Book Blurb:
The lone survivor of a massacre. The genetically enhanced immortal who spared only him.
On an isolated planet where unity is as engineered as its people, two human lines nearly drove each other to extinction rather than acknowledge their shared humanity. The empire that maintained peace for the last century cannot afford to show the cracks in its control. But when Jesse's mining town is slaughtered under mysterious circumstances, it's clear ancient bigotries linger, and rebels now have access to magic or tech capable of wide-scale genocide. But Jesse only sees the Red Demon fleeing the scene of the crime, a bio-engineered immortal who should protect the empire instead of killing her own kin. Lost and alone, Jesse sets out on a path for justice that will bring him face to face with both his misconceptions—and new enemies.
Faruhar, the so-called Red Demon, is not the mastermind Jesse expects. Guilt ravages her fragmented mind over crimes she cannot remember committing, and a code impressed on her by a few kind people she cannot forget. And when she and Jesse face off, hatred quickly turns to hesitation, as they together uncover a mystery that might unravel their world’s fragile peace.
A twisty science fantasy with tense fight scenes and a spicy romantic subplot.
Tropes:
*High Gravity ALC *Fantasy *Romantasy *Sci-fi *found family *spice *paranormal
*deception *hard truths *genetic modifications *some magical elements *dark fantasy
Thoughts:
I'm going to start with being honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to listen to this book and when I started it took me a bit to get into this, I felt like I was being thrown into the middle of a story that has already been told and maybe is the middle of the series... or maybe very well developed in the authors head (which I'm sure it was). Throughout the book I was able to catch on the just of what was happening but I do think it would be helpful if the audiobook had some of the information in the beginning instead of some information explaining some bigger things at the end.
In this world there are genetically modified people, ghosts who can take over others bodies and magical elements that only some people posess.
Jesse's family and friends are tragically killed leaving him alone and vulnerable to not only the elements but also to the immortal being that he saw fleeing the scene... he isn't sure why he was spared and he makes it his mission to take revenge on her for all of his losses she is dubbed "The Red Demon."
Jesse finds a new home with a blacksmith and his son in a different Village he trains with them and grows stronger years pass by but he has never forgotten his revenge mission.
Jesse is offered a military position from a shady higher ranking officer who wants more from him than military service... as he weighs his options someone close to him makes a surprise decision that makes him wonder what is next for him.
When his life changes again and Jesse comes face to face with the red demon once again after more tragedy he begins to realize that things are not as they seem... and maybe he has been looking at things the wrong way all of this time.
This is a story of loss, finding your own family, forging your own path, and sometimes letting go of what you thought was going on and allowing a new point of view to clear your clouded vision so you can shine light on the truth for others.
There is a side of romance but it is more in the background as the story focuses on Jesse uncovering what is really going on in the world around him as he tries to make things right again.
Some Likes/Dislikes
Different from my usual reads, once I got into this book I did want to find out what was going on in Jesse's world and what would happen next for him.
My heart truly went out to Jesse and Faruhar who were doing the best they could in an unforgiving world and survived brutal losses to keep pushing forward.
I did appreciate that there was a lot of action throughout, but I do feel that some of this could have been trimmed down. This was a really complex world and I felt that sometimes it was so much information thrown at me that the pacing was slowed down with the info overload.
While there was some interesting world building I don't feel like I had enough back story throughout the book, the war is mentioned but it was just glossed over when I felt it should have been a bigger part of the story, I don't feel like I fully understood why the two different human lines had been fighting during the book there was a lot of high tech items mentioned that we kind of just have to absorb as this is what's happening.
--> to simplify things a bit I'm going to think of it like the Dr. Seuss story of the Sneeches the one group had no stars they fled their planet and came to this new to them planet as refugees. The other group were native to the planet but didn't feel that the no star sneeches were like them at all... over time the no star sneeches developed modifications to get their stars (genetic code changes) --> in the book this whole situation was confusing.
Faruhar (the red demon) we didn't get much from her side we know she has a faulty memory but I would have liked to find out more of how she got to where she is now.
There was a big build up and then the ending kind of just felt rushed
I appreciate the advanced listening copy and did grow more interested in the story as it progressed the Lead Narrator Brandon Francis did a great job.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
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