I give this book three out of five stars. Since this book released at the start of April 2014 I have been anxious to read it. It’s like an addiction to a bad television show, I just “had to know” what other stupid plot decisions Ward was going to make in her latest volume.
This is the thirteenth book in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Funny but true story, I read the twelfth book first. I’m not offended if you are a fan and you’re laughing at my admission. I know-it’s funny! The Quay book was my first Black Dagger Brotherhood book. I was able to navigate the Quay book just fine, but Wards “vampire world” makes more sense when read from book 1 forward. The twelfth book was much smaller in scope. It talked about Layla, Xcor, Blay and Quinn, and the lesser conflict was very easy to follow. This book has several plots running at once: Layla and Xcor; iAm, Trez, and Selena; Beth & Wrath; Ahna & Wrath; Assail and Marisol. I don’t recommend reading this before enjoying Wards earlier books in the series.
It was an okay read. It was not one of her best books, but it was much better than some of her others. To read most of this entire series you have to unplug your brain and set common sense aside. Normally I have to just roll with the gratuitous, never going to happen like that in a million years, sex, but shockingly there was not a lot of that in this book. Wait, I take that back. There was that one scene where Mairsol had a gunshot wound to the leg and was getting it on.
What I liked:
1) The full circle Wrath took about being King, his fathers legacy verses his own, and how this whole drama ended. It was good that this was the main plot. I thought it was the most relevant, since we have seen Wrath grappling with being King since the first book.
2) There was a whole 2 chapters of vampires killing lesser. Awesome, I am so sick of the lesser plots. Apparently Ward has run out of steam on them, it’s about time. Much less non-plot moving nonsense for me to skip over.
3) I like how Assail and Marisol was not a happy-sunshine, rainbows, and unicorn ending. I will not be shocked to see these two in a future volume. There were at least two time Marisol “thought to herself” about not using protection with Assail. Let me guess, more baby drama? I know I am not the only one reading about the drug trade and seeing this as a future replacement for Lesser conflict? Who’s got money Marisol’s going to get in hot water again? I loved laughing when his cousins were fighting over the food Marisol’s grandma left them. That part, and iAm falling for Boo the cat, were my favorite moments in the book.
What made me a little nuts:
1) Xcor and Layla, he’s giving up his run at the throne for a woman who admits she would not be with him if it were not for the situation with Wrath. I think Ward forgot how she had Layla fall in love with Xcor in the last book. Why wasn’t Layla saying all that stuff about Wrath being a good King to Xcor in the last book? Who knew crazy, raised by the sword Xcor could be castrated so summarily. Talk about anticlimactic. The whole chapter of him clothes shopping, what was that?
2) I hated all the flashbacks to Wraths parents. The Prologue was just ridiculous and honestly I don’t see why any of it was in the book? I fail to see any deep connections or revelations these scenes provide. Give me a break, in the prologue she’s a virgin thinking about her new husband taking her to their marriage bed and hoping he will “pound her”? Again, I remind you-unplug your brain before you read these books.
3) Trez and Selena, what was all of that about? Selena gets over the “tens of thousands of women” Trez has slept with, but she gets hung up on his pimp occupation? Whatever, what does she think the freaking Primale role is huh? Ward likes to make a play out of character names, but the Shadow executioner with the name s’Ex? That’s right, not kidding here it’s in her book, a character named sex.
Oh wait, I didn’t talk about the baby conflict between Wrath and Beth. No, that’s right I didn’t. It should not be necessary to talk about something you can see coming a mile away. Did I really pick this book up thinking Beth was not going to get pregnant? Big shock-none of it was. The whole “human tradition” thing I found kitschy and wrong. Was that scene really supposed to be funny and endearing? My mantra reading these books, “just read for the ride” had to be used a numerous times in this book. I used it on all of the speed bumps pertaining to how Wrath is King, then not King, wait no he’s the King, now he’s not, but hold onto your hats-“gasp”-he really is the King, or I don’t know. All of that business bugged me, because in a previous Black Dagger Brotherhood book, there was this big to-do with the Scribe Virgin and Wrath deciding to take up the reigns as the King of “Her Children”. If the Scribe Virgin blessed him as the vampire King, does anyone else really get to say otherwise unless the guy is dead? Wait, sorry that’s me thinking again about why Ward does not adhere to her own cultural rules. There’s plenty of figurative sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns dancing around at the end to keep the Wrath and Beth fans happy. Book Review: Revelations (Extinction Point #3) by: Paul Anthony Jones
I gave this book three out of five stars. I enjoyed this read, and I was happy to learn more about Emily’s story. I’d like to say this was a four star read, but I didn’t have any trouble putting the book down, so it didn’t meet my threshold. However this book, the third in the extinction point series, is better than the second book.
What I liked about the book:
1) Am I just a sucker for romance, maybe. To me the romance between Emily and Mac was very organic, and I enjoyed the realistic building of attachment between them. You could see them getting together like a Mack truck, but it was not awkward or shoved down the reader’s throat. I kept thinking there could be more to it, because it kept falling short of me being wrapped up in them emotionally. I think given the situation the characters were in, the slow pace of it was very appropriate. There was plenty of opportunity for more. The reader is told about several conversations that took place between them, but we don’t actually get the pleasure of witnessing them.
