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The Harbinger

(Artemis #1)

Mary Eicher

4.06 · Rating details · 18 ratings · 12 reviews

In a picturesque California town, the deafening sound of bells brings dozens of people to their knees. Three days later a horrific accident claims their lives. Among the dead is the twin brother of Artemis Andronikos, a beautiful attorney, who abandons the ill-fated vacation and returns home to grieve.

Her mourning is interrupted by Lucy Breem a reporter who suspects a conn ...more

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Published June 15th 2020 by NineStar Press

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Average rating 4.06 ·

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· 18 ratings · 12 reviews

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Jul 07, 2020 Lex Kent rated it liked it

Shelves: apocalyptic, romance, politics, urban-fantasy, intrigue, f-f-ninestar-press

2.50 Stars. This was an interesting concept but not the kind of book for me. It’s never fun to write a negative review especially when a book does not have many ratings yet, but I have to be honest. This was a real struggle for me. After 15% I was tempted to DNF, after 30% I was very tempted to DNF but because this was a review copy I forced myself to finish. I appreciate that this book was different since I love different but this was too weird even for me.

The premise of this story is that some 2.50 Stars. This was an interesting concept but not the kind of book for me. It’s never fun to write a negative review especially when a book does not have many ratings yet, but I have to be honest. This was a real struggle for me. After 15% I was tempted to DNF, after 30% I was very tempted to DNF but because this was a review copy I forced myself to finish. I appreciate that this book was different since I love different but this was too weird even for me.

The premise of this story is that some people are hearing bells than three days later they die. What does this mean? Is this a religious experience, is it a disease, or is there a science explanation? No one really knows and this book is about a group of people, some trying to find answers and the others using the phenomenon for political power or religious wealth. Like I said before, an interesting and unusual concept but it just did not come together for me.

My first issue was the multi POV’s. I just am not a fan of so many POV’s especially when you are in the head of a lot of unlikable characters. The only people’s heads I wanted to be in were Artemis and Lucy who were the main characters out of the bunch. Their story was much more interesting but that was only half the book.

Unfortunately, Artemis and Lucy had their issues too. They have a romance together but it is mostly the author telling us about the romance instead of us experiencing it. I felt that the psychic distance was too far away so I could not connect with the characters or their relationship like I had hoped.

Artemis is written as a mystery. She has some sort of physic or paranormal ability but we don’t really know what. The reason we don’t know is the author was saving that for a big twist near the end. I get that and I really liked the twist. In fact it was probably my favorite part of the book. The problem is in not knowing what’s going on with Artemis makes it that we don’t know or understand her character. We don’t know what her motivations are or who she is as a person. Instead she comes off as a Mary Sue. She is the best fighter since knows every style known to man, she’s a powerful lawyer with plenty of smarts, and she’s supermodel gorgeous so that every single person that sees her, they all want to get in her pants. I normally don’t mind Mary Sue’s all that much. I love kickass women characters so sometimes I like a Mary Sue, but not here. I was so sick of everybody walking by getting a hard-on just being near Artemis.

I did like the twist at the end (it is why I rounded my rating up instead of down like I planned) and since this is a series it sounds like the story might be headed in a better direction. The problem is I had so much trouble finishing this book that I don’t feel comfortable taking a chance on another installment. Again, I appreciate this author writing something really different but it just was not the type of book I enjoy.

A copy was given to me for an honest review.
...more

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Dec 31, 2020 XR rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2020

This was an odd read for me.

There were so many POV's and the mystery of the Harbinger was a hard one to grasp. I really liked the dynamic between Artemis, Lucy and Angie though. ...more

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Jul 27, 2020 Hsinju added it

Shelves: arc, lgbtq, fantasy, romance, fiction, wlw-fiction, 2020-read, 1-star, reviewed, sapphic

I haven't started a book and immediately wanted it to end for so long. It pains me to have to rate it so low, especially one that already has very few reviews.

The premise was nice: some people hear the painful bell chimes in their heads and die exactly three days afterward. I liked the juxtaposition of the current pandemic with the non-disease Harbinger. And the way this book itself served as a harbinger of the current downfall of the world is very clever. However, the execution did not grasp my I haven't started a book and immediately wanted it to end for so long. It pains me to have to rate it so low, especially one that already has very few reviews.

The premise was nice: some people hear the painful bell chimes in their heads and die exactly three days afterward. I liked the juxtaposition of the current pandemic with the non-disease Harbinger. And the way this book itself served as a harbinger of the current downfall of the world is very clever. However, the execution did not grasp my attention, and I lost interest shortly after I started the story.

The first three quarters of the book were kind of a drag. There were many, many, many POVs. While that created a sense of urgency along with the inconspicuous switch of viewpoints within scenes, it kept me from connecting with any of the characters. The conversations between the them were choppy, and the narration consisted of very short sentences with repetitive structures. Most of the time, I saw no real reason for chapter breaks and found the story monotonous and emotionally detached. Oftentimes, the character interactions felt unnatural and left me reeling. There were also a lot of telling in place of showing when it comes to emotions such as sadness and love. I don’t think I have ever frowned as many times while reading as I had during this one. Throughout most of the book, I didn't even care who was dying.

