Xum Yukinori writes...

A response to your "Rain of the Ghosts" typo contest. On Chapter 2, page 7, paragraph 4, Charlie says, "Not a record. But respectable." While "Not a record, but respectable." is grammatically correct, you may have been taking artistic license since it was dialogue.

I didn't notice any other glaring error... I was enjoying the book too much.

Best,
Xum.

Feedback writes...

If you don't mind me asking, has Rain of the Ghosts done okay in sales??

I actually haven't bought my own copy yet. Being in Med School is a bummer, haven't read a non-science book in ages. As soon as I get a break, I'm hitting Amazon!

Anonymous writes...

How well did Rain sell/is selling?

Masterdramon writes...

Wanted to post this separate from my review, for length reasons if nothing else.

The "sources" for several of the references included in RAIN OF THE GHOSTS are fairly obvious. Bernie and Maude, Broadway-Niner-Niner-Four, and Terry Chung all demonstrate that you continue to be as shameless as ever (and damn if we don't love you for it!), and it's probably easier to list what [I]isn't[/I] referenced from "The Tempest."

But I'd just like to quickly confirm if "Mr. and Mrs. John DeLancy" are meant to refer to actor John de Lancie, most famous as Q from "Star Trek" (and more recently, Earth-16's very own Mister Twister).

And if so, was there any particular reason that you gave him a little shout out there? Just mildly curious.

Thanks, and I hope that you enjoyed my review! :)

Masterdramon writes...

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS

"You don't belong back there," the woman said gently. "Leave it all behind."

Rain nodded. That's right. That's right.

"You have the whole world to explore," the woman said warmly. "There's so much to see."

Rain could only nod. So grateful. So much to see. She wandered forward. The snow was white and warm and glowed softly, quietly. So much to see.

Well...it's finally time.

While I first acquired my copy of your inaugural novel a few weeks ago, it wasn't until recently that I managed to find the time to finish it; starting a new job the week before Christmas tends to eat up free time. But plenty of car rides to and from airports at the holiday season gave me ample time to breeze through the latter half of the book, and I've spent the last couple of days mulling over exactly what to say about it.

[NOTE: From here on out, there may be references to minor SPOILERS. If anyone hasn't read the novel all the way through yet, stop right here and go do so.]

If I had to boil down my reaction to RotG into a single word, it would be "intrigued." Reading through it, I felt transported back to third grade, making my way through "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone" for the first time. RotG has a similar "feel": simultaneously a single story and a rapid-fire barrage of future plot hooks, designed to impress upon the reader the sheer size and scope of the world it is building, while leaving room for that world to expand greatly in future installments.

Rain herself is a good encapsulation of this. As a protagonist she is simultaneously extremely likeable, and precisely the opposite. Hot-tempered, impulsive, abrasive, and constantly taking Charlie's loyalty completely for granted, she is...well, a teenager. She has a good deal of growing up to do, and it's hard to fully get "on her side" until she does.

But as this book series all-but-promises to be her Bildungsroman, I'm confident that Rain's gonna continue to grow on me. And her "voice" is so uniquely enjoyable that I'm very much EXCITED to go on that journey with her, so that's certainly a point in the character's favor.

The rest of the cast was a joy, for the most part. Charlie was, admittedly, probably the weakest link for me. I LIKE him well enough, don't get me wrong, but on this first outing I can't help but find him a little bland. He's more than a tad snarky, crushing hard on Rain, and possessed of the patience of a saint...but beyond that, I find it hard to come up with many descriptors for his character. Here's hoping that we get to explore his perspective and his history a little more in future books.

I adored 'Bastian/The Dark Man, however. His "I don't really know what to think about this" attitude toward being dead, oscillating between casual detachment and sorrowful contempation depending on the situation, felt very REAL to me, and made his scenes a constant delight. I don't know how long he's going to stick around, but I'm hoping that it's for at least a few more books. There's just something undeniably "cool" about having a ghost in a bomber jacket as one of your leads.

