost catching. Cue the clumsy infodump summarizing each character. There's a rapid buildup for something scary--it's terrifying and off the scales and eeeeeeevil! But their leader, stereotypically brash, oh-so-handsome and overconfide...more
Ghost of a Chance by Simon R Green
Paranormal
Simon R Green writes novels with lots of blood and guts and Ghost of a Chance is no exception. The book starts. “Everyone knows there are bad places in the world.” This first Ghost Finders Novel has two institutes that send teams out to handle bad places when they appear.
Our heroes’ work for the Carnacki Institute and are the good guys. They only work to shut down bad places. The opposition works for the Crowlely Project. They really don’t care about p...more
Paranormal
Simon R Green writes novels with lots of blood and guts and Ghost of a Chance is no exception. The book starts. “Everyone knows there are bad places in the world.” This first Ghost Finders Novel has two institutes that send teams out to handle bad places when they appear.
Our heroes’ work for the Carnacki Institute and are the good guys. They only work to shut down bad places. The opposition works for the Crowlely Project. They really don’t care about p...more
JC, Melody, and Happy are not the top team at the Carnacki institute, but when trouble turns up in the London underground transit system, they're the only one available.
Melody is a technology expert (with a side-line in kinky erotica), Happy is a highly medicated telepath who needs pills to get through anything, and JC is their fearless (if sometimes overconfident) leader.
Coming off a waking primal force that they were able to stop, instead of the required time off, they get sent straight into t...more
Melody is a technology expert (with a side-line in kinky erotica), Happy is a highly medicated telepath who needs pills to get through anything, and JC is their fearless (if sometimes overconfident) leader.
Coming off a waking primal force that they were able to stop, instead of the required time off, they get sent straight into t...more
Picked this up because I'd never read anything by Simon R. Green, it's the first in a series(Ghost Finders), and the cover art made it look interesting.
Even taking into account that this is the series' setup novel, I found the book repetitive and, frankly, a bit boring until the bad guys (stereotypical though they are) enter at about page 80. It seemed to me that Green doesn't believe his readers are paying any attention. I only need to be told that the three main characters are ghost hunters on...more
Even taking into account that this is the series' setup novel, I found the book repetitive and, frankly, a bit boring until the bad guys (stereotypical though they are) enter at about page 80. It seemed to me that Green doesn't believe his readers are paying any attention. I only need to be told that the three main characters are ghost hunters on...more
I really love Simon Green's Nightside and also liked the first book in his Secret Histories Series (the only one I have read in that series so far). So when I heard he was starting a new paranormal series called Ghost Finders, I was eager to read the first book in the series. Overall it was okay, Green has created an interesting world but the characters were a bit cliche and hard to distinguish. I was hoping for more, but what was here is a start.
The book follows two teams of "ghost-hunters". Th...more
The book follows two teams of "ghost-hunters". Th...more
A new series from the prolific Simon R Green that keeps the fast-paced modern paranormal bent that he is known for, but introduces some new characters and mysterious agencies.
JC and his team are Ghosthunters, although about halfway through the book they, and their mysterious government run organization, seem to be more like a toned down version of the Droods from Green's Secret History novels than Ghostbusters - er, I mean Ghosthunters. I don't want to get into plot details, so suffice it to say...more
JC and his team are Ghosthunters, although about halfway through the book they, and their mysterious government run organization, seem to be more like a toned down version of the Droods from Green's Secret History novels than Ghostbusters - er, I mean Ghosthunters. I don't want to get into plot details, so suffice it to say...more
First Sentence: These days, ghosts turn up in the damnedest places.
Members of the Carnacki Institute JC Chance, team leader; Melody Chambers, scientist; and telepath Happy Jack Palmer; are in the London Underground due to an entity are up against employees from the Crowley Project as well as something evil in the London Underground causing the trains to eat the passengers.
I thought this would be the perfect book to read in October and it started off well. The first chapter is passive enough yet...more
Members of the Carnacki Institute JC Chance, team leader; Melody Chambers, scientist; and telepath Happy Jack Palmer; are in the London Underground due to an entity are up against employees from the Crowley Project as well as something evil in the London Underground causing the trains to eat the passengers.
I thought this would be the perfect book to read in October and it started off well. The first chapter is passive enough yet...more
2 likes · like · see review
Jan 04, 2011
cook777
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Light hearted readers of horror
Shelves:
ghost-finders
I think this more of a read of comedy then anything else. And from what I can tell it different then what this author normally rights. (I know horror there, ideas, and sayings are the same, but this more comedy to me then his other works I've read.) Its kinda kid like expect for the drugy and that girl's off work life. Though I could been effected by the audiobook when I say that.
