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    Early to Death, Early to Rise
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    Early to Death, Early to Rise
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    Early to Death, Early to Rise
    Ebook228 pages3 hours

    Early to Death, Early to Rise

    By Kim Harrison

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this ebook

    Seventeen, dead, and in charge of heaven's dark angels—all itching to kill someone.

    Madison Avery's dreams of ever fitting in at her new school died when she did. Especially since she was able to maintain the illusion of a body, deal with a pesky guardian angel, and oh yeah, bring the reaper who killed her to his untimely end. Not exactly in-crowd material. It's amazing that her crush, Josh, doesn't think she's totally nuts.

    Now Madison has learned that she's the dark timekeeper, in charge of angels who follow the murky guidelines of fate. Never one to abide by the rules, she decides it's time for a major change to the system. With the help of some unlikely allies, Madison forms a rogue group of reapers who definitely don't adhere to the rules of the heavens.

    But as she grapples with the terrifying new skills that come with being a timekeeper, Madison realizes she may not be prepared for what lies ahead—unless she gets some seriously divine intervention.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 25, 2010
    ISBN9780061995897
    Author

    Kim Harrison

    The only girl in a large family of boys, former tomboy Kim Harrison invented the first Brigadier General Barbie in self-defence. She shoots a very bad game of pool and rolls a very good game of dice. When not at her keyboard, she enjoys lounging on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching action movies with The-Guy-In-The-Leather-Jacket. She plays her Ashiko drum when no one is listening, and is hard to find when the moon is new.

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    Reviews for Early to Death, Early to Rise

    3.5/5

    156 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The premise: ganked from BN.com: Madison Avery is still trying to come to terms with her death and her role as the dark timekeeper. With dark reaper Nakita and her mostly light counterpart Barnabas at her side, Madison is determined to prove that, given the choice, those who might be doomed in the afterlife due to their bad choices can in fact be convinced to see the error of their ways in time to save their souls. Her test case involves two teen boys and a computer virus that she knows will be responsible for deaths in a hospital. As she races against time and her nemesis, Ron, she develops new, frightening powers. The complexities of Madison's supernatural world are not very well explained here, so readers would do best to start with this book's predecessor. Harrison builds an interesting world rife with politics and tradition, but Madison does a poor job of clarifying the roles she and her co-workers play in moving people from life to the afterlife.My RatingBuy the Paperback: now that I'm reading the second book in the series and the originality of the series has worn off, I'm left with more questions than answers and not much of a story to support it. Let's be honest, I expect to have some mindfreaks in a series where the underlying conflict is fate versus free will, but it gets frustrating when characters are acting AGAINST their professed belief system and when I still don't know the rules involved for either side, when I don't know what SHOULD have been to begin with. I'll allow that I may have overlooked some details while reading these two books, but there's not much in the way of forward momentum for this series, and there needs to be. I need to know what's been lost, what's been gained, and what we're fighting for before I fully invest myself in the series, and right now, I feel I've got half answers to most of my questions and more speculation than not. Not that I mind questions: but I've got to be invested in what I do get so the questions don't bother me, and right now, this series feels very light, which is a sharp contrast to the themes it's presenting to the reader. We fly through the book, through quite a simply plot and mostly enjoyable characters, but beyond that, I feel like I'm drinking diet instead of the regular soda I ordered. In short: it's like eating cotton candy: light and fluffy and yummy and it'll give you a tummy ache, but ultimately not very fulfilling. At this point, I'm going to think long and hard before continuing this series, because I'm suspicious of the payoff at this point.Review style: I'm still trying to figure out how the nature of fate versus free will affects not only the character's actions, but also their motivations and how often that conflicts with their supposed set of beliefs. I'll talk a wee bit about the story itself, but most of the comments deal with character and world-building and where this story leaves me when it's over. Spoilers? Not for the story, though I do talk about what we learn in this book regarding its world-building. Unless that bothers you, feel free to click the link below to my LJ for the full review. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)REVIEW: Kim Harrison's EARLY TO DEATH, EARLY TO RISEHappy Reading!
    • 3/5
      I liked this book better than the first, but I'm still not a fan of this series. I love Harrison's The Hollows, but this one just doesn't have the same charm. The characters are a little flat and I just don't care about them very much. The plot in this one is cleaner than the first, with less angst and sleeplessness.
    • 4/5
      Kim Harrison returns to the young adult genre with the second entry into her Madison Avery series. Even better than the first, Early to Death, Early to Rise grows the luscious and exciting world Harrison created and builds more wonderful characters that readers love to cheer for.Settling into her new role as a dark timekeeper, Madison decides that she wants to run things a little differently. Rather than living purely by fate and adhering to the rules of the reapers, Madison decides to take things into her own hands. She swears to change the world by giving people a choice. She creates a rag-tag groups of rouges (okay, a light reaper and a darker reaper) to carry out this lofty ideal. Not only does she have to deal with dark reaper Nakita constantly at odds with light reaper Barnabas, but due to the power of the amulet, she has to deal with "flash forwards" that show her the future -and gives her a chance to stop good people from going bad.Though the story is simple, far too short and only involves one reap, it's packed with well-drawn character development and a wonderful and fun world that's easy for the reader to get involved in. While I was surprised to see that this story was so simple (compared to Harrison's popular Rachel Morgan series), and was a little bored at points at the lack of unpredictability, as the story reaches the climax, it becomes so compelling that I couldn't put the book down. The ending was particularly well-done and left me hungry for the next book.If you enjoy simple, easy stories with great characters and a well-created world, than Early to Death is the ideal summer read for you.
    • 4/5
      Somewhat boring at first because it’s not clear what they’re about, but a lot better when the protagonist learns what her powers are.
    • 3/5
      After a slightly confusing debut, this sequel is more straightforward. Madison becomes more comfortable with her situation and those around her. As she does so she begins to realise what she wants and goes after it with everything she has, even when it seems impossible. You have to admire her for that.

