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 |
0 comments:
Post a Comment