Thunderbird Falls

The Walker Papers, Book 2

By: C. E. Murphy

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

For all the bodies she's encountering, you'd think beat cop Joanne Walker works in Homicide. But no, Joanne's a reluctant shaman who last saved mankind three months ago; surely she deserves more of a break! Yet, incredibly, "Armageddon, Take Two" is mere days away.

There's not a minute to waste. But when her spirit guide inexplicably disappears, Joanne needs help from other sources. Especially after she accidentally unleashes Lower World demons on Seattle. Damn. With the mother of all showdowns gathering force, it's the worst possible moment for Joanne to realize she should have learned more about controlling her powers.

©2006 C.E. Murphy (P)2006 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Joanne Walker, a likable young Seattle beat cop, continues to learn the ropes of her even more dangerous job as a shaman in Murphy's spirited second urban fantasy." (Publishers Weekly)

Awesome

Wonderful second book. First was much better but it always is.. A def. read..

Amazing story

I love it. negation is amazing. storyline a1. the only thing is it's not really a romance.

New narrator, same good story!

So, first: yes, changing a narrator mid-series (or even after the first book like here) isn't ideal. And, maybe because I listened to these books one right after another, at first, the new voice (&especialy reading stlye) threw me. Grabra Zackman is good, but --- in THIS book --- not as good as Christine Carroll was. Her reading is a bit more flat. But but but: she improves so much with each new book and frankly, at the end I was glad she's the narrator. Once she gets her groove back (by book... I think it was 3 or 4), she's just perfect for Joanne. So if the change or her voice or reading style bothers you, just give her a chance. She gets so much better, it's amazing. Her subsequent performances all get a 5 star rating from me.

Okay, enough about that. I liked the book. It's not my favorite in the series, though. Other reviewrs have said they don't like Joanne reverting back to denying her powers --- and yeah, I get how that could be annoying, but I didn't think it was. I thought it was rather realistic, actually, because God knows it's taken me more than one epiphany to finally truly accept certain things in my life. And given where she starts from, reverting back to her old beliefs once she's away from everything seems natural to me.
So, that didn't bother me. What did was how she acted. I don't want to spoil anything, but she goes back to a place she shouldn't. Last time she was there, something bad happened and if she thought about it, it should've been clear that if she went back, she would endanger the other person. But she doesn't just go back, she does so without thinking twice, just spontaniously and without an actual reason. She just says she wants to talk to the other person, but once there, she doesn't ask any important question and it isn't even clear why she thought that person might help. Now, maybe she had a valid reson in her head --- but if so, she doesn't share it with the reader. This is something that really annoyed me throughout the first few books of this series: Joanne's actions sometimes happen out of the blue and without any inner explanation or reasoning. She just suddenly decides to do it and I never know why she thinks something (usually but not always monumentally stupid) like that would be a good idea. It gets better later, but in this book it really got on my nerves, because it's such a useless action and such a stupid one with such bad consequences and there is just never any reflection. I don't mind heros that do stupid mistakes, but at least I want to know *why* they do them.

But, that said, the book is very much enjoyable and while it might be my least favorite book in the series, this is one of my favorite series, so it's still way up there and definitely worth a credit.

brillantly written and performed

Fantastic read (or listen if you go the audible route). It is a unique blending of mythologies with a voice that stands out and is brillant in the cookie cutter world of many mass publishings. Labeled as a romance series it isn't the traditional trashy romancd in what most readers of those genres are accustomed to but the characters are powerful, individual, and flushed out with voices 100 percent their own.

great story! great narrater!

What did you love best about Thunderbird Falls?

the character

What did you like best about this story?

the adventurer, witty and entertaining

Have you listened to any of Gabra Zackman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

at first I wasn't sure if I liked Gabra as a narrator but soon she grew on me. I look for her books to listen to now because she adds so much more to the story, I think she can make a good book a best seller :)

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

her relationships with co. workers

Any additional comments?

great series

Great Adventure

Excellent story and performance. The character comes to realize that truth is more then a pretty story
Glad it is set in Seattle. It is one of the few cities that could just go with the flow. Shamanic mysticism combined with hard logic are melded together producing a delightful but sometimes sad story .

Easily amused

I realy like the plot behind the Walker Papers series. However I didn't like the new narrarator in this book. She was so novice it was painful.

Narrator change is disappointing

The first book of this series, Urban Shaman, was well narrated by Christine Carroll. I found it engaging on all fronts and easily slipped into the story and distinction amongst characters. Gabra Zackman did not uphold this level of narration, in my opinion. The accents, inflections, intonations and speech patterns she created for each character were not to my liking and quite a contrast to the first book in the series. Aside from that, the author didn’t disappoint with an engaging storyline and developed characters. I am teetering on not continuing the series; however, as Ms. Zackman’s service is used for many of the subsequent works in it. I encourage others to have their own experience with these narrators and this series. My intention isn’t to discourage people from this entertaining series.

good book

I really liked this book I read the first one and enjoyed it.

this is more of the good stuff from the first one.

Much better than the first book. Growing !

Narration is great! The series is getting better with each book (I'm on book 4)