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In this follow-up to Bloodring and Seraphs, Thorn once again finds herself battling the powers of Darkness. Even though she just helped the Seraphs defeat the Fallen Seraph Forcas, and freed the cherub Mistress Amethyst and her Seraph mate, they also barely contained a major darkness-- a dragon imprisoned under the Trine. In addition, a new mage has come to town-- supposedly to teach Thorn all the training she missed when she was forced to leave Enclave at such a young age, but he is arrogant and unpleasant, and she can tell there is something he is hiding from her.

For some reason, this book didn't seem quite as exciting or enthralling ad the first two; in some ways, it feels like a rehash of the things that have happened before. Once again, demon spawn attack the town, and they are organized, not just a mindless swarm. Thorn and her friends manage to fight them off with heavy casualties, and as before Thorn agonizes over whether or not to summon the Seraphs to help them fight, since that may cost the lives of the townsfolk. Thorn is also agonizing over her irresistible attraction to the Kylen, Thadd, and still won't make any decision about Eli's continued interest in her-- even though he reveals some interesting things about human-mage interactions and the joy or fear that can result. Thorn also continues to agonize (notice a pattern?) over her ex-step-daughter Ciana, who continues to do powerful things with the Seraph pin she wad given for protection-- who, apparently, is no longer quite human, along with her uncle Rupert, although we're never told exactly what they've become.

Eventually, there's another big drawn out battle. Thorn gets some new champards pledging to fight alongside her, and they do their best in a battle against all the odds. Thorn eventually comes face to face with the dragon-- and rather than a hideous beast, a "Big Bad Ugly," it is an angel of light, a fallen seraph, who tries to get her to join him. Thorn slips into the river of time again, and continues the fight there, resisting the power and seduction of the dragon Azazel. Eventually, after a lot of death and destruction and loss, the dragon is defeated.

The ending seemed particularly unsatisfying. There is some indication that one of the seraphs has been playing Thorn, manipulating her to accomplish his own ends-- but no explanation or more details. Similarly, we don't get any more answers (or even that many more hints or suggestions) about the true nature of the seraphs and cherubs, or what the mages are and why they came into existence. The book just ends with Thorn and her remaining champards recovering from battle, Thorn still not sure where things are going next or how she will sort our her relationships to them all. I almost thought Hunter was setting up yet another sequel with this open-ended conclusion, but I don't think that is the case either.

Title:	Host
Author:	Faith Hunter
Date published:	2007
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Rogue Mage Novels
Number of pages:	340

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This book picks up a few weeks after Bloodring ends, with Thorn now exposed-- and licensed by the Archseraph-- as a Mage. Even though she basically saved the town, most of the people don't know it, and at least half the town is afraid of her, eventually calling her to trial in front of the town council. From her fight underground in the last book, she knows there is at least one seraph imprisoned under the Trine, and maybe a cherub, although Thorn seems to think she imagined that part; and a Darkness has some of her blood, which it is using to try to seduce and control her. Thorn keeps trying to contact Lolo, the mage who sent her into hiding, but instead her scrying keeps turning to truth spells, and she is having visions of her childhood when she was taken prisoner by a Fallen seraph, and also sees a vision of Lolo as a young woman. As you might expect, eventually Thorn has to do battle with the Darkness under the Trine again, and this time not only does she survive (despite almost dying a couple of times), she discovers that she is an "omega mage"-- whatever that is.

The plans set into motion by a Darkness in the last book take a big step forward. A Darkness under the Trine has captured a seraph and a mage (or perhaps corrupted some mages and turned them rogue), and is using these captives to birth an army of powerful, dark soldiers. They've also used the blood of Lucas, Thorn's ex-husband who was previously kidnapped and then rescued, in these demon spawn-- because Lucas is descended from the Mole Man, a hero generations ago who gave his life and blood to chain a great dragon under the Trine, and the Seraphs have sworn to protect the progeny of the Mole Man. This Dark army is bolder than ever, even coming so far as to come against Mineral City itself in a coordinated, planned attack, which is rare for the wild, uncontrolled dark creatures.

As before, Thorn gets pulled into a battle and goes under the Trine in an attempt to free the Seraphs and Cherub who are trapped. She almost dies more than once, she barely escapes being bound to the Fallen seraph Forcas, and she also finds herself joining with the seraphs to fight in the river of time, a spiritual or other-dimensional realm that the seraphs are surprised she can enter-- although it turns out they need the help of the one they call "little mage."

Among the many other things going on in the book, Thorn is contacted by members of the EIH, or Earth Invasion Heretics, who think that the Seraphs aren't actually angels from the book of Revelation, but some alien race come to conquer Earth. Parts of the story are told from the seraphs and cherub imprisoned under the Trine, and while the descriptions of these beings and their conversations together seems to fit with them actually being angelic creatures, there is just enough leeway that after finishing the book I started to wonder about this.

