Elise is trapped
within the Garden of Eden - and it is time for the godslayer to finally
comfront God himself. Or at least try to survive his presence...
James has run to the
rescue - but he is trapped and lost in endless limbo. While on Earth forces
gather, the Union, hunters and even demon/angel hybrids as a cataclysmic event
is predicted
This book is an odd
book. There is plot but for the most part it doesn’t progress and go anywhere.
We follow Elise almost exclusively now she is trapped in The Garden with her
long nemesis - Adam, God. The god, the god that she, the godslayer, was always
intended to face
But while in that
garden she experiences a great deal - but, through sheer powerlessness doesn’t
do a great deal or move the plot forward. And I think that works and is very
necessary to convey just how very powerless and lost Elise is at this moment -
how her just surviving and continuing to go forwards in a realm that is
inimical to her very being in the face of a being of literally omnipotent
power. Being frustrated, being stuck, seeing no way out but fighting on anyway
is the core of this book and Elise herself
And while that
happens we have the revelations - oh the revelations and truly fascinating
world building and take on the ancient Adam and Eve mythology. The nature of
Adam/God, the very different nature of Eve (which definitely flips the power
scale before Adam ruined everything) the nature of Lillith, the birth of
angels, of demons of humanity, why the whole idea of sacrificing women to the
clearly dangerous and broken god keeps working, Metaraon and his motives
towards all the events in the series so far, including the shape of this coven
- so much is here.
On top of that we
have nice moments from Nathaniel (James’s son), Elise’s mother Arianne and
James himself all adding new shades to their characters both now and going
forwards as well as more flashbacks of Elise’s past which helps understand her
a bit more. I especially appreciate, after my
previous complaints, that Elise and James have a major confrontation over the information he
has been hiding from her - and it’s neither dismissed nor swept up. In fact
it’s a nice contrast how she kind of rebuilds a lot of bridges with Anthony
after their deeply broken relationship after they were both emotionally reeling
- but such a neat resolve is denied James
The book ends with
epic. And I think it needed to - after so longer with Elise captured and
helpless we needed reminding of her awesome strength, we needed reminding that
just because she was so helpless in the face of an impossible force doesn’t
make her weak. It worked - and I think it worked even more that we had a sort
of mini epilogue to basically say that it isn’t over That despite the whole
massive, world changing hugeness that just happened, life still goes on and it
goes on in quiet, sad and often mundane ways
One odd side effect
of all the epic hugeness this is that Lucas, Malcolm and Anthony, making their
way to Oymyakon, seeing the Union getting up to various shenanigans is a very
fun romp (and I will always kind of love Malcolm, the quintessential rogue) but
also jarringly out of place and bizarrely mundane next to all the epic world
building and revelations out there - but at the same time the only part of the
story that is actually moving forwards
I feel compelled