Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "demons"

The Seventh Age: Dawn
Rick Heinz
Publisher: Inkshares (January 17, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1941758894
ISBN-13: 978-1941758892
https://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Age-Da...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

In a way, I almost feel this review might be a tad redundant. That’s because I’m about to repeat and echo observations made by a number of other reviewers before me.

For example, I’m far from the first to tell you Rick Heinz immediately drops the reader into hot and heavy action in the very first paragraph of The Seventh Age and doesn’t slow down for the over 400 pages that follow. The book is dense, complex, and populated by a very strange cast of characters that include warlocks, vampires, demons, ghosts, shape shifters, sorcerers, mutant animals, as well as humans. In all this paranormal activity, earth as we know it is about to change as all these beings have different agendas about what they want to happen. There are apparently international rituals in the works to bring about a “Unification” and the resurrection of a super-entity named Lazarus to usher in a new age when magic will again rule.

In many ways, because of the layers of varying agendas and battles between the supernatural beings, trying to offer a useful and understandable synopsis isn’t really workable in a short review like this. Suffice it to say a human named Mike Auburn is our first point-of-view character in Chicago, a man who can see the dead. He meets beings who slowly reveal his important role in what is coming. Some of the supernaturals care nothing for humans and would be happy to wipe us out. Others see us as expendable inconveniences in the way as they invade earth from both Purgatory and Hell. Still others want to Shepard and protect as much humanity as they can in underground and street level battles. There’s a lot of blood, vampirism, and eating of souls. For those who enjoy conspiracy thrillers, there’s no shortage of secret societies who want to open or block the portals between the realms and keep their activities hidden from humanity as they plan a takeover of our planet.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is just how much Heinz is able to keep the reader guessing and surprised by what is going on, particularly as many of the characters you’d think are pure evil turn out to have far more mixed motives than you’d expect. While I can’t say my reading of urban fantasies is all that deep, I can’t recall a title in this genre with this much of an epic scope. This is especially true considering Dawn is obviously just volume one of this saga.

So, if you don’t mind your fantasy being on the grim and grisly side, the plot constantly challenging any preconceptions you might have as you go along, The Seventh Age is a chilling, engrossing read. Some books still prove literature can be very frightening indeed, even if everything is so fantastic that what happens can’t reflect real-world concerns.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 16, 2016:
goo.gl/T2mGBv

Soul Seeker
Kaylin McFarren
Publisher : Creative Edge Publishing LLC (October 27, 2020)
Publication date : October 27, 2020
ASIN : B08KGZ2FK8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KGZ2FK8/...


Looking at the table of contents for Kaylin McFarren's Soul Seeker (Gehenna Book 1), readers might anticipate a yarn that will unfold in two parts. However, by the time I reached the grand finale--more accurately the set-up for the second book in the saga--I felt like the tale was really three sections linked by the life of the title character, Lucifer's sometimes favorite soul catcher, Chrighton.


The first third of the book focuses on fallible humans like Benjamin Poe and his son whose lives are fatally menaced by a shadowy, mysterious figure. In this part of the story Chrighton is only occasionally center stage as he pulls the strings to lure his luckless prey to their doom. Then, the emphasis shifts to Chrighton himself.
In the second part of the book, his character is fleshed out in vivid detail. We see him interacting with Lucifer and other condemned denizens of hell. We meet Chrighton's mother and other demons and half-breeds (half-angel, half-demon) going back and forth between earth and hell. In this part of the book, McFarren modernizes Biblical mythology and portrays an underworld that's something of a Twenty-First Century reworking of John Milton's Pandemonium from Paradise Lost. McFarren's version is gritty and dark and happily doesn't feature one-dimensional immortal single-minded creatures hell-bent, as it were, on tormenting human souls. In fact, humans are essentially mere pawns in the push-and-pull between angels and demons.
Part three of the yarn is a multi-generational love story where we see Crighton, his angel "soul mate" Ariel, his parents, and other paranormal types developed in much more depth than is typical of such fantasies. McFarren's characters have complex backgrounds and have very personal inner conflicts and secrets. While there's no shortage of fantastic situations and events, Soul Seeker is a more earthy and, dare I say, realistic canvas than most readers might expect.
While the primary conflict is the old trope of good actors triumphing over evildoers , or at least softening them up, Soul Seeker isn't a morality play. It's not especially religious. There's lots in the latter third of the book showcasing how the hierarchy of angels is structured in heaven, but there's not one mention of God. There are many references to a future battle between the new rulers in hell and angel armies in a final showdown, which we can presume will be McFarren's take on Armageddon. But McFarren isn't preaching any kind of sermon about the wages of sin or mending our evil ways.
On one hand, the prime redeeming virtue McFarren's demons can display is the ability to sacrifice oneself to save a loved one. On the other hand, readers uneasy about graphic sex or violence aren't going to take to many scenes in Soul Seeker. For those who like horror and paranormal fantasy, Soul Seeker is pure entertainment with some extremely well-sketched characters we'll all want to see in the next volume. I'm ready for the next chapters. Sometimes there are bad guys who are fun to root for.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 26, 2021:
https://waa.ai/JvP4




This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 26, 2021:
https://waa.ai/JvP4