StarCraft: Ghost--Spectres

This acts as a direct sequel to the events in Starcraft: Ghost - Nova, and I couldn't have been more pleased with it.Nova is actually an agent this time. It's not a long and drawn out origin story like in the first book. It's full of great and smartly written action scenes involving her unique powers. The plot is entertaining and flows very well . You also don't have to read the previous novel to understand the story line, as all essential parts of it are summarized in this book.Best of all, the book legitimately directly connects to the games, and I enjoyed seeing the cutscenes that take place after this story. Highly recommended!

The Starcraft storyline itself is epic and the Ghost soldiers particularly are interesting characters but this book doesn't do them justice. The first November Terra book about her life on Tarsonis was very good and you really felt for her character. This book can't decide who or what Nova is and the rest of the Ghosts other than Tosh are so one dimensional that I found myself forgetting who was who. Tosh for his part is predictable and incredibly stupid and weak willed to be much of a villain. I don't expect War and Peace for a book like this but the characters were flat, the story was either predictable or wildly coincidental and I found myself not really caring who won or lost. I know this is back story to the character arc in Starcraft II where you get to choose Spectres or Ghosts but this is a boring, poorly written book with a silly plot supported by ridiculous coincidences. Read only if you really want to know why Tosh and Nova hate each other.

Enjoyable continuation to the Nova storyline.This doesn't start immediately after Nova by Keith DeCandido, but the characters and backstory are the same, and it relies heavily on it for telling more about Nova and continuing her story.This goes into the story of the Spectres, missing Ghosts, the continued reign of Mengsk, and background on some of the Ghost training program. It is told from the point of view of several characters in mostly a chronologic timeline. There is some "and then they remembered..." flashbacks for backstory and expanding on the memory wipe aspects of the Ghost program.

If you are interested in the personality and motivations of Gabriel Tosh and Nova Terra, this is a good character study. If you want a book with a story interesting enough to stand on its own, this is a failure.The book opens well, with a quite good horror scene. It follows up with a good military engagement featuring Nova. After that, the dramatic tension just evaporates. On Nova's side of the story, we are given vague hints about a mysterious terrorist organisation acting against the Dominion. On Tosh's side of the story, we fairly soon get a detailed look at the character of the various Spectres, him especially. By the time the stories converge in a Spectre attack on a major Dominion facility, we have seen that the Spectres are dysfunctional enough that they won't be able to carry their plan out. When Nova shows up it just gets worse. The author has already had Tosh state that Nova is more powerful than the Spectres, and now the action confirms it. They can't stand against her.The attack is in the middle of the book. After it follow character scenes until about two-thirds of the book, when the James Bond stereotype begins: Nova gets kidnapped and the Evil Mastermind is unveiled. The flaws in Kenyon's writing really show here. The Evil Mastermind doesn't even get a gloating monologue, his "perfect master plan" is just info-dumped on us in a block of pages. And he STILL withholds the one part of the plan that would impart some horror to it. Fortunately, the action scenes that follow are reasonably good.Besides the action scenes, the good point of this book is the exploration of the personalities of Nova and Tosh. One of the things I was hoping this book might do is to show us why Nova is loyal to the Dominion, even after learning all the horrible things the Dominion has done. It does, and it does a surprisingly good job. It also does just a plain good job of showing us her personality in general. It does the same for Tosh. Ironically, why he is a good character for this sort of treatment is also why he fails as Nova's antagonist. It would have worked so much better if they had been partners, choosing which side they are on, rather than with Tosh's choice already made.All in all, this reads like the novelisation of a dumb action movie that would have depended on eye-candy Nova to distract the audience from the feeble story. It fails to stand on its own.

Reading this made me visualize everything that happened in the book, at no point did I lose interest in it. Would read again and definitely recommend to any and all starcraft fans.

Well the book pushes more towards the ghost of a chance line in SC2 than the specters. Which is the reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Towards the end of the book, Tosh appears more and more like a nutcase, than the reasonable and powerfull character you see after allying with him.Otherwise the book is still a very good read.

Spectres provides an excellent insight into the history of Tosh and indeed of the Dominion Ghost Program. It also sheds much needed light on the procedure that makes Spectres and the side effects of Terrazine. All of this is delivered in a well-written, smooth flowing novel.

Read this book over the course of about three days (which is fast for me), great read! Definitely recommend, even if not reading book in chronological order.

Good product.

A+

Very well written, good plot, good character development, would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys Starcraft and enjoyedthe first book

