Gary Jonas

Dragon Gate by Gary Jonas in the third book in the Jonathan Shade series but can be read without reading the other two books but do yourself a favor and read them, you will be glad you did! This picks up where the other book leaves off, and things start off with mysteries, wizards, aliens for another dimension, dragons, assassins, and a possible new romance for Jonathan. Things go bad for the two magical engineered warriors, one being his partner, and it takes all he has to save her. So many show more twists and turns and surprises this author is good for. The book is never as it seems, that is what I like about these books. The author is always one step ahead, the creativity and wit, humor, sensitivity, and love, all mixed in to one book is smoothly meshed perfectly. The action is non-stop, no rest for the characters or reader. Always a perfect plot, well developed characters, and well placed surprises and twists to grab the reader to say, "Oh my God! I didn't see that coming at all!!!" Love these books. I love the way they make me laugh one minute and tense up the next. Fun reads. The flapper ghost on his team is my favorite! show less

I'm giving this book five stars not because it's a "great novel", but because it's a perfectly executed space opera. There are underdog heroes, a cyber-psi, a sentient spaceship, a damsel in distress, tough guys with hearts of gold, vice-ridden plutocrats, and - of course - pirates. There are also two groups of fantastically incompetent underlings who bring to mind Maleficent's classic utterance of frustration: "Oh, they're hopeless. A disgrace to the forces of evil!" The plot is fast-paced, show more full of twists and turns, reveals, betrayals, reversals, and how-the-heck-are-they-going-to-get-out-of-*this*-mess moments.

On top of a cracking plot, the writing is very good: simple, clear, fast-paced. It doesn't call attention to itself by trying too hard, nor are there awkward or grammatically questionable passages.

If you're looking for a good time, read this book. show less

The Big-Ass Witch (The Half-Assed Wizard #2) by Gary Jonas is a book that had me laughing a lot! The lazy 'wizard' refuses to work on his wizarding skills that his wealthy wizard father has hired a bossy witch to teach him a thing or two. She cuts the guy no slack! She is always slapping him upside the head for doing or not doing something. He calls her a bitch and she says it is pronounced witch. He is afraid to say big-ass because he wants to live so he just keeps that to himself. Their show more first job is to find kidnapped ghosts. Yep, and the witness is a ghost. Boy, it doesn't get better until he gets possessed by a ghost that wants to kill herself. It is funny and crazy and very, very different! I love the dialogue, the weirdness, and all the fun! show less

Note: This is Book 5 in the series and I recommend reading the previous books as there are major things that happened in previous stories that affect characters’s decisions in this book.

Book 4, Anubis Nights, left us with quite the cliff hanger, so I was very glad I didn’t have to wait too long for this book to come out on audio. Jonathan Shade and his crew are still hunting Henry Winslow through time. Jonathan, Kelly Chan, and Ankhesenamun were yanked from ancient Egypt into 1877 at the show more end of the previous book. At the beginning of this book, Jonathan & Kelly are reunited with Brand and Esther, and they all have the opportunity to bring the confused Ankhesenamun up to speed.

And that’s the perfect set up for things to go very, very wrong. First, they finish traveling to San Francisco, hoping to catch up to the sorcerous Henry Winslow before he expects it and well before he can complete the next stage of his immortality ritual. Meanwhile, Douglas Freeman, a former slave, has suffered a great loss. He’s made a list of men who must die. Vengeful, angry ghosts accompany him as he tracks his quarry to San Francisco.

San Francisco is a mixing pot of cultures but it’s far from any kind of equality in 1877. Might still makes right and being any skin tone other than white leaves you with plenty of extra hurdles. Very few establishments outside of China town will serve Kelly Chan and nearly everyone assumes she is Jonathan’s slave. This provides plenty of opportunities for Kelly to set people right, much to my amusement. I’m really glad that the author didn’t ignore these facets of historical San Francisco as it made the story very interesting; Jonathan and crew can’t help but apply their 21st century standards to whatever time period they happen to be in.

The bad guy is very bad indeed! Henry Winslow is a very formidable foe as we saw in Book 4. That continues on in this book, though his powers have grown a bit. Still, Jonathan and crew think they can take him if they can just get the right combo of might, luck, and surprise going. At the very least, they can mess up this stage of his immortality ritual. For the most part, Winslow ignores them (or tosses them over houses) until they become a true nuisance. Then, there is hell to pay. There is this one scene that was a little bit of a tear jerker. Jonathan, in the first trilogy, managed to undo a few deaths with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. However, I don’t know if that will be possible this time around. This book’s description doesn’t lie about not everyone getting out alive.

In the previous book, I felt it was a bit silly that all 3 main female characters were in love with Jonathan. That theme was carried forth in this book, but now things are more complicated. Kelly and Jonathan had this romantic relationship in ancient Egypt and they continue that in 1877, but now they have Brand (Kelly’s ex-boyfriend) and Esther (a ghost who’s had a crush on Jonathan for years) to pay witness to it. This makes for some uncomfortable moments for these friends. However, I am better with the idea of Jonathan being the center of so much female attention now that I’ve read this book, especially in light of how this one ends.

OK, leaving all this mushy romance stuff to the side, Jonathan has more than one bad guy to deal with in this book. He and Douglas Freeman eventually cross paths and a deal is struck to assist each other, as they have one bad guy in common. This eventually brings plenty of pain and a few broken bones to Jonathan as he fights a man who is near indestructible. I quite enjoyed how he resolved that issue.

In the end, this is one of my favorite books of the series. There’s a lot going on in San Francisco in 1877 and a lot going on with Jonathan and his crew. The books ends on a bittersweet note with a bit of suspense for what will come next. So looking forward to Book 6!

I received a free copy of this audiobook.

The Narration: Yet again, Joe Hempel continues to be the perfect Jonathan Shade. As per his usual performance, he does an excellent light Chinese accent for Kelly Chan and a Southern drawl for Esther. I liked the little bit of high-and-mighty he put into Ankhesenamun’s voice. There were some pretty emotional scenes in this book and Hempel did a great job getting those emotions across to the listener. Indeed, I believe he must be attached to these characters by now and that really shows in his narration. show less