Greek Key (Hope Blackwell Book 1), by K.B. Spangler
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Greek Key (Hope Blackwell Book 1), by K.B. Spangler
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All Hope Blackwell wanted out of her spring break was a quiet Mediterranean vacation. Sun, sand, local cuisine…and tracking down Archimedes’ ghost to learn if he’s been tampering with the fabric of reality. But when you’re a psychic whose specialty is communicating with the dead, a trip to Greece means you’ll come face-to-face with legendary heroes And monsters. As Hope and her friends explore the lost ruins of an ancient civilization, she soon learns she has attracted the attention of one of the most famous women in history. Helen of Troy is nothing like her stories, and she’s got a problem she thinks Hope can solve. Hope isn’t too sure about that—if righting a 2,500-year-old wrong was that easy, wouldn’t Helen have found the time to do it herself?
Greek Key (Hope Blackwell Book 1), by K.B. Spangler - Amazon Sales Rank: #258901 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-10-25
- Released on: 2015-10-25
- Format: Kindle eBook
Greek Key (Hope Blackwell Book 1), by K.B. Spangler
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. K.B. Spangler's best yet; a more complex book than it seems at first. By kuroneko4276 This is K.B. Spangler's best novel yet, and those who already enjoy her webcomic, 'A Girl and Her Fed' or the delightful and thought-provoking sci-fi mysteries starring Agent Rachel Peng will be delighted as always. Fans of Greek mythology, people who enjoy strong female characters (not in the Kate Beaton parody sense, but real ones,) and those who wonder what would happen if someone let Aaron Sorkin direct in the Marvel universe (we have to exist, surely,) will all have a splendid time and probably wind up deciding to follow Hope and Speedy down the rabbit hole into the rest of the AGAHF universe. And even younger readers whose parents are reasonably liberal about ‘content’ (I'd call this a PG-13 at the most for smut, maybe an R for violence if you've seen enough R-rated movies to be able to picture stuff clearly, but probably a PG-13 for a tween-and-up whose movies are light on blood,) will find something to love in this fine novel. (I kind of pity the teacher who has to get a fifteen-year-old girl who’s just read this through ‘The Iliad,’ but the classroom discussions should sure be neat.)And I do feel that 'Greek Key' would be a good first introduction to Spangler, but only, ONLY for readers who already have an existing understanding of Attention Deficit Disorder, a high tolerance for high-powered characters and who appreciate a good martial-arts story with about as much violence as, say, a Brosnan-era Bond movie. Spangler fans who want to get their shonen manga-addicted kid sister and comic-book-geek roommates hooked on the AGAHF universe? This is the book to order for Christmastime. Getting a first Spangler for your grandma who loves Agatha Christie or your uncle who thought ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ was excessively violent? Go with the first Rachel Peng. Trust me. They’ll love ‘Greek Key’ eventually, but this is not an easy introduction to the series except for those who are predisposed to understand two of the most challenging members of an already complex ensemble cast.The reason I make this recommendation has a large part to do with the nature of the universe in which this book takes place, and the brilliantly accurate way Spangler writes her narrator in 'Greek Key.' Hope Blackwell is one of those hard-to-write characters with whom one can simply taste the hours of research, thought and time that went into making her what she is. And like most competent, capable heroines written by female authors who are bringing real-world education and a dizzying intellect to the 'frivolous' field of detective, adventure or graphic-novel fiction, it is surprisingly easy to mistake said heroines for the mere 'Mary Sue' wish-fulfillment self-insert critters that populate bad romance novels and badly-spelled smutty fanfiction.And sure, at first glance that might be an easy assumption to make. Hope is a talented martial artist, happily married to a powerful, handsome man, she is independently wealthy and seems to be ticking every box that made casual readers (and chauvinists,) level that same accusation at Dorothy L. Sayers back in the Thirties.But Spangler manages to do something that even the great Sayers didn't always make completely clear in her earlier books and which took her undisputed masterpiece to get across: for every splendid advantage that Hope Blackwell seemingly enjoys, she is also paying a horrific price and then some. It isn't easy to write a well-rounded character at the best of times, and when, for plot and universe reasons, your narrator is a minor superheroine, it takes some serious skill to write her convincingly. Readers might need a bit of Fridge Logic to understand just how (this is a novel you can pick up time and again and still realize something new about it on each reading,) but by starting with an apparent Mary Sue and then actually showing us what that would really mean, Spangler has somehow managed to ruthlessly deconstruct even the very idea of Mary Sues.