Ghost Rider

by Greg Cox

When he was seventeen, motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze proved he would do anything to save his terminally ill father -- even make a deal with the sinister Mephistopheles that would cost him everything, from the woman he loved, the beautiful Roxanne Simpson, to Johnny's own immortal soul.Years later, as Roxanne reenters Johnny's life, Mephistopheles returns to collect on his part of the deal . . . and as night falls and evil rises, Johnny Blaze becomes his bounty hunter -- the Ghost Rider -- a flaming host of vengeance and twisted justice annihilating anything daring to escape from the depths of the abyss.Now charged with destroying Mephistopheles' greatest nemesis, Blackheart, Johnny Blaze's curse becomes his power, and perhaps his destiny. . . .

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Marvel, Superheroes, Action

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Sami Ashakih · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most people my age would argue that they hate reading books, and that reading is a waste of time etc. Yet a lot of kids have read the book the ghost rider. The book is a fantasy/action book written by Greg Cox in january 23rd of 2007, The book is very intriguing and easy to get sucked into, starring in the book is a man named Johnny Blaze. Johnny is a 17 year old stunt rider (at the beginning of the book) whose father is very ill and Johnny would do anything to save him. Even if this would mean making a deal with the devil, now i'm sure we all know what it means to make a deal with the entity of evil himself.
This deal Johnny would come to make would turn out to completely ruin his life as he would know it. He would begin to lose everything dear to him as he could do nothing to stop these courses of events. Johnny would even let the love of his life whose name is Roxanne slip from within his own two hands. Not to mention with this deal Johnny would also sell his soul, Johnny had it hard for the next few years to come his life was just not what it used to be, he began getting older he still was a stuntman but was losing his edge. Years later the man who put these events into action would appear and claim his part of the deal.

Johnny just begins to understand what he got himself into when the devil appears before him, and turns Johnny into his personal bounty hunter. As night falls and evil rises Johnny becomes a host of the devil, I kid you not as he takes upon his role as the bounty hunter his body turns to fire, his body is hot as the sun and bright as a camp fire in the most treacherous of forests. Johnny's job as the devil servant is to annihilate anything escaping from the depths of hell. His task is to defeat the nemesis of the devil himself, The purely heartless entity, an evil entity who goes by the name “Black Heart”. Luckily for the devil Johnny is not one who gives up when he sets his mind to something, So of course even though he has no choice Johnny takes on the job.
Meanwhile Johnny runs into the love of his life Roxanne who now has a son of her own Johnny is interested in rekindling his love for Roxanne all while being a grim reaper through the night, The job is not as easy as it seems trust me Johnny has a lot of hardships throughout his journey. As you must've figured out it's not easy to have a double identity without the women in a man's life figuring out the truth. The mist of Johnny being a bounty hunter and merciless killer when transformed doesn't seem to drive Roanne away. She is surprised at first but helps him on his journeys he must kill black heart inorder to regain his freedom. Johnny's biggest curse turns out to be his biggest strength as the story goes on.
Overall I personally believe that the ghost rider was a very interesting book; There were so many parts of the book where I had to just keep going despite how tired I was, One thing I can say about the ghost rider is there really was never to many dull moments where I felt like I was bored with a chapter or tired of a part in the book. I would most definitely recommend this book to anime lovers, teenage boys, comic book fans etc. After reading the ghost order cover to cover I can say it it most definitely a ⅘ stars and a very underrated book that people should take there time to read.

[Adelaide Metzger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS!! I read it so long ago when the first movie came out--and it was BEFORE I saw the movie. It was actually way better than the film, but all movie adapted books are. Anyway, one of the best novellizations I've ever read.

[Kent Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable for a movie novelization. Pretty straightforward narrative of the film but some great easter eggs that I either missed or didn't make it on screen. While the multitude of typos and grammatical errors almost knocked it down one star, the aforementioned easter eggs saved it. Just to name a few there were mentions of Midnight Sons and the Darkhold with the biggest egg being the mention of Johnny Blaze's lawyer at the end being Matt Murdock! Would have been such a great cameo in the film if they would have had Affleck reprise that role.

[Jamie Jonas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seem to be reading all my family's discards, all of a sudden. This one is from my brother Jody, who believes that novelizations like this are a good way of exploring more aspects of a movie than can be incorporated in the standard 2-hour timeframe.

But this one is a wash. I find Cox an overconfident writer who doesn't really have any reason to be. He tends towards 'overstuffed' writing--redundant, overly melodramatic and not just a little pretentious. Occasionally he throws in a high-level vocabulary word--'incalescent' and 'mordant,' for example--that simply seems out of place and makes me suspect he's consulting a thesaurus as he goes along. Obviously that's fine, but only if you can use the words you glean convincingly. He also has a weird trick of dropping articles, e.g. 'his voice now echoed with [?] timbre of lost souls.' 'A' timbre? 'The' timbre? Without one or the other, the sentence sounds like Cox's first language is not English.

Now the good points: My second star is for pacing and suspense--Cox does a great job with those, no doubt making him a favorite for readers who, unlike me, are unexacting. Taken as a whole, the book was an interesting view of the transition from comic books to movie script to novel, but I probably won't be reading any others.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Endingnya beda dengan filmnya. Di novel ini, Johnny Blaze dibebaskan dari tuduhan kriminal berkat bantuan pengacara hebat dari New York, yang kebetulan buta, dan bernama Matt Murdock. Daredevil jadi pengacara Ghost Rider! Ada cross over rupanya! Menarik juga kalau Ben Affleck muncul sebagai cameo di ending.

[carlos carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought that this book was awsome and it is juet like the movie


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[Alex Rojowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

reallllllly good bookk

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a good story combining adventure with a story that has some heart behind it. I saw the movie and had to grab the book, because it is always better. In this case, that holds true.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of my first tie-in movie books.
Honestly case in point with the books being better than the movie. Reading this made me love the movie all the more.

[Melissa Jaillet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Nyie Rombeng · Rating 3 out of 5]

masih terlalu dini jika menilai sosok johnny blaze sebagai pahlawan.
mungkin iya,tapi semua itu hanyalah untuk orang disayanginya bukan seperti pahlawan yang menolong orang yang dikenal maupun tak dikenal dalam aksi heroiknya.
tapi paling tidak penggambaran tokoh ghost rider(alter ego johnny blaze)keren:tengkorak berkobaran api yang menunggangi harley davidson yang berkobar api juga;)

[Danielle]

Loved the movie. So glad they came out with the novelization of the movie.

[Duane Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is awesome...The movie, not so much.