SPECTR: The Complete First Series (SPECTR #1-6)

Im pretty…meh, on these books. They had a good story in them. Some of it I really enjoyed. But I felt like some parts went too quickly (like John and Calebs relationship). Also, I bought the omnibus edition, obviously, but I would have been insanely mad if I had purchased each book separately. The price! Even $10 is a lot for this story, honestly. I liked the relationship between Gray and Caleb, but it started off as nothing and then very VERY quickly became this love. And while the love was cool, I wish the build up between them had been better. I do LOVE the mnage aspect of the story. Its so unique. Its so cool. There were just other parts of the story that annoyed me. Will coming into town? Why. That was a waste of a subplot.

Anyway, running thoughts:

Book two had 121 pages. How do you even call that a book. Thats a chapter.

The prose is very basic. The storyline would be good if the writing was more…just more.

You know what would be a cool twist? If John could hear Gray whenever they were barebacking it.

Book 4 brought in a very cliche subplot. Kill me now.

Dude. Sean turned him in. Obviously.

These books would actually make a good tv show. Because theyre so short. Like episodes.

I would have enjoyed this more if it had just been presented as one book. Not 6 short stories. Also if it hadnt been ten freaking dollars.

What if everything in your life and training told you that demons have to be destroyed, and yet you found yourself falling in love with the most dangerous demon of all?

I caught sight of this fantastic Jordan Hawk series when it was marketed as a bundlethe first six volumes, weighing in at 600 pages. Goodreads friends told me to read it. I resisted committing to such a large undertaking (what if I hate volume 1?); but once I started in, I tore through these six novellas in less than a week: Hunter of Demons, Master of Ghouls, Reaper of Souls, Destroyer of Worlds, Eater of Lives, Summoner of Storms.

Jordan Hawks work has long appealed to me. Her ability to create a plausible world populated with characters who make you care is exemplified in her period paranormal series, Widdershins. I note that not everybody likes this sort of thing (my husband, for one), but if paranormal action gay romance holds any appeal, then the tiny epic saga of John Starkweather and Caleb Jansen will ring all your bells.

I say tiny, because the action over the course of these six books happens in about a month and a half. Each book takes place over a few days, but the impact on the main characters lives is, well, epic. What makes the entire series so excellent is Hawks attention to detail; she keeps all the threads of the plot carefully in control, weaving the story together until its harrowing, cataclysmic finale.

The entire series is, of course, a metaphor. In a contemporary America where gay people seem to be accepted, it is those with any sort of paranormal abilities who are marginalized, discriminated against, and registered by the government. Thus John Starkweather, turned over to the state as an adolescent by his fearful family, has grown up believing in the mission of SPECTR, a government agency that hires paranormals to control the demons summoned by folks who think they can handle it. On the other side of the equation is Caleb Jansen, an aspiring artist who has hidden his minor paranormal skill all his life to avoid the social stigma. Having been raised with total mistrust of authority in general and SPECTR in particular, Caleb gets drawn into a splinter groups amateur exorcism that turns his world inside out.

But it is the third major character, Gray, who is the real catalyst for the story. A 5000-year-old drakul, or vampire spirit, he has drifted through countless lives, hunting demons and seeing the world in black and white, through the fragmented, meaningless memories of the dead bodies he inhabits. When he wakes up in Calebs body, staring into the intensely blue eyes of John Starkweather, it is the first color he has ever seen. The first pain he has ever felt. The first living human emotion he has ever encountered.

For all three characters, John, Caleb and Gray, the journey is earth-shaking. This is a violent, bloody, exciting action story in the contemporary millennial vein; but it is also a love story of grand proportions. It is a tale of heart over mind, of doing what is right over doing what is legal. There is a profound moral foundation to this story, rooted in the intertwined souls of its three protagonists. There is a certain X-Men or James Bond cartoonishness that is only to be expected in the genre, but Hawk gives her charactersalmost all of thema palpable humanity that keeps the reader locked into the narrative.

How I wish that all my millennial gay geek friends would stop trying to find a reflection of themselves in Hollywood nonsense like Batman v. Superman, where the only winner is the straight movie-going audience. Jordan Hawk gives us gay superheroes. I may be an aging baby-boomer, but Ill never have enough of this. Cant wait to start on the second SPECTR series.

Honestly, my review can be boiled down like this: I purchased the series as a full set, but the books were so good that I didnt want to pause in between to write individual reviews of each book. My reading spree included staying up way too late on a work night. I devoured this series the way Gray devours demons.

On the surface, this series appealed to me because it indulges in one of my favorite urban fantasy tropes, in which the wider world is aware that the supernatural exists in some form. The idea that an entire branch of government is dedicated to it tickled my sense of the ridiculous. On the romance side, the stuffy government agent and the civilian getting caught up in a case are another well-worn trope. But as usual, Hawk takes the generic and spins it into the amazing.

The romance arc between these characters evolves naturally, as two people who are attracted to each other, then as two people who evolve feelings for each other, then as two people and an extremely powerful god-like being who evolve feelings for each other wait. I know it sounds ridiculous, but its one of the best love stories Ive read, with multiple emotional punches to the gut. Also, I never wanted to smack anyone upside the head, which is my general litmus test for my appreciation of a romance story.

The stigma in this world against the paranormally-abled is an allegory for the realities in our world of stigma against the LGBTQ community, used to go effect in terms of world-building and character history. Hawk also excels in breaking stereotype through the small touches, such not defaulting to he for every foe our heroes fight.

In short, this is an epic adventure featuring the strangest love-triangle/threesome/but not really youll ever read. You wont regret meeting John, Caleb, and Gray, and Im already looking forward to diving into their next set of adventures.

I devoured this series. Jordan L Hawk said she wanted this to play out like a TV series, with monsters of the week in each episode and a theme running through the entire series to culminate in a boss bad guy, who was quite spectacular.
I picked up the entire series for a song and enjoyed every second of it. I have read it several times and now have the audio book so I am listening to it as well.

I loved absolutely everything about this book. Fast paced, with great multidimensional characters it’s a real treat to read. I can’t wait to read the next one.

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