Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Ascension by Caris Roane


A new kind of vampire novel.

Alison Wells is closing her psychology practice and going back to school. She is feeling unfulfilled, jealous of her sister, Joy’s, family life and love. She reflects on the last guy she went out with and how she hurt him but we’re not told how, exactly. She throws a statue through the window, which shatters but she stops the window and the statue, pulls it back and the window is as new, the reader is left with a “what the?” feeling. Alison just has to see one more patient, Darien Greaves. She thinks on him and that she really hasn’t helped him at all as he arrives. He offers her a job with him, offering her almost the world to come with him. She turns him down.

Then someone is murdered in the street below and they go down to see. There is a crowd around and the emergency personnel but no one sees the winged figure rising above the dead woman. The black wings beating, the beautiful bluish man calls to Alison, telling her it’s her turn. Then a man with big muscles and white wings comes between them. She is drawn to his cardamom scent and the warrior is drawn to the lavender she is putting out. Neither of them are really sure what is happening and Alison is not sure she likes the fact that no one but her and Darien can see these two winged me. Then Darien disappears and the fight between the men begins. The warrior wins, introduces himself as Kerrick, a Warrior of the Blood, takes her memory and leaves her a card of a local club, and disappears, leaving her bewildered and with a headache.

This is the start of one of the most interesting takes on the Vampire mythos I’ve ever read. Caris Roane has put interdimentional travel, winged vampire warriors with codes of honor and limited numbers to fight the hordes of death vampires who drain their prey and make war on humans and other vampires, led by Darien Greves, 
called the Commander. She has the concept of soulmate, lifemate, called breh hidden that has the mating scent between those who are drawn together, in this case cardamom and lavender. 

Kerrick is an Ascended Vampire warrior, he fights for the Supreme High Administrator of Phoenix 2, a woman named Endelle. He also becomes the Ascension Guardian of Alison, taking care of her for the three days between her declaring she wants to become what she is supposed to be; a citizen of the second dimension with all the power that entails, and also becoming her teacher. With Damien wanting to kill her since he cannot use her, this becomes very problematic for both of them, especially since they are falling in love while he is training her and keeping her alive. 

Ascension has a whole new world built just out of reach of our own, shadowing our own and it is told so cleverly that I cannot recommend it highly enough. And this is a series so we don’t have to wonder what happens with the other warriors and the war that is going on, we have three novels already out to enjoy with the potential for many more as other dimensions open up.I picked this up because the thought of vampires with wings intrigued me, I’m continuing with the read because it is one of the better series I’ve read.

No comments:

Post a Comment