-Enthält Spoiler-"Phantome" ist meiner Ansicht nach der beste Roman zu der Spielereihe "Starcraft". Zum Thema an sich muß ich wohl nicht mehr viel schreiben, es geht um die Vorgeschichte, die Entstehung der sogenannten "Phantome" oder auch (englisch) "Spectres". Im Gegensatz zu sehr vielen anderen Sci-Fi-Romanen schafft es der Autor hier, nicht reines "Schwarz" oder "Weiß" zu malen, vor allem unter den "Fußsoldaten".So sind Nova und Tosh, die hier eigentlich eher als willfährige Waffen in den Händen anderer agieren und einst Freunde waren, hier weder wirklich gut noch wirklich böse. Man kann die Motivation von Tosh, der als Anführer der Phantome gegen das Regime Mengsk vorgeht, durchaus verstehen - und zum Teil ist man (so ging es mir) durchaus auf seiner Seite. Er ist, ganz ähnlich wie Nova, eine tragische Figur, der am Ende des Buches tief in seinem Inneren ebenso tot sein wird, wie es Nova schon zu Beginn war. Nova, die für das Regime kämpft - und das, obwohl sie erfährt, welche Verbrechen dieses begeht, erhält im Laufe des Buches die Chance, sich gegen ein Leben als Tötungsmaschine zu entscheiden - und tut es nicht. Ein kleiner Kritikpunkt wäre, daß Nova sich damit wissentlich und willentlich zu einer Mörderin des Regimes degradieren läßt, die im Grunde (wegen der Gedächtnislöschung) nur noch eine lebende Maschine ist. Das widerspricht jedoch dem Entsetzen, das sie noch immer über das in ihrer Kindheit (unfreiwillig) angerichtete Massaker mittels ihrer PSI-Kräfte empfindet. Wäre sie von dieser Tat wirklich abgestoßen, würde sie sich nicht weiter als Killerin für ein skrupelloses Regime benutzen lassen, das seine Gegner - egal, ob Mann, Frau oder Kind - gnadenlos eliminiert.Insofern konnte ich weit mehr Sympathien für Tosh aufbringen, der - trotz seinem Wahnsinn - für seine und die Freiheit seiner Leidensgenossen, gegen das grausame Regime kämpfte, auch wenn er mit seinen Mitteln dabei auch nicht wählerisch war und sich den falschen Verbündeten wählte.Fazit zum Buch: Ein Muß für Starcraft-Fans und auf jeden Fall eine Empfehlung an Fans Action-betonter Sci-Fi.Anmerkung zu einer kleinen Unlogik: Ich lasse mich gerne eines Besseren belehren, doch empfand ich die "Gedächtnislöschung" bei den Ghosts nach jeder Mission als stark unlogisch. Man bedenke: Es handelt sich hierbei um Elitesoldaten, hervorragend ausgebildet, die oftmals alleine oder in kleinen Gruppen hochgefährliche Missionen ausführen sollen. Nur leider frage ich mich, wie das genau funktioniert, wenn man diesen Experten nach jeder Mission die sogenannte "Experience of Battle", ungefähr übersetzt, die Kampferfahrung, einfach wieder aus dem Gehirn löscht. Ausbildung alleine macht nämlich keinesfalls wett, welches Wissen ein Soldat im tatsächlichen Gefecht sammelt (wenn er überlebt, klar). Kampferfahrung besteht nämlich bei Weiten nicht nur aus antrainierten Reflexen, sondern aus tausend weiteren Dingen, dem Wissen über verschiedene Feinde, Waffen, Umstände...usw. Im Grunde macht die Gedächtnislöschung aus allen Ghosts jedesmal wieder blutige Anfänger, frisch von der Ausbildung, die erneut ihr "erstes Gefecht" erleben und überleben müssen. Nur ein Gedanke, aber nicht ganz falsch, denke ich.

I bought this book because I already own all other books from the Starcraft Universe. My bad was that I thought it was in German but instead I ordered the english one.So as a German speaking guy I have to say that it is written very good. Easy to understand and you are able to connect to the previous books.The book is again about the live of Nova Terra, a Ghost Agent. This time she has to catch the so-called Spectres throughout different missions.The story is very nice and you never get bored during reading. For me it was not a problem of having the english version so I can recommend this book to all Starcraft lovers. But you should have read the first book of Starcraft Ghost: Nova before to understand some parts in the book.

"Phantome" ist der zweite Teil der Buchreihe "StarCraft Ghost". Während sich das erste Buch mehr mit der Geschichte Nova Terras befasst, geht es hier um das erste Auftreten und die Geschichte der Phantome, die man aus dem Spiel Wings of Liberty kennt! Das Buch ist quasi die Vorgeschichte und liefert guten Background zu Gabriel Tosh und seiner Vorgeschichte rund um Nova, die Ghosts und die Phantome! Für mich als absoluter StarCraft-Fan war dieses Buch äußerst interessant und auch die Geschichte ist phantastisch geschrieben und sehr spannend!Ich liebe Bücher die den Hintergrund eines Universums jenseits der "Haupthandlung" erweitern und das schafft dieses Buch auf eine tolle Art!Ich kann dieses Buch jedem StarCraft-Begeisterten nur wärmstens empfehlen!

While I did like this book for the insight into Nova and Tosh, my final evaluation is mixed. The overall plot did not really keep me interested, I never wondered what plans the evil leaders are actually trying to carry out.What I did like, however, was the development of the different characters and their relations towards each other:SPOILER ALERTNova opening up and recognizing her blindness towards Mengsk's means and deeds, Tosh developing from a rebel with valid points into an insane, Kath Toom's relation towards Tosh who slowly recognizes what he is becoming etc.A big letdown is the ending: Nova goes back to Mengsk and stays a ghost. Which means, her memory will be wiped again. Which means, any change this character has undergone during the course of the story will be elininated. The whole novel seems quite pointless thereafter.

Nun endllich erfährt man die Hintergrund zu den Phantomen aus dem Computerspiel Starcraft 2. Desweiteren wird die Geschichte der Ghostagentin Nova aus dem Buch "Ghost - Nova" weitergesponnen, so dass der Leser nun neue und bislang nur angedeute Informationen zum Hintergrund der Ghosts und der Phantome erhält.

StarCraft Ghost: Phantome könnte genauso gut irgend ein Science Fiction Kriegsveteranen Roman sein. Wem der erste Teil gefallen hat, wird in diesen Teil vol auf seine Kosten kommen.

Eine Geschichte über das terranische Sonderprogramm für Telepathen! Ein toller Hintergrundeinblick für alle Starcraft Fans. Gut zu lesen und somit leichte Kost

Golden experience