Ghost Road Blues: The Pine Deep Trilogy, Book 1

I'll admit the narrator is horrible. There I said it.

You can tell this is some of Maberry's early work because I feel he is spending way too much time on character developement and detail he doesn't need to be. Seems to be over doing a few things. However the story is awesome once you get into it. The series flows more like one book kinda like The Stand .. instead of three seperate books. It really starts coming together in the 2nd book. I suggest you stick with it. Im glad I did. No its not Joe Ledger.. or Tom Amora for that matter. Its still really good once you get over the narrator. It really is a great and brilliant story as a hole.

This book was refreshingly different.The author has done an excellent job of developing the characters and only eluding to the underlying monsters that have plagued this town. Only thing I didnt like was having the book end before the story was finished I can only hope there is a second installment to find out how the hero(s) come out.

I really enjoyed this book. For me, it's MUCH better than the Joe Ledger novels. It reminded me of the best aspects of Stephen King and the narrator, while a bit annoying at first, really isn't that bad. I'm looking forward to the next 2 installments.

It wasn't the story as much as the narration I found so disappointing.

This was my least favorite part of the book, and ultimately what put me off.

I'm currently in the middle of "Ghost Road Blues" and I'm getting that "first 100 pages" feeling. I'm starting to look for a different book... Don't get me wrong! I love the Joe Ledger series and the Rot and Ruin stuff but I'm having an awful time getting attached to this one. It may be partly the narrator who's a little dry but the flow is off as well. I'm reminded of the first dance with a new girl - awkward. I'll admit I'm spoiled by Ray Porter (narrator of the Joe Ledger series) who makes me look for excuses to go for a drive (I listen mostly in the car). More than once I've taken the long way home just to have more Joe Ledger time but "Ghost Road Blues" just doesn't grab me. I think this one's gonna end up being "filler" between downloads.

This was seriously one of the most long winded books I have ever listened to. Did the author really have to use 15 adjectives or adverbs to describe every single thing?? It was kind of like watching a bad movie where you end up watching to the end hoping it will get better and it never does. That was this book, I listened to the entire thing hoping that the plot would get better and it never did. What the heck kind of town lets a kid get the tar beat out of him by his step father and no one does a thing, really? You have a villain that can???t be killed, you are kidding right? I do have to say that the narrator did do a very good creepy and evil voice, which was about the best part of the whole thing. I would rather be boiled in toxic waste than have to listen to another of these books.

I prefer Maberry's Joe Ledger series, but this was fine. I will probably continue with this series. I'm not much for these "horror in a small town" stories made famous by Stephen King. A steady diet of them warps my thinking.

Larry Corriea is another good author in the Man v Zombie gendre.

I stopped as soon as I got to the introduction of the Evil Christian, obedient, of course, to the voice of his Evil God. Personally I m sick of this tired cliched character in my books. I mean doesn t EVERYONE know by now that Christians boom songs about they B's&Ho s at their weekly services, dismissing the flock by popping a cap in another MFing parishner, or dress llike Demons and scream their drug induced hatred of God until they are so worked up that mutiple fights and stabbings breakout? Doesn t EVERYONE know this about Christians... I mean its in sooooo many books& movies?

I would recommend this book to fans of Stephen King, while it doesn't have the epic feel of a King novel it feels much the same. The characters quickly become recognisable

Responses to other criticisms of this book:

Poor narration: I guess that I must have a fairly high threshold for bad narration because this narrator did not give me any problems at all. I don't expect a narrator to provide a full cast of voices and honestly find it annoying when they attempt it but are inconsistent or each voice sounds like a variation of a 80 year old crone (I'm looking at you Game of Thrones). Weiner has a deep voice with excellent diction and enunciation, I have no problems with him.

Jumps around between too many characters: Again this isn't a problem for me, I have listened to books where there is no indication that the perspective or character being followed has changed but I didn't find this the case with this book. Thinking back I don't remember being lost at any point, the writing is fairly straight forward and the author uses numbered breaks in chapters to separate each scene... well I'm pretty sure he did though it is possible that he didn't break up every scene... anyway I had no problems with jumps in narration.

The book doesn't resolve anything: Considering this book is a trilogy and one with a grand plan that is obvious pretty early on I had no problem with the end of the book. There were some minor resolutions and there is a lot left unsaid but this makes me want to move on to the next book. To me the ending was logical and satisfactory.

Not Joe Ledger: Yep it definitely isn't... while there are horror aspects to the Joe Ledger novels this isn't a pulp action novel. There is action but it really is more like a standard horror novel. I don't have a problem with this fact it is what it is and the summary of the novel doesn't hide the fact as far as I'm concerned.

Boring: Again this is a personal opinion. I wasn't bored there are a couple of lulls in the action like with any novel and I did want to move on from a couple of scenes but nothing more than you would find in any 12hr+ audiobook.

Verdict:
I liked the book and will definitely be starting the next one tonight. This isn't a earth shattering piece of literature, it does borrow from lore and legend but the fact that I'm not sure what the villain is exactly, how the disparate horror tropes will all be tied into each other and finally who the book will end has me intrigued not put off. Give the book a go it is worth a credit and I like knowing there is a limited number in the series and I'm not looking at a huge investment with no end in sight like the Vampire Earth series.

The horror element of the story can be campy at times but it's actually very good. What surprised me though was how the book ended. It wasn't a cliff-hanger but many of the characters in the story, and there are a few, didn't have any real conclusion. The whole book felt like a setup for the sequel which is something that one usually feels while reading the second book.