Alex ArcherReseñas

Lots of telling, not enough showing. And the main character is quite a Mary Sue - young, beautiful, knows everything about everything, also a badass karate master, etc etc. Just a bit too over the top, and the writing style bugs me.

Fantasy

Fantasy

Archaeology

Good story

Listened to the graphic audio.

These really aren't amazing works of fiction but I'm kind of depressed and campy "movie in your mind!" adventure stuff is like comfort food.

Going to listen to a few more before I delve into something requiring concentration I think.

I decided to try out this series as I had noticed through my library that they had over 40 books in the series, so I wanted to try something just a little bit different. By looking through the reviews on here, this book is up and down from one stars to five stars, which tells me that it is random for some people and what impressed or didn't impress them. I am in the impressed category as with this first book it grabbed me right away in the first chapter with some action continuing on with mystery, suspense, adventure, and lots more action.

Annja Creed is an archaeologist a/k/a treasure hunter a/k/a adventurer. She has been interested in locating the Beast of Gevaudin which is considered a legend in France. Annja decides to go on an adventure to France to see what she can find. On her quest to find the Beast, she stumbles into another mysterious find which leads her into a fight with some villains who are after a certain treasure. Trying to escape the clutches of these bad guys she meets up with a old man named "Roux" who helps her escape.

After the meet up with Roux, the book keeps twisting and turning with more mysteries as Annja is lead to what is considered the sword by Joan of Arc. As she pursues all these different treasures she is basically hunted by all kinds of bad guys including some monks from a monastery. The whole book was a mystery and a thrill ride as Annja goes from one extreme to another finding treasures and fleeing bad men.

I would consider the character, Annja to be a cross between Indiana Jones and Lara Croft (the video game heroine) as she basically has the skills of both of them to get her through and out of her predicaments. I found the book refreshing and fun as the action just keeps kicking from the first chapter to the last chapter. I will be continuing on with the series, but it is going to take awhile as there are a total of 61 books in this series! I look forward to pursuing all of them in the future. Giving this book four stars!

Siberian town hosts mad scientist creating super soldiers that eat their enemies for food.

Annja Creed finds 'coin' which completes Joan d'Arc's sword and becomes bound to it.

Dear LORD, that was awful writing.

  This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer.   Title: The Lost Scrolls Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Thriller/Urban Fantasy   Synopsis: Annja is on a digsite helping out a group that is trying to discover some information about Atlantis when a para-military group descends upon the camp, kills almost everyone and takes all the scrolls they can. Annja is stuck with a whiny, immature, genius of a girl and together they must figure out who is after them and what is so important about the scrolls in their possession.   My Thoughts: This started out ok, but about 3 or 4 pages in, we meet the most horrible girl ever. I don't remember her name now, but she was the epitome of a stuck up, arrogant, immature, selfish genius. I hated her.   And Annja had to deal with her through the entire book and that ruined this book for me. The story, about losts scrolls that might lead to more info about Atlantis and super-civilization, could have been pretty good.  You get a lot of action and a cool battle scene on an oil rig, but the pretentious prig ruined it for me.   I didn't understand why Annja kept helping her out, or being nice to her or anything. The brat was in her 20's, able to take care of herself and smart enough to know better. But she acted like she was 12 or 14 the whole time.   I hate it when a side character makes such a big impact that it completely affects my enjoyment of the book overall. "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer   Synopsis A Lara Croft clone, down to the shorts, twin pistols and twin "guns" (if you know what I mean) finds the missing piece Joan of Arc's sword and becomes an agent for Light with some supernatural powers.   My Thoughts This was published by Gold Eagle, the imprint that did/does the Mack Bolan books, so I knew I was in for action and kickass'ness. It's like Harlequin, for men. However, I've never been a fan of Tombraider, as I don't really prefer busty babes as action heroes. So I wasn't sure how this was going to work.   Thankfully, it was a lot of fun. The supernatural side of things was very limited and I'm hoping it ramps up in further books. Having an older "mage" mentor worked well, especially since he's a dick. He's the perfect cranky old man. And his former apprentice does a good job of coming across as the deadly playboy who'd kill you as soon as look at you.   The plot was more setup than anything. It worked in finding the final piece of the sword, getting the sword and dealing with another adventurer who wanted the piece of the sword. Lots of introductions that WERE the plot.   Overall, I enjoyed this for the light fluff it was and am looking forward to the next couple in the series. I believe there are 30 novels, but I'm not promising to hang around THAT long. But who knows, maybe it will keep my attention :-)   Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars   Author: "Alex Archer" "½

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted
at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Secret of the Slaves Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 253 Synopsis: Annja Creed is approached by a Bono/U2 based Billionaire Activist who is after some super tech created by a hidden society in South America. At first this hidden society seems bad, as they kill everyone around Annja but then we see the light about how good they are because they "shared" in the past. And Mr Activist is shown for the horrible, horrible person he really is and in the end everyone gets what they really deserve.