      Paul, the new Light Timekeeper, is an interesting addition and perhaps a future love interest for Madison.

      Overall, a light and easy read.
    • 3/5
      Early to Death, Early to Rise, Madison gets her first chance at seeing if she can change how the Dark versus Light save souls. Barnabas, Nakita and Grace are on board to help but convincing them to change centuries old practices will take skill and subtlety. Will Madison be able to pull it off while Ron and his apprentice attempt to stop her and the Seraphs watch to see if she can be successful? So the story is coming together a bit more for me now. I’ve largely sorted out the basic working of this whole light versus dark timekeeper, light versus dark reaper business. Mostly. Of course I’m still finding that Kim Harrison occasionally launches the reader into these fast paced scenes that end up being confusing rather than nail biting. For a veteran writer I feel like her writing should be far more fluid than it is, it’s been hard for me to pinpoint but I think Madison’s first person thoughts on the matter are part of what confuse these scenes. If i'm only as knowledgable as her, than by golly she's pretty lost!And Great and Merciful God! If she uses one more of her “Son of a Puppy” or “Puppy accidents on the Carpet” 1001 variations one more time I’ll start to scream. Seriously, it felt like she used one of them half a dozen times each chapter, and it was awkward and annoying every single time! Considering she used Crap on several occasions I didn’t get the impression she was trying to avoid swearing, but honestly, whatever her intention with it, I have sincerely wished (for 240 pages) her editor had put her foot down at some point about it.In its favour? The story really is shaping up better than the first; I found the story arc of this book way more compelling than the Once Dead, Twice Shy. I’m still finding it hard to get into the characters, and the jokes (I think they're jokes) are falling flat for me. Would I keep reading this series? Borrowed probably, but I certainly won’t be chasing it down. I’m curious where Kim Harrison is going, but I can’t say I’m enjoying the journey enough to recommend to others or to pursue it financially.
    • 5/5
      I won an autographed copy from the author and I was thrilled about this. I really liked this one better than the first one. It has a lot more action and picks up strongly in the beginning and carries through the novel. It is your basic light versus dark, good versus evil, still with the same strong characters as in the first one. I love how Madison is somewhat of a rebel and like the banter with her nemesis, Nakita. The ending does not disappoint and makes me hunger for more works by this author.
    • 2/5
      I'd rather not beat around the bush with this one. It was such a thin book but it took me FOREVER to finish. I found myself struggling to pay attention and forcing myself to continue on. In the first book in this series Once Dead Twice Shy I was completely enthralled the whole time. Not only was there a full plot, but there were also sub plots that kept the story going. I honesty can not say the same thing for this one. Even the main character Madison, was watered down this time around. She wasn't as funny and charismatic as she was in the first one.I was pretty disappointed. The whole gist of it was that Madison was trying to prove that there's no such thing as fate. She figured that even though someone could be on the wrong path, if they knew that they could possibly die from it, they might change their attitude. The whole book was spent trying to convince the seraphs of this. I wish there were more examples of her trying this theory out. As far as the romance aspect, it was pretty much nonexistent. Madison and her crush Josh had something special in Book One but it was ice cold this round. We hardly heard anything from him at all. He may have had one line in the whole book if that. Was it badly written? Nope. It just needed more going on to keep us readers interested. It made the whole fate argument seem so drawn out being that that was all it was about.
    • 3/5
      It took me awhile to get into this one, just like it did the first one. It's a good book so I'm not sure why I had such a hard time getting into it. Though once I got about halfway through it, I really started to enjoy it. I had the same problem with the first book. I honestly have no idea why that is. It is written well, Kim Harrison is one of my favorite authors, it has a decent plot, good characters, but for some reason I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would.This book is hard for me to review because I did like it, but I didn't. I know that doesn't make sense.
    • 4/5
      Quirky teenager has the job of determining which souls are to be taken before they can commit the ultimate act of damnation. This book captures the angst of being a teenager in an 'adult' world and not knowing which is the 'right' choice. The main character is Madison Avery.While this is labeled a 'teen' book, it's an entertaining read for adults, also.
