Rating: 
Summary: A permanent place on my bookshelf
Review: A perfectly detailed alternate world, with enough differences to make this murder mystery particularly compelling!
Rating: 
Summary: Very good background but very very boring...
Review: I bought the book because I liked the clever alternate history background in which the story is set. Unfortunely the narration is dry and very very boring - a real letdown of my high expectation. I forced myself to finish the book just because I hate to leave books half-read on my bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Very good background but very very boring...
Review: I bought the book because I liked the clever alternate history background in which the story is set. Unfortunely the narration is dry and very very boring - a real letdown of my high expectation. I forced myself to finish the book just because I hate to leave books half-read on my bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult idea to focus in one book
Review: I found that this book presented a very interesting idea of what life would be like if you REALLY had to live with the results of killing. The concepts were difficult to focus on early in the book, but the climax was worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Work of Alternate History...
Review: I've always been a complete fan of Modesitt's SciFi works, so I decided to pick up this book. Boy, was I ever pleased. Not only does the author manage to weave a completely believable alternate history in which the North American political landscape is totally differnt (though historiclaly plausible) from today, but he manages to insert the idea of ghosts into the stiory - in a highly believable manner.Within this complex reality Modesitt tells a great tale of political intrigue. The hero is great...an academic who is a reluctant spy who really only wants to leave his past behind and teach in his small regional university. The bottom line is "Of Tangible Ghosts" is a superb book!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Work of Alternate History...
Review: I've always been a complete fan of Modesitt's SciFi works, so I decided to pick up this book. Boy, was I ever pleased. Not only does the author manage to weave a completely believable alternate history in which the North American political landscape is totally differnt (though historiclaly plausible) from today, but he manages to insert the idea of ghosts into the stiory - in a highly believable manner. Within this complex reality Modesitt tells a great tale of political intrigue. The hero is great...an academic who is a reluctant spy who really only wants to leave his past behind and teach in his small regional university. The bottom line is "Of Tangible Ghosts" is a superb book!
Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Spooks and Spectres
Review: Of Tangible Ghosts is the first novel in the Ghost series. In an alternate universe, the English Plymouth colony failed and the Dutch dominated Columbia. Austro-Hungary has conquered most of Europe and the French exiles under DeGaulle rule in Mexico. In this timeline, ghosts are much more visible, powerful, and responsive to technical devices. Doktor Johan Eschbach is a former Subminister for Environment in the Natural Resources Ministry of the Columbian government. Prior to his term as a high level government official, Johan had been a flying officer in the Republic Air Corps and then an agent in the Spazi, the Sedition Prevention and Security Service. When Speaker Hartpence's Reformed Tories party won the election, they cleaned house in the Natural Resources Ministry and Johan retired to his family's old summer home in Vanderbraak Centre, accepting a position in the Natural Resources Department of the local college, Vanderbraak State University. In this novel, Johan has a close relationship to Doktor Llysette duBoise, a concert quality soprano who also teaches at the college and who is a refugee from the conquest of France. Llysette has a concert one evening and Johan drives her to the music center to prepare for the performance, then goes to his office. Later, as he locks up to leave for the concert, Johan feels a drop in temperature. Then he hears someone sobbing and shortly thereafter he sees the ghost of Miranda Miller, a piano instructor in the Music department. Apparent Miranda has just been murdered. He starts to report the incident to Campus Security, but realizes that such a report would position him as a prime suspect. Instead, he walks to the Music department to attend Llysette's concert. During the next few days, Johan discovers that the Spazi are interested in Miranda's murder, indicating that the homicide has more that local interest. Moreover, he starts to receive newspaper clippings from an anonymous source, which he knows must be associated with the Spazi. It would seem that he is being maneuvered into investigating the case. This novel presents some interesting notions about the creation and persistence of ghosts and the technical manipulation of such spirits. Moreover, it speculates about the relationship of the mind to the brain and the consequences of separating them. As is usual with Modesitt, the plot moves rather slowly as the reader views and reviews the life of the protagonist and the characteristics of his society. If the reader can tolerate the slow pace, however, the story will unfold before your eyes as if you were living it. Maybe Modesitt is an acquired taste, but so is Faulkner, and I find there is much that is common between the two. Faulkner, however, never had to create a whole timeline. Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and anyone else who enjoys tales filled with philosophical notions, technical speculations and international intrigue. -Arthur W. Jordin