My Thoughts: I still don't understand how a group of escaped slaves somehow turns into a super advanced society that can hide itself from satellites, etc? Sharing culture with those they escaped to doesn't suddenly make them into supermen.

I go into these stories with my believe-o-meter turned all the way to zero, or so I think and yet I still get shocked each time. I guess when the author writes so heavy handedly it can't be helped.

Other than that, this was typical Rogue Angel with guns and punching and swords and exotic locales. And plenty of new side characters to kill off. I have to admit, I love that part, I really do. "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Serpent's Kiss
Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 292 Synopsis: Annja finds the remnants of an old shipwreck. It appears to be from a possible Lost Civilization and the descendants of an escapee from there want whatever is on that ship. Because it will lead them to a Lost City filled with treasure. My Thoughts: Annja has adventures. Runs into a modern day pirate and then into a whole city of inbred bestial savages. And uncovers an archeologists' wetdream. And that really sums up everything. "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Warrior Spirit
Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 292 Synopsis: Annja is recruited to find an old family relic with possible mystical powers, by the last in a clan of.....Ninjas! And they are opposed by the Yakuza, another Ninja'y kind of guy and some monks. My Thoughts: My eyes were rolling so much while reading this that I had to change my glasses. Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but almost. The Sword goes on the fritz whenever Anna isn't in real danger, which I find ridiculous. It completely took away the idea of Free Will and negated the idea that she could go all Darkside by killing innocents, which has been previously explored. I don't expect much from my action books, but if you are going to try to be Philosophical, I expect something real, not some new age crap that has as much depth as a bikini. And Mr Ninja? I have nothing to say *grin* "½

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer   Synopsis: Annja, in the process of helping out a Chinese man find his long dead relative, stumbles onto a secret that both Garin and Leroux want. And there is a whole gang of Chinese triads under the direction of a ruthless business man involved as well. A lost city in the desert, traps and lots of action.   My Thoughts: This was a lot of fun.  Annja gets almost killed in California while looking for a corpse and that ends up with her teaming backup with her ersatz mentor Leroux and going against Garin, Leroux's former pupil.   And there is a sub-plot about some girl assassin, but besides literally providing a piece of a puzzle, she wasn't an integral part of the story.   But we get a booby-trapped city under the desert! That is what made me bump this up half a star. Swords, darts, spears, falling floors, a locked room with a descending ceiling, it was ALL good.   The magical item this time was some doodad that Leroux thought was terrible, so he and Garin join up to destroy it.   Overall, a good fun read. No complaints from me this time :-)   Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Author: Alex Archer "½

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: God of Thunder Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 352 Synopsis: Thor supposedly came to earth and left a great treasure as well as his hammer Mjolnir. One of Annja's former acquaintances wants to make his mark by finding the hammer. At the same time, a family of nobility that is skirting bankruptcy is seeking the treasure. Leroux and Garin get involved, one on each side. My Thoughts: Forget any thoughts of Mjolnir. This story doesn't actually have anything to do with that, even though it should. Lots of parenting issues between Annja, Leroux and Garin. Some shooting and chases, an obligatory badguy who is "really" bad because he does torture and stuff [oh lordy, like that makes someone worse than the guy who embezzles and ruins 1000's of families lives? phhhh] and of course everything is solved in the last 5% of the book. Too much about the treasure and not enough about the Hammer. That would have been cool but I guess the ghost author doesn't have an imagination? Wouldn't surprise me. I never liked Mel Odom, even if he wasn't the particular ghost writer for this book. "½