That aside I like to say the book starts off terrible, making it hard to get into the book after. It's like he tried...more
That aside I like to say the book starts off terrible, making it hard to get into the book after. It's like he tried...more
Simon R. Green is one of the authors I just got to buy from the store as I see them. So, I picked up 'Ghost of a Chance'. The first of the ghost finders series.
The story is about J.C. Chance (The Leader), Melody Chambers (The techno-wizard), and Happy Jack Plamer (A pill-popping telepath) of the Carnacki institute are sent to the Oxford Circus tube to investigate a haunting. To make things more difficult, the Crowly project sent two of there own agents. Natasha Chang (A femme fatale ghost eater...more
The story is about J.C. Chance (The Leader), Melody Chambers (The techno-wizard), and Happy Jack Plamer (A pill-popping telepath) of the Carnacki institute are sent to the Oxford Circus tube to investigate a haunting. To make things more difficult, the Crowly project sent two of there own agents. Natasha Chang (A femme fatale ghost eater...more
It pains me to have to give this book one and a half stars. Really it does. Simon Green can do so much better than this. The characters are cardboard types we are all familiar with--the high-functioning drug addict, the techno-geek who's all about her computer equipment, the female barracuda, the frankenstein-scientist with no conscience. There really just isn't much to this story. It's about a team of ghostbusters, if you will, who run into a big bad. But two-thirds of the book is devoted to......more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Ok, I know not to judge a book by its cover, but honestly, who hasn't picked up a novel because the jacket art was compelling? Or likewise passed on an amazing sci-fi or fantasy novel because the jacket was ridiculous? Whoever did the artwork for this novel ought to be fined for dishonesty in advertising. My husband was startled when I started laughing hysterically two pages into the story. Yep, it was when I read the physical descriptions of our "heroes." Melody, depicted on the jacket as a bux...more
I am going to assume, given his long body of work and fan base, that Simon R. Green is capable of writing a damn fine yarn. I'm going to assume that Ghost of a Chance is the result of the unfortunate intersection of an author getting a nice, fat advance for a story proposal with that author's inability to connect with his characters. Because--day-yum--this was bad.
There are some neat ideas in Ghost of a Chance--the fusion of technology and magic, elder gods who are more "real" than reality--but...more
There are some neat ideas in Ghost of a Chance--the fusion of technology and magic, elder gods who are more "real" than reality--but...more
The Carnacki Institute of London—secretly located within the walls of Buckingham Palace—is to ghosts what Torchwood is to aliens (with a little of the Talamasca Caste thrown in). Their job is to protect the Queen's country and people from the things that go bump in the night, and also to study them and gather knowledge of the arcane.
Ghost of a Chance is the first in a new series by popular author, Simon R. Green and begins with an incredibly creepy prologue. Let's just say, I started this book a...more
Ghost of a Chance is the first in a new series by popular author, Simon R. Green and begins with an incredibly creepy prologue. Let's just say, I started this book a...more
I am of two minds on this book.
On the one hand, the gore was very cool. There were bits of this that seriously creeped me out, and that worked very nicely.
On the other hand, the whole JC/Kim relationship was downright stupid. I'm a big fan of romantic subplots. I spent the whole book hoping Melody and Happy would start to fall in love. But JC and Kim? They look at each other and instantly fall in love, and then he spends the next five chapters a) abandoning his team and b) being a shitty agent j...more
On the one hand, the gore was very cool. There were bits of this that seriously creeped me out, and that worked very nicely.
On the other hand, the whole JC/Kim relationship was downright stupid. I'm a big fan of romantic subplots. I spent the whole book hoping Melody and Happy would start to fall in love. But JC and Kim? They look at each other and instantly fall in love, and then he spends the next five chapters a) abandoning his team and b) being a shitty agent j...more
The Carnacki Institute and the Crowley Project are rival organizations in the quest for the supernatural—one to save society from the evils and one to gain the power from the evil. J.C., Happy and Melody are like TVs Warehouse 13, where the Institute has all kinds of antique goodies from the bygone and not so bygone era. Their purpose in life is to investigate hauntings and the latest is taking place at London’s Oxford Circus Tube Station. Happy is the drug-popping telepath who keeps medicating...more
I really enjoyed Green's Hawk and Fisher books and the Nightside books, so when I saw he had a new series out with a ghost hunting angle (which looked interesting), I thought I'd give it a shot. I didn't really love it.
The writing was, I thought, pretty consistent to Green's other books. The bad guys and situations the main characters had to face seemed a lot like the sort of stuff I'd see in the Nightside novels. Maybe a little too similar for my taste. I probably still would have liked it pret...more
The writing was, I thought, pretty consistent to Green's other books. The bad guys and situations the main characters had to face seemed a lot like the sort of stuff I'd see in the Nightside novels. Maybe a little too similar for my taste. I probably still would have liked it pret...more
So, I think I've read everything by Green, after falling in love with Shadows Fall. Yeah, the Deathstalker got a bit... put-upon... by the last trilogy. And the Nightside stuff's been pretty good through the last couple. And the first couple Eddie Drood books were good. But his last few novels seem overly contrived. Bringing Deathstalker over to the Drood universe? Really? Really?