Admittedly, I had mentally checked out after being 40% into the book but still pushed myself to finish it. It was a relief when, upon reaching the 75% mark, the story picked up and I actually started anticipating what was going to happen. I also liked the final reveal of identities.

The Harbinger was marketed as a romance but it is not. The romance between the leads, Artemis Andronikos and Lucinda "Lucy" Breem, was instalove at best. Actually, we don’t even see enough to conclude it is instalove when it first started. I was honestly shocked by the progression of their relationship.

I liked three characters in this book: Lucy's daughter Angie, and the husband-and-wife duo astrophysicist Wolfgang Strang and Willa. As for the lead, Artemis, I found her unlikable. She finds dangerous situations funny and suggests things she cannot execute. She has a really weird sense of what is appropriate and doesn’t seem to be the type who communicates before acting. But I have to say that she is really badass, especially toward the end of the book.

Though almost unrelated to the book, I wanted to comment on the bells, aka the Harbinger. In Mandarin, the words "bell" and "clock" are both zhong (鐘). There is a superstition of not gifting clocks because the phrase song zhong (送鐘) pronounces exactly the same as "burying one's parent" (送終). I find bells and death eerily related after realizing this.

The only thing that I really love is the naming of the characters. Artemis is obviously the goddess of hunting, Lucinda is "light," Uberdorf is "about remote village," and Angie is "messenger of God." The name Ichabod probably provisioned his death at the very beginning of the story, too. Also, Wolfgang Strang is a combination of the first name of Mozart, hence the connection of music, and a last name that reminds me of the famous mathematician Dr. Gilbert Strang.

The Harbinger is the first book in the Artemis trilogy, and while I wish I was excited about the sequel, I am not. But I think the rest of the series will be better judging by the last quarter of the book and am certainly intrigued by how Eicher would name future characters.

I received an e-ARC from NineStar Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Jun 30, 2020 Domi rated it liked it

When I started reading this book I found the concept intriguing; people hear bells in their head and 3 days later they die.Is it evolution, God, aliens, a disease of infection? As in real life when something new happens that changes the world a little bit, nobody knows for sure but, as always, certain people try to use it to gain more power/money/whatever they need. What I liked about this book is that it made you think about our place in the universe, the conscious mind and religion among other ...more

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Feb 28, 2021 Natalie rated it liked it

I liked the premise of this novel - why is there a phenomenon where you hear bells three days before you die? I was quite interested to get to the explanation of this but think this novel took too long for us to get there.

This novel is just shy of 100,000 words and you can really feel it. I think if this was shorter and faster paced, it would've been more engaging for the reader. At some points I found myself completely uninterested in all of the random characters and their short subplots about ...more

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Aug 24, 2020 Kate Church rated it it was amazing

I volunteered to read this book, through netgalley in exchange, for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. This is the first book in this series. I enjoyed Artemis's character and Lucy's character. In this story it mentions that the harbinger is almost like the rapture in a way. I enjoyed everything about this book. The author did a great job. Although it did hit home a little because of how Artemis loses her brother to the harbinger. I would recommend ...more

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Jul 28, 2020 Andi rated it liked it

Shelves: arc

Interesting genre spanning novel. Some romance, some mystery, some fantasy.

When you hear the bells, you die three days later. Thus begins the arrival of the Harbinger. Beginning in California and slowly spreading around the world, the Harbinger brings changes to the communities is encounters. Not everyone hears the Harbinger, some die without hearing it. It is the uncertainty of its meaning but the clarity of its end result. Some panic, others go on binges, one creates a cult which makes him ri ...more

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Oct 21, 2020 Phoebe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: f-f-romance, fantasy, lgbt-fiction, lgbt-series, mythology, suspense, lgbt-romance, writer

The Harbinger drops us right onto the Pacific Coast Trail and into the mystery pretty quickly. Mary Eicher then keeps the pace up throughout the book as the mystery broadens off the PCT trail to world wide intrigue. The romance happens pretty quickly too. Everything happens fast. Eicher barely lets you process one revelation before you are facing another one.

This can be a very good tool as characters that you come to like may not stick around long as the mystery shows no favoritism. I will warn ...more

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Sep 07, 2020 Steve Vollmer rated it it was amazing

I highly recommend The Harbinger. It is a fun read with lovable characters and a different take on mythology. The story moves quickly and is very entertaining. It is sort of Wonder Woman meets Ancient Aliens. Great Fun!

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Feb 25, 2021 Caitlin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtq, mothers, read-books, romance

This was a struggle for me. Lex Kent’s review summed up my thoughts really well. Lots of POVs that made it hard to connect with the characters. I almost DNF, and while the story got better near the end, it’s not enough to make me want to read the sequel.

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Aug 03, 2020 Blanca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A very well written, engaging book that’ll make you wonder & wait impatiently for the next 2 books.

I don’t want to give away the story by doing a chapter by chapter review, I’ll just say that it’s a wonderful, very original story, its 31 chapters, contained in 382 pages, are a most delightful read to the last printed word; I’m left impatiently waiting for the next Artemis’ book to come out.

This book offers many of the subjects that I love to read about. Lets’ see:
Beautiful/Hot, Smart Protagonist ...more

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