(And it's so awesome, seriously, you guys, buy this book!)Being a fictional character may seem easy, when your best friend can help you make a fortune drunkenly day-trading and you have a minor form of superpowers, but there is a very real and immediate downside. It's actually kind of ironic that Hope's judo prowess starts to feel like the least believable thing about her, when that's the only 'unfair advantage' she explicitly and realistically didn't have fall into her lap by sheer luck of the draw. (Without revealing spoilers, I can only say that when a statement like "she is, incidentally, among the most accomplished ninja in webcomics this side of Chris Hastings' work," seems less probable than some of the other stuff this poor character has going on, the author has created a profoundly logical and internally consistent universe.) Spangler is very clear, even into the footnotes, that being awesome at judo takes the kind of lifelong commitment and intense personal effort that fiction can't easily show. Hope did not get her ninja skills from a magic amulet, ghost pixy Founding Father, mysterious genetics or a training montage. She's worked for them, all her life, and even though her martial arts are the single most consistent thing in her life, she is trapped with the tragic knowledge that she doesn't have what it takes to be truly great at them.She has Attention Deficit Disorder, and not in the facetious 'oh, look, a shiny thing' way the Internet tends to portray matters, but the real deal. (Ask me how I know. Go ahead.) One gets the uncomfortable feeling that martial arts and the focus and discipline they require may be the only thing keeping Hope this side of functional, especially when you compare 'Greek Key' to the Rachel Peng novels and can see what the personification of focused discipline that is our dear 'Penguin' reads like compared to the psychological hot mess that is our Hope. Rachel Peng is ex-military and a trained detective, and her powers came about via fairly well-understood-in-universe sci-fi. Hope Blackwell’s powers, with the exception of judo, are far, FAR more fantastic in nature. (Spangler takes that quote about magic vs. sufficiently analyzed science, installs a tow bar, upgrades the radio and is probably commuting to work in it as we speak. In an awesome way. The AGAHF ‘verse is the sort of amazing, improbable creation that lets fantasy and sci-fi fans be married to one another despite the fundamental incompatibility of their respective favorite genres. Again, ask me how I know.)And while it seems on first reading that Hope’s magic fancy powers of awesomeness are, indeed, awesome, one can’t get away from the fact that they have also completely destroyed her life. Wrecked it like a weasel in a wedding cake. (My favorite Spangler quote!) If the test of whether a character is a Mary Sue or not is to ask the reader, “would you want to BE her for a day?” then Hope Blackwell passes, because my response to that is something along the lines of “oh, HELL no!” When I say ‘awesome’ about K.B. Spangler, I am using the word in the classical, Dan Simmons doorstopper four-book series sense of the word. Her work will literally fill you with awe, and not always in a “dude, that is so cool!” way. Sometimes it’s more of a “oh, holy Skittles, that one is possible…” worldview-breaking way that makes you need to sit in a soft chair and think about fluffy animals for a while until the mental spiders go away.This is, fundamentally, a story about why, if someone invites you to be the heroine of a story that changes the world, you run the other way as fast as you can and pray you don’t live in a universe where narrative causality is a thing. We're following a woman with a superpower, a disability and a cool skill set, her irritable friend who is somehow even more damaged/awesome/broken/badass than she is and their friend the philosopher/ninja on an adventure that introduces them to a cast that takes the idea of 'diversity' and Silly-Putty-stretches it across time, space, culture, humanity itself and whatever barrier there is between living and dead. There's a koala, a Minotaur and the closest thing to a Greek goddess I can imagine, and you honestly wouldn't believe me even if I turned all the spoiler-vision on and described the plot like a Broadway musical soundtrack's liner notes how improbably, astonishingly good it is. You really do have to experience it for yourself.This is the sort of book where you look at the cover and think “oh, cool, this mythology I loved as a little kid, my favorite characters are going to play with it, yay funtimes!” and by the time you’ve gotten into the meatiest part of the book, you realize that what you thought might be a nice, frivolous dollar