As for the supporting cast...again, "intriguing" is probably the best word I can use. Everyone's got their secrets, and you did a masterful job at teasing just enough information to encourage the audience to chase down every last one. From Miranda's father to whatever the deal is with Ariel, from Maq's and Obie's roles in all of this to Callahan's history...it's a brave new world, and I very much want to learn more.

Personally, my favorite character is hands-down, Judith Vendaval/The Tall Woman. Thing is, I couldn't possibly tell you WHY. Functionally, she does basically nothing to advance the book's plot.

But there's something about the "air" to her, even moreso than the other "mysterious" characters wandering the periphery of this story, that grabs me and won't let go. She's still at the inn at the beginning of the second book, according to the excerpts included at the end, so I doubt we've seen the last of her. And I am SO looking forward to it.

The plot itself is straightforward, but layered; at least three stories (Rain's present-day grief, the regrets of WWII resurfacing, and the "real" story going on behind the scenes, which our heroes are largely oblivious to) running through each other, with little hints sprinkled EVERYWHERE of more to come. It's not an unfamiliar feeling from your work...but it is a welcome one.

Without a doubt, the most enjoyable scenes from me were the two "Villain Tags" near the end - Maq and Obie confronting "Hura-hupia," and Callahan's meeting with his employer. Questions abound about this "Mr. Setebos," not the least of which being exactly how indicative his name is...but I'm comfortable being patient for THOSE kinds of answers.

The one other thing I want to comment on before wrapping this review up is the writing style. I've never read a novel precisely like this one in that regard, and in-and-of-itself that is neither a positive nor a negative trait.

Even if I didn't already know it going in, it wouldn't be hard for me to guess that the writer of RotG has gained much of his experience writing scripts for television and comics.

Take, for example, the frequent jumping of perspectives from one character to the next - some of it even within a single paragraph. A lot of readers seem to have found that quite jarring...and yeah, I won't deny that it threw me for a loop the first couple of times, even if I got used to it after a while.

But in a comic? This wouldn't seem remotely odd at all. All it would require would be separate thought balloons in the same panel.

Once again, though, there's nothing BAD necessarily about this stylistic choice; it's just...different. And in all fairness, you certainly took advantage of its narrative benefits. Maq and Obie would have a much harder time fulfilling their current roles if you had to devote a full chapter to them every time they needed to chime in.

In closing, if the main purpose of RotG was to ensure that I'd desperately want to read eight more books set in this world, then it damn well succeeded. True, my first reaction to learning that the structure of the series corresponds with a nine-item "fetch quest" was to bristle a bit...but there's enough to intrigue me about the first zemi that I'm quite excited to search out the rest.

What form do the others take? What are their powers? Where do they come from, and who made them? And what exactly IS the "true Mystery of the Ghosts"?

A deep widening groove. An oval ring. A larger, more circular ring. A shallow groove. A semi-amorphous cross. A thick equilateral triangle. And a small cylindrical hole.

One Key down, eight to go. This is gonna be one wild ride.

Soraya writes...

Hi! Hope all is well and that Rain of Ghosts is selling well (I'm reading it on my tablet and it's awesome so far!) anyways a question I've wanted to ask for a while now was is the title for The Usual Suspects in season one of Young Justice in reference to the movie?

Thank you!

Harlan Phoenix writes...

I finished Rain of the Ghosts earlier today and to cut to the chase, I absolutely loved it. I spent a lot of my early teens reading middle school and up fantasy series like Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, or His Dark Materials and Rain of the Ghost felt right at home with the tone of those stories (maybe slightly less so with His Dark Materials, but eh). In a weird way, Rain of the Ghosts was laced with a lot of pleasant nostalgia for me despite being a brand new property in your body of work. I have two young nieces and Rain is the exact heroine I would love to see them grow up on. When they're much older (being a toddler and baby respectively), I more than intend to raise them up on Rain of the Ghosts when they're old enough to relate to Rain and empathize with her journey. After all, they'll need something to read when I'm not watching Gargoyles with them.

