Some of us have certain ideas of where we go when we die, but the truth of it is, we don’t know. I liked the take of being able to get revenge on the one who was responsible for your death. If I’ve learned anything from books and movies, hate simmers long after your death. We see that represented in ghosts all the time. But these aren’t ghosts, they are the Un-Ascended, and the future looks fairly bleak for those who fall prey to their uninvited inhabitants. Enter Jackson. He calls them demons, and on his way to finding revenge, he’s going to take down as many of these as possible.
As Evans’s first full-length novel, there are some stops and starts. There are moments of tedium, where I feel sentences were supposed to hit a mark but fell short. When a reviewer receives an ARC, they can expect some spelling mistakes, and this one had more than a few. I think an edit that also includes some grammar and flow will greatly clean it up.
There is a makeshift family of sorts with this, but there isn’t heavy character development. I’m still a bit unclear as to their purpose of being with Jackson, and perhaps we’ll see that in future books. I dug Aldrich’s backstory. His punishment wasn’t fitting, and I’d like to see his character grow.
I’ve read a lot of varying, futurism takes on how authors envision their black market. That you have no control over being dragged into this and subsequently losing “you” is grim. You have no way of fighting back, and that’s scary and bleak, and written well. It will be interesting to see where the series can go as he develops his craft and expands on the storyline and created world. Thank you, Parliament House Press for sending this along.
Order of Dust is available for preorder on Amazon for $6.99.
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