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Provenance
Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 348 Synopsis: Annja finds herself embroiled in some world wide broo-haha over a mysterious and allegedly super powerful artifact. A super secret sect of Christians [oh my, are there ANY OTHER KINDS OF CHRISTIANS IN LITERATURE THESE DAYS?], a group of kindly and devout Muslims and then some Indonesian Pirates all want this artifact. And NOBODY knows exactly what it is, or what it does or anything concrete at all in fact. My Thoughts: This book was patently ridiculous. Plain and simple. The only thing redeeming this was the onslaught of unrelenting action, from a cruise ship to ninjas in an apartment to an island gun fight to a naval battle. It was guts, guns and glory. At the end, Annja, the remaining Knights and Muslims [who are now all bff's as they realize that they all want the same thing *insert super de-duper eyeroll*] look into the coffin and see something SO AMAZING that the author can't tell us what it is. It is just all that. This book pretty much set off so many bullshit alarms that I was drinking pepto-bismal by the gallon when I was done. If all the books had this amount of action however, it would really improve the series. Just lose the philosophy and let the urban fantasy explain itself. "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: The Soul Stealer Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Paranormal Pages: 284 Synopsis: Annja goes to Siberia[?] with an old friend who is an archeologist. His trademark is that he bicycles to each site. So Annja, Mr Friend and his bodyguard all bicycle in. They get trapped in a small village due to a snowstorm and come across a monster that might be a fallen goddess. Russian Mafia are involved, as well as forbidden Cold War science and a deranged scientist. My Thoughts: While I enjoy these books as Action/Adventure books, the Paranormal aspect is so badly done that it really takes away from my enjoyment. Take this book for example. Annja has a sword that she can pull out of the air, her mentor is 500 years old, she has seen and fought demons and yet she won't believe in the possibility of a goddess. Won't, not can't. This wicked smart woman simply won't accept the evidence right in front of her eyes. And that bugs the heck out of me. Either go Paranormal or not. Stop going back and forth between hidden science or the supernatural. And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limping between the two sides? - I Kings 18:21 That pretty much sums it up. I'm giving this series another couple of books to smooth this out, but if not, I'll drop it. "½

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Gabriel's Horn Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Paranormal Pages: 314 Synopsis: Roux, Annja's erstwhile mentor, is hunting down a painting that might lead him to Gabriel's Horn. An artifact of power that will end the world, and end Roux's guilt over the death of Joan of Arc. Garin, Roux's other apprentice, wants the artifact for himself. Annja is caught in the middle of her "family's" squabble and is pretty much blown to and fro. My Thoughts: This time around, the author doesn't make Annja doubt the supernatural side of what she has inherited with the sword. She plunges into the adventure without all the inner whining and self-doubt we've run across before. Thank goodness! The "romantic" under current between Garin and Annja was a bit ridiculous. In many ways, they are like step-siblings with a rascally, unruly father. The tension between them is more animalistic than real. Two powerful people coming to terms with the other while jealously guarding the relationship they have with their father figure. The "family" aspect was really played up in this book and it should have been, it is a great plot device. The overall layout of the story is the exact same. I think there is a template that all the authors must use. Something, something, something, wrap it up in the last 10% of the book. Things just get solved in all the books in the last 10%, without fail. It is good to keep that in mind. "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: The Golden Elephant Series: Rogue Angel Author: Alex Archer Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: Paranormal Pages: 315 Synopsis: Roux loses all his money and sends Annja out to recover a priceless artifact so he, Roux, can sell it to a collector. Annja gathers a team, and in a race against a tomb raider, finds a lost city, beats off 2 armies, saves the treasure and becomes BFF's with aforementioned tomb raider. My Thoughts: This series has lost me with this book. I don't expect much from ghost written action girl series, but this went beyond "a mess" into full on "terrible". First, Roux losing most, or all, of his money. That is so much garbage that I don't even know how to respond to it. The man has had 500 years to perfect his poker face and yet we're expected to believe he's almost broke? Ridiculous Number 1. Second, Tomb Raider girl. An african princess, with severe daddy issues, has deux machine pistols and robs tombs. A tip of the hat to Lara Croft? Only if you're a senseless dolt. This was ripoff, pure and simple. Thirdly, the "philosophical" talks between Annja and Miss Tomb Raider consisted of T.R. saying her piece and Annja going "oh yeah, I guess you're kind of right..." Bad philosophy, or even wrong philosophy, is one thing but LAZY philosophy isn't acceptable. I wanted to jump into the story and just rip apart Tomb Raider's supposed arguments. Fourthly, the "token" lesbian. I'm a Christian and don't accept the homosexual lifestyle as something that is ok, but even I was embarrassed at just how shallow and pathetic this 2 paragraph part of the story was. Change it "token christian" and you would have had a black woman hollering "Jesus save me!" once or twice and that would have been that. Write it well or go home. Finally, the collateral damage. I'm a big fan of lots of death in action/adventure stories. But when just about everybody dies simply to clean up the story and Annja is weeping hysterically one moment over them and the partying the next, well, it is pathetic. So in conclusion, this was just a sad sack of a story and with the lacklustre of this and the past couple of books, I think I'll be done. I need to find some good series instead of settling for pathetic and mediocre. "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer   Synopsis Mysterious happenings are occurring in New Mexico. Demonic creatures of darkness are killing people, an incarnation of the Divine Child keeps appearing and saving people, Annja keeps having assassins trying to kill her and through it all an old Jesuit killer keeps popping up.   Also the big, bad, terrible United States Military is doing horrible, dark, secret, scary things. Oh my!   My Thoughts Annja, the skeptic, who can pull a sword out of no-where, is physically enhanced, sees a demon with her own eyes, but she says it was just an eagle. This whole "I don't believe in the supernatural even though I'm part of it now" thing grates. It is "Denial" of the worst kind.   Other than that, this was a pretty enjoyable action urban fantasy. Annja teams up with a dying Jesuit who goes after supernatural baddies and they go after a deranged military guy who is trying to breed hybridized demon/animals. Yeah, weird.   I enjoy reading these, even with the faults. It is a formulaic action story, so if I have to put up with 1 or 2 faults in each story, that's ok. Not all formula stories can be as awesome as the Mack Bolan series.   Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Author: Alex Archer "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer   Synopsis A sacred stone, said to be a gift from Anansi to an African tribe, is being pursued for various reasons and by various people. Some say it is a treasure map, others a supernatural symbol of Anansi's protection and others a curse.   My Thoughts First off, while I know these are throw-away adventure stories, they do more than just dabble in the supernatural. They make philosophical and theological statements and that gets my inner Lion roaring away. But I still enjoy the adventure side of things.   Alex Archer is a catch-all for whatever author is writing that particular book and each author seems to be bringing their own pet political and theological ideology into the books. This time, we get smacked with the evils of the White Man, the pureness of the tribes of Africa [except for when they weren't, but that is glossed over] and how killing is Evil, with a capital E. Which means that Annja must feel guilty and all dark-sidey when she has to kill someone with her sword in self-defense or in defense of the innocent.   Other than that, I really liked this. We get a sacred stone and all that that means, ie, warlords, treasure hunters and witchy-women. There are some serious kickass fights, ranging from fisticuffs to swords and daggers to guns to vehicle mounted assault weapons.   The ending wraps up as quickly as the previous 2 books and I'm beginning to sense that the ending is the least important and least thought about part of the book. I mean, BAM, every badguy dies and the goodguys get the goods at the last 2% of the book.   I suspect these books will be lucky to get a 4 star from me, ever, but a run of 3 stars is pretty good by me. I don't need The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher for every fantasy book series :-)   Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Author: Alex Archer "