As mentioned in my Mecha-Nation review, your heroes are really among the best in animation (and, now, general all ages fiction!) and Rain of the Ghosts continues that trend. I absolutely adore Rain as a protagonist and even though I'm a decade older than her I can definitely relate to her fears of a future locked in stone. 'Bastion was an incredibly welcome return to your love of WW2 iconography and his backstory, and his scene with Rain near the end was nothing short of adorable. Charlie brought a lot of welcome humor and awkwardness to the story that only emphasized his strength as a friend to Rain. It's a solid cast and I am very eager to see their next adventures.

And Opie may tie with Matrix as my favorite character you've ever written. I adore Opie. And Ariel definitely fascinates me and I like to imagine she, Owen, and Mercy Graves have the most intense poker games ever.

All in all, it's a lovely book that took me back to a time that makes me feel warm and fuzzy but with the added benefit of your personal style. Though I love all of your writing, there's something nice out of getting an original property amidst the more common adaptations. It's why, as great as Young Justice is, I felt a bit more connection to Mecha-Nation. It's a truly underrated comic that I'm sad we've yet to get more of and though it was Victor Cook's brainbaby, your voice really did come through and presented genuinely intelligent themes in a charming Saturday morning guise.

So I felt a nice connection to Rain. I've been a fan of your work essentially my whole life and with Rain, I feel like I'll be able to instill the Weisman love to the next generation of my family because, quite frankly, I'm a big enough dweeb to immensely value that. I'm with Rain for the long haul and am endlessly happy I've gotten to read it. Here's hoping some more of your ideas find their way to fruition and, in the mean time, here's to Spirits of Ash and Foam and Star Wars Rebels. I am very excited for both of them.

Now to shamelessly exploit your errors for attempted personal gain.

RAIN OF THE GHOST TYPO CONTEST

For my stab at finding a typo, I'm going to point out an anomaly with your tenses. Though your italicized thoughts for the characters are all in present tense (as thoughts should be!), there's one instance where this isn't quite so.

Second full paragraph, page 171, which reads as such:

"Here!" He guided her hand. [i]All those video games were finally paying off...[/i]

My tags note the italicized portion of the paragraph, i.e. the final sentence. I was hesitant to make this my entry, since the possibility of it being a stylistic choice is always there (and I didn't recall seeing it in your proofreader notes on the site). But after leafing through and comparing it with the other italicized thoughts throughout the book, it doesn't feel consistent with them and sounds more in tone with Opie's narration than Charlie's internalized gratitude.

Therefore, my submission to the contest is the final sentence of the second full paragraph of page 171, specifically the tense created by the use of "were."

Rain Fan writes...

Whose voice do you imagine when writing lines for Rain, Charlie, Bastian, Opie, and Julia?

Just a Nerd writes...

Damn it, Greg. It happened with Young Justice. It happened with Gargoyles, though I was a (very) late comer. It happened with YJ: Legacy. I told myself it wouldn't happen again. But, once again, I am obsessed with a Greg Weisman production. Rain of the Ghosts was fantastic! An amazing story, a perfect amount of humor, mysteries that made my head ache, and lovable characters. I won't say anything plot-wise, due to not wanting to spoil.

But one thing I found interesting: I found myself atributing voices to the characters, taken from YJ and Gargoyles. Rain's dialogue came out as Elisa's voice in my head. Charlie was Jaime/Blue Beetle, while Bastian became Peter Maza. Callahan changed often, jumping from Vandal Savage to Macbeth to Deathstroke, though none of those are Australian. Probabley shoulda gone Dingo. (I'm an odd, odd person.) And I don't say this to say the characters were carbon copies, or even a little similar; it's just what my brain did.

Overall, a very enjoyable read. Don't think i spoiled anything but character names. (And, by God, I love Maq and Opie already.)