Rating:
Summary: A Tale of Spooks and Spectres
Review: Of Tangible Ghosts is the first novel in the Ghost series. In an alternate universe, the English Plymouth colony failed and the Dutch dominated Columbia. Austro-Hungary has conquered most of Europe and the French exiles under DeGaulle rule in Mexico. In this timeline, ghosts are much more visible, powerful, and responsive to technical devices. Doktor Johan Eschbach is a former Subminister for Environment in the Natural Resources Ministry of the Columbian government. Prior to his term as a high level government official, Johan had been a flying officer in the Republic Air Corps and then an agent in the Spazi, the Sedition Prevention and Security Service. When Speaker Hartpence's Reformed Tories party won the election, they cleaned house in the Natural Resources Ministry and Johan retired to his family's old summer home in Vanderbraak Centre, accepting a position in the Natural Resources Department of the local college, Vanderbraak State University. In this novel, Johan has a close relationship to Doktor Llysette duBoise, a concert quality soprano who also teaches at the college and who is a refugee from the conquest of France. Llysette has a concert one evening and Johan drives her to the music center to prepare for the performance, then goes to his office. Later, as he locks up to leave for the concert, Johan feels a drop in temperature. Then he hears someone sobbing and shortly thereafter he sees the ghost of Miranda Miller, a piano instructor in the Music department. Apparent Miranda has just been murdered. He starts to report the incident to Campus Security, but realizes that such a report would position him as a prime suspect. Instead, he walks to the Music department to attend Llysette's concert. During the next few days, Johan discovers that the Spazi are interested in Miranda's murder, indicating that the homicide has more that local interest. Moreover, he starts to receive newspaper clippings from an anonymous source, which he knows must be associated with the Spazi. It would seem that he is being maneuvered into investigating the case. This novel presents some interesting notions about the creation and persistence of ghosts and the technical manipulation of such spirits. Moreover, it speculates about the relationship of the mind to the brain and the consequences of separating them. As is usual with Modesitt, the plot moves rather slowly as the reader views and reviews the life of the protagonist and the characteristics of his society. If the reader can tolerate the slow pace, however, the story will unfold before your eyes as if you were living it. Maybe Modesitt is an acquired taste, but so is Faulkner, and I find there is much that is common between the two. Faulkner, however, never had to create a whole timeline. Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and anyone else who enjoys tales filled with philosophical notions, technical speculations and international intrigue. -Arthur W. Jordin
Rating:
Summary: nice rainy-day reading.
Review: Something to read when you have nothing else to do. Interesting, if a little confusing in the begining. I liked it. I picked up the sequal at the library, really not knowing what it was about. I started it, and I kind of liked it, but I had no idea what a lot of the things being refered to were.While in a book store, I saw of Tangible Ghosts and decided that it might help me understand what was happening. This one is good, but if you are looking for a really spy-y novel, read this one so you will understand The Ghost of the Revelater
Rating:
Summary: Charming book
Review: Sort of like a John Le Carre novel set in an alternate reality where ghosts exist. I really loved it; to me, the strange yet familier political meandering and unrushed development made the story all that much more fun. Don't just read a few pages then give up when you don't get immediate satisfaction. Hang in there through at least the first couple of chapters, and if you have any taste you'll love it. :)
Wish Modesitt would write more books like this. I personally don't find his Tolkienesque works all that appealing but this book, well, it's one of my favorites. The sequal, "The Ghost of the Revalator" is decent, but not as good as this, IMHO.
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