cheeseburger is actually an elaborate double-meat burrito with extra guac and a side of existential terror that makes one seriously rethink the afterlife, technology, history’s role in our culture and whether that stuffed koala for the baby was really such a terribly good idea.I compare K.B. Spangler to Dorothy L. Sayers a lot, and part of that is because, as an amateur Sayers scholar, that’s one of the highest compliments this particular human being can bestow on another one. But the greater part is because Spangler is doing now what Sayers did so frighteningly well back in the Interbellum Period. She’s taking possibly the most frivolous, culturally scoffed-at form of entertainment we have at this moment in time (for Sayers it was detective novels, for Spangler it’s webcomics and urban fantasy/sci-fi/something-uniquely-hers novels,) and she is using that innocuous means to slip some seriously important, even world-changing ideas across to her unwitting readership. By the time we realize, as a culture, how startlingly ahead of her time she is, it could possibly be November of 2085. Sayers had an understanding of PTSD, the role of women in society and the workplace, the critical importance of education for both genders and the ethical and moral problems that accompany competence and privilege that are, even in 2015, revolutionary and, in some circles, still quite shocking. Spangler has a grasp of PTSD, ADD, the role of women in martial and political spheres, the potential consequences of our current political system, and the profound ethical and moral problems we’re staring down the barrel of even as we’re holding the double-barreled shotgun of advancing technology and questionable governance in between our teeth.I’m calling it now. My great-grandkid is going to be doing college papers on K.B. Spangler. For such entertaining books and graphic novels, they have some serious power under the hood, and I’m willing to lay good odds that these books are going to be important for quite some time. Call it an intuition, or a feeling that if technologies can be out-of-place artifacts, maybe novels can be as well.But just for now, buy this and all its’ lovely, page-filled siblings! It’s getting on winter, there’s nothing this good on Netflix or broadcast and you can get ‘Greek Key’ for Kindle (or several other popular formats at K.B. Spangler’s website, incidentally,) and have it to read on your phone in case your flight gets delayed or someone else takes a turn driving. (I mean, you might have a bit of an awkward reaction to koalas if your nieces drag you to the zoo for the umpteenth time over Thanksgiving break, but that’s okay.)This is a good book. Get it and I think you’ll be glad you did.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Another Great KB Spangler Novel By K. Trabue If you haven't explored the Otterverse that is "A Girl and Her Fed", start reading it right now. It's a web comic, so you can go back to the beginning easily enough. Spangler uses the name Otter in writing it. Then, buy all of her Rachel Peng stories, and this one, "Greek Key". KB Spangler is definitely an artist worth supporting. The comic sucked me into her world, and I seriously cannot get enough of her writing. She is a professional, her plots are well written and very well edited. Of course of all of this is science fiction, but it is so believable!Thank you for another marvelous read, KB!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. What do a thief, the two worst psychics in the world, a murderous talking koala, and a 2500 year old ghost have in common? By Stephen Ray What do you get when you send a murderous koala and the two worst psychics in the world to Greece to track down an ancient artifact? The answer is a fast-paced adventure ranging across Greece in search of ghosts and clues that I could not put down.Greek Key is the 5th novel by K. B. Spangler, and the first where Hope Blackwell is front and center. In the Rachel Peng series, her story has only been touched on, but in this novel, we see what she's capable of and why she's so important. She may be the second worst psychic in the world, but her other abilities make her the person best suited to investigate a potential threat to reality itself.At first, I was a bit thrown by the first person narration. A narrator with Attention Deficit Disorder doesn't seem like the best choice for narrator at first. Within the first couple of chapters, I realized this was the best way to go. It allows you to get to know Hope more quickly, and lets her introduce important background material to readers without having to stop and spend three chapters getting you up to speed.This is the first book in the Hope Blackwell series. The Rachel Peng series, the Josh Glassman book (series?) and the webcomic all these characters spring from, A Girl And Her Fed, all exist in a shared universe, but it's not necessary to have read any of the other material in order to enjoy this novel.
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