Fast-paced and enjoyable, this book was hard to put down-- although the ending is a little unsatisfying, as it is obviously setting things up for another sequel.

Title:	Seraphs
Author:	Faith Hunter
Date published:	2007
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Rogue Mage Novels
Number of pages:	356

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Thorn St. Croix is a stone mage who draws her power from the leftover energy of creation, and she lives in a Post-Apocalyptic world unlike any I have ever read about or seen in a movie before. About a hundred years ago, seraphim came and rained down plagues and destruction, just like in the book of Revelation; but the Most High God never showed himself, so the people that are left don't know which religion is "right", and the seraphim don't concern themselves too much with humans, unless they start rioting and destroying each other; and to counter the angels, there are also demons and devil spawn that come out at night. In a world of "neomages" and Kylen, human and seraph cross breeds, Thorn must hide her identity and suppress her skin (which glows) in order to pretend to be human. Twice she sees a bloodring around the moon, a bad omen, and then strange things start happening, and it all seems to be centered on the nearby mountain, where a powerful Dark creature is taking hostages and working on some kind of evil plan.

Thorn lives somewhere in the Appalachian mountains, in a small town called Mineral City. She was raised in a mage Enclave in New Orleans, but when she came into her powers as a teenager, she began to hear all the thoughts of all the other mages, and it was driving her crazy-- so she was sent away for her protection, with amulets to protect her and make her look human.

Thorn's ex-husband is kidnapped, her step-daughter has been seeing a Daywalker, and eventually Thorn gets drawn into a huge fight with the darkness under the Trine, summoning seraphs to help in the fight. It all makes for a pretty fun, exciting read.

I don't think it's ever explained where the mages came from, just that they were "unforeseen." But, for some reason, they don't have souls. And the presence of seraphs or kylen makes a mage go into an irresistable heat. But Thorn works her magic through stones, drawing on the energies of creation, and she uses scripture verses as words of power when she fights.

I picked this book up because I had previously bought the second in the series when I saw it in a discount bin and thought it looked interesting (not realizing it was a sequel). I think the cover for this edition is pretty bad: it's not very appealing, and it's annoyingly inaccurate. Thorn is red-haired, and makes use of knives and swords (demon spawn are hard to kill and guns aren't much use), but she never dresses in tight black leather. She either wears layers of leggings and sweaters to hide all her stone amulets and wrist knive sheathes and for warmth (there's a mini-ice age going on), or she wears her black mage "dobok" for battle.

Title:	Bloodring
Author:	Faith Hunter
Date published:	2006
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Rogue Mage Novels
Number of pages:	319

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This is the first time I can remember reading a book with a soundtrack playing along in my head. The musical is wonderful, so as I got to distinct events, the music was in my head. Quite interesting. Jean Valjean goes to prison as a young man for trying to steal a loaf of bread for his sister and her numerous children. He stays longer because of escape attempts, and when he finally gets out nobody will receive him because of his criminal's passport. A bishop takes him in for a meal and a night's sleep, but Valjean steals something valuable, is caught, and taken back to the bishop who says he forgot the silver. He 'buys his soul' for God, and after that Jean Valjean is a changed man who seeks to care for those around him, live honestly and make up for past evil.

Over and over, Valjean is shown to be a man who is strong beyond reason. He gets under a horse cart which has trapped a man and lifts it up by himself. He climbs a high wall by pushing himself up the corner where it meets another wall. He saved men in the quarries by various acts of strength. He saves Marius' life by carrying him through horrible conditions in the sewer for a great distance. And yet .. more than his physical strength .. the reader sees his character. This is, of course, shown most strongly in his care of Cosette, the daughter of Fantine, who he rescues and raises as his own with great affection and care. A man who was consistently treated as less than human in the quarries returns grace and mercy. Humanly speaking, that is not possible. This man exemplifies what a transformed life can be .. a second chance, used to the fullest, for the good of all those around him. Javert is another very intrigue character. He is a policeman and very just. For him all things fall easily into categories. One of which is that all criminals are evil and cannot be good. Throughout Jean Valjean's life, Javert continues to search for him to send him back to prison. When Valjean does something extraordinary, Javert can no longer fit him into the 'evil' box .. and something inside Javert crumbles. Valjean is the criminal turned benefactor, and Javert is the upright man who can no longer comprehend the world. What striking juxtaposition. A book worth reading again!

Title:	Les Miserables (abridged)
Author:	Victor Hugo
Date published:	1961
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	321
Notes:	repeat reading

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