2) I liked finding out the “why” behind it all. I may not agree with the themes or the outcome of the book, but the resolution was there.
3) I loved all the environments the author takes you through. From the frozen arctic, to life on a submarine, to one of the most famous US military installations in California, and then to see the red forest take down Las Vegas-the author did a tremendous job making all of it real.
What I didn’t like:
1) Some of the crazy decisions made by the people in charge. At one point a sailor who was a sentry is killed in the night by one of the new world creatures. The commander signs off on not one, but two search party’s, even though he admits to knowing they were never going to find their comrade. He did it to make the other sailors “feel better”. No, no he would never jeopardize the safety of who is left in order to make them feel better. That not only didn’t fit the common sense test, but it is something not even the worst of officers would do. They land in the middle of Las Vegas crumbling under the red forest. Mac leaves a guy solo to watch over a helicopter, after they lose a UAV to a flying monster? Are you freaking kidding me? Not going to happen. He would never jeopardize safety by leaving him alone like that.
2) To much exposition and not enough dialog. As much as I loved being in the environment, I felt like I was reading the same descriptions over and over again. Yes-yes the climbing red vines, the debris-strewn path, more vines. The last third of the book got very repetitive and I found myself wanting to skip down the page.
3) I didn’t get why the sailors were mocking Emily when she relayed what happened to her in Las Vegas. They apologized and admitted they were wrong for thinking her stories back in Alaska were crazy. Why are they suddenly giving her a hard time?
In the authors notes at the end he mentions future stories about Emily. I’m curious to see what those would contain. Will they revolve around her red eyed son or the fact she thought there was an alien observer in her consciousness. Very creepy ending, but a good way to set up future books.
Last week I reviewed Extinction Point, and this week I am reviewing Exodus (Extinction Point #2) by Paul Anthony Jones. I gave this book three out of five stars. 
**This review does contain spoilers about this book.**
The fast paced action and terror continues in the second book Exodus of the Extinction Point series. I enjoyed the tense roller coaster ride the author creates as Emily makes her cross country trek to Alaska.
What I liked the most:
1) I loved the opening of the book. What a “Ground Control to Major Tom” moment.
2) I like the attempts the author has made at creating strong female characters. He does it with the commander of the space station, Emily, and I even saw it in Rhia. Could all of the characters use a little more polish-sure, but kudos at what’s there. It’s far better than others I’ve seen.
3) I liked the mystery of what attacked the seven frozen dead near the end of the book. It really made meeting Jacob a little more eerie. I thought Emily was kinda crazy not taking a closer look at them, but they left a lot of open doors for book 3 which I liked.
Things that bothered me:
1) I don’t think it was necessary to come up with some mysterious weather impervious valley to create more survivors from the red rain. I think it would have been more interesting for her to stumble across a clan of preppers living in a bunker. Simon asking if she was there to save them like she’s with the government, wow he’s dumb.
2) She left all of her gear at the other house-how stupid is our protagonist Emily? Come on she was supposed to be getting better at this survival thing, not worse.
It was like a bad horror movie when Simon left his kids to go retrieve the Durango. I was irritated when this happened because it just did not fit the common sense test. Why is he leaving his kids with a stranger? A father abandoning his kids to go get a vehicle when he knows there is an unquantifiable danger lurking about-NO WAY. They didn’t stick together to save time-he gets car and stranger lady is going to pack the kids stuff? NO WAY. We knew what was going to happen when Simon left and it pissed me off. I think it would have been more dramatic to be ambushed by the creepy creature at the other house and have to watch the creature take over Simon and then come for the kids. No need to split up, the terror of it all would remain the same. And it was a little bizarre how little miss “I don’t know how to drive” magically figures it out enough to ram the creature not once but twice-without flipping or destroying the SUV. What happened to all the cool rifle skill’s Emily gave us in book one?
3) I did not believe her character should have had so much unease at the drop in temperature. The woman did grow up in a small town in Iowa, she should be in her element. She’s from the Midwest, people from this part of the USA know all about winter-it starts in November and drags into late March. She should have been having flashbacks to her childhood. Not reminding herself of the cautions Jacob gave over the phone about the cold.
4) If I’m not mistaken this is a kill or be killed scenario. If you are going to kill a kid-turned alien get it over with. Why was it more important to spare his sisters feelings than keep them all alive? Why did she not shoot the alien Ben when it was hunched over Rhia in the middle of the night? Emily’s dealt with enough creatures at this point to know the boy Ben is dead. Does she really need to overnight with an alien to spare his sisters feelings? And why are they burying him in a rose bush-without a shovel-when the red storm is raining on them? That’s one of those sorry dear-we need to leave him here and press on moments.
5) Why is Emily freaking out on Jacob over the other people not being there? She broke into an apartment in book one because she was so desperate to find another living human. I don’t think she would have not gone to Alaska even if he did tell her what happened. Besides he’s basically saved her life dragging her there.
I still look forward to reading book 3 and seeing how this series shakes out.
Recent Comments