So, this was honestly a breath of fresh air. Tons of ideas (which is what he's specialized in), tons of action, ligh...more
So, this was honestly a breath of fresh air. Tons of ideas (which is what he's specialized in), tons of action, ligh...more
A nice start to what promises to be a fun series blending the pop-culture trend of extreme parapsychology and the 'secret agent' game. Our heroes, JC Chance, Melody Chambers and "Happy" Jack Palmer work for the Carnacki Institute (a kind of paranormal MI-5 or Interpol or--if you know the series--Torchwood), and are set out worldwide to defuse hauntings and other supernatural phenomena beyond the influence of your ordinary occultist. The first chapter is a 'mini-episode' meant to introduce us to...more
First in a new series by one of my favorite authors.I liked the novel. It has an interesting premise.There are a good and a bad agencies that deal with supernatural events.The good agency is The Carnacki Institute, with J.C. Chance, Happy Jack Palmer, and Melody Chambers, and the bad agency is the Crowley Project, with Natasha Chang and Erik Grossman. The characters are interesting and the plot is engaging.But there still seems to be something just a little off, like someone singing just slightl...more
Another promising debut from Simon R. Green. The Carnecki Institute protects humanity from the ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night; the Crowley Project is the opposite. Ghosthunters JC Chance, Happy Jack Palmer and Melody Chambers are called into the Oxford Circus tube station has been taken over by ... something. No one knows what and it is big, big enough to have come from one of the Outer Worlds. Along the way, the Carnecki Institute's team picks up another member, a gh...more
With this book, Simon R Green has proven, without a doubt, that he is unable to right contemporary urban fantasy that does not extend beyond his Nightside and Hidden Secrets series. I applaud him for trying to create a story line that is distinctly more realistic then the above...but in the end, he resorts back to his same horrors that lurk in his other better known, and much better written series.
The concept has some potential, I admit. But the characters lacked any development and were horrib...more
The concept has some potential, I admit. But the characters lacked any development and were horrib...more
Overall I liked this story. It's a fast read, the characters are interesting, the whole ghost hunting thing intriguing and the story build-up is well done. Still there were a few things that bugged me. One was the character interaction: it felt forced and unnatural from time to time with some reactions suddenly coming out of the blue. Second was the plot, which wasn't bad - it's even quite ok - but it felt a bit too large for me, practically screaming DOOM! For me it could have been more subtle...more
this is the first book in a new series by simon r green which follows a group of three ghost finders in london. jc, happy, and melody work for the carnacki institute which is a secret organisation that exists to find and study ghosts. the group gets new orders which force them into the london underground to find out about a group of hauntings and deaths that have been taking place. what they find may be a little more than they can handle. along the way they are forced to come head to head with t...more
The story is along the same lines as Simon's other books. Which is to say OK but not great. Having been given a stack of Simon's books, I am slowly working myself through them.
The theme is one that really appeals to me in general. I had high hopes for this one over the Nightside book I had read. Frankly, it seemed about the same.
In this story, Simon tries a bit more humor. It was like he was trying to channel Terry Pratchett and failed... miserably.
Fortunately, I have enough interest in one of...more
The theme is one that really appeals to me in general. I had high hopes for this one over the Nightside book I had read. Frankly, it seemed about the same.
In this story, Simon tries a bit more humor. It was like he was trying to channel Terry Pratchett and failed... miserably.
Fortunately, I have enough interest in one of...more
Something is haunting London's Oxford Circus Tube Station and it is bigger then anything the team has faced before. Not only that but a team from the Crowley project are also there with an agenda of their own.
I'm a little disappointed in this book to be honest. Simon R Green has always been one of my favourite authors and this is a little too much like the Nightside series. The writing is also not quite up to par. That said as always his characters are interesting and there is always witty dialo...more
I'm a little disappointed in this book to be honest. Simon R Green has always been one of my favourite authors and this is a little too much like the Nightside series. The writing is also not quite up to par. That said as always his characters are interesting and there is always witty dialo...more
Sadly feeble book by the author of the epically brilliant Nightside series. Plastic characters, gratuitious gore and plodding action disappoint. I anticipated a good read by a fave author, but I shall not continue this series. The first six books of the Nightside are beyond brilliant, and the more recent John Taylor books are showing he still has it. The Drood series is dreadful as well. Weird how a single author can create one of the all-time best series in the annals of fantasy as well as drec...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 bloodthirsty.
Excerpted...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 bloodthirsty.
Excerpted...more
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