    • 2/5
      I didn’t enjoy reading this book. I’m pretty sure some of it was me and not the book, so that is why I gave it two stars instead of one.So far I’m not very impressed with this trilogy. Which makes me incredibly sad since I love Kim Harrison. I know I said the same thing about the first book, but I’m not exactly sure what it is about this book that I didn’t like. I guess it just isn’t my thing. It has it’s funny moments, but other than that I can’t think of anything I actually liked.Normally this would be a one star read for me, but like I said, part of it might have been the fact that I just wasn’t in the mood to read this book. I will be reading the third book, Something Deadly This Way Comes. Maybe it will be the best in the trilogy? Maybe it will blow me away? Maybe?
    • 4/5
      VOYA Rating: 4Q4PRecommendedThis book is a sequel to Once Dead, Twice Shy. The main character is Madison Avery, who is struggling to continue her teenage life, even though she is technically dead. She had died in the previous book in a car accident, but was transformed into a timekeeper by an angel. The other two major characters in the story are Nakita (the dark angel) and Barnabus (mostly light angel) who are always with Madison. Nakita’s job is to scythe humans who are going to hurt or kill other humans. Madison believes that given a choice, most humans will make the right choice. She has targeted boy who is about to unleash a computer virus at a hospital that will cause a lot of patients to die. Madison wants to prevent this tragedy. There is a group of angels that want to prevent Madison from saving humans. It comes down to the question of fate and choice.I didn’t realize until the end of the story that this book was a sequel. It would have helped to know a bit more of the background, but I guess it didn’t really take away from the story. There are a lot of complex “angel” rules going on that some readers might not like. There were some funny parts, some suspenseful parts and I think it was an overall enjoyable book. I think this story fits into the angel trend. I think that Harrison did some research on light and dark angels and then put in a few twists of her own. It’s a good read. Once I got past the first couple of chapters, I didn’t want to put it down. The book makes for a good escape from reality read.I think it would be a fine book to add to any school or public library collection. I think it will attract the paranormal readers. I do not see this book being added to the curriculum or using for a book club group. Although, if the interest was there, I would not be opposed to using for a book club. I think posting a book trailer in Moodle and emailing it out to all of the students will hook readers into coming into the library to check it out. Or buy it.
    • 3/5
      A couple of pages in I realized that this was in fact the second book in a series and if I wasn't so focused on trying to read my own books right now I would have gone back and tried to interlibrary loan the first one, however a couple more pages in and I realized that they really did fill you in on everything you needed to know and it was going to be quite easy to figure out what was going on.

      Madison is the new Dark Time Keeper. Typically Dark Time Keepers send someone to scythe someone before they do something so horrible that they will never be able to get forgiveness for their actions (or before Chronos gives them a guardian angel who will protect them for their entire lives), but Madison believes in choice. She wants to try and give people the opportunity to change their own lives. Madison has Nakita and Barnabas to help her and the seraphs are watching.

      I know it sounds a little bit complicated but this book was definitely a quick, action packed read. There is always something going on. It's clearly looking to be a long term series b/c even though this definitely had a contained story, it also has a ton of issues that need to be addressed in future volumes. I think the author also manages to put a lot of character development in a short time. The reader can see Nakita and Barnabas change which is very impressive considering how old they are, but they also still revert to old behavior, just like everyone does.

      All in all I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely go back and read the first one at some point and look forward to future volumes.
    • 3/5
      Kim Harrison, is such a great world builder, why isn't she using her skills with this series ? The story is interesting (although too short) as are the characters but she just keep it so light, I want more depth more story. It is better than the first novel, but I still think she is trying to reach the YA audience, and expecting less out of them.