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer   Synopsis   Annja Creed finds out about Solomon's jar, where he supposedly stored the demons he used to build the temple described in Kings and Chronicles. Of course, others want this jar for it's supposed occultic power.   My Thoughts Let me start off by saying that I believe that demons are real, that possession can and does occur today and that suggesting that Solomon built a temple to Jehovah using demons is ludicrous and blasphemous. So some of what happened in this book touched a nerve instead of just being fantasy to me.   Ok, now that that is stated...   Annja continues on her quest to discover what it means to be an agent of Light. A lot of this story was babbling about "Goodness" and how God is too big to be nailed down to one belief, and other such new age non-sense that might sound comforting and is easy on the mind, but when examined, is just so much rubbish. Philosophy-Lite I'd call it.   But, a lot of action happens. And that was all that saved this story. Annja is attacked. Everywhere she goes. By mercenaries. By rogue Israelis. By an Amazonion super Model [I kid you not!]. By a group of Earth First nutters who want to wipe out humanity. By a group of scared fishermen. And finally by a group who is working for Garin Braden, Roux's old apprentice. [Roux is currently a kind of hit or miss tutor for Annja when it fits into the story] The ending was kind of besides the point it seemed to me, but it wasn't disappointing or anything.   I can't wait to see what further adventures happen with Miss Creed in the later books. I just checked Wikipedia and the series is up to something like 45. So I've got plenty to read, as long as I don't get sick of it :-)   Rating: 3 of 5 Stars   Author: Alex Archer   "

This series is a cross between Indiana Jones & Laura Croft tomb raider. Adventure & mystery abound in this archeological tale. Annja Creed is caught in the middle once again. The characters and storyline are well developed. The story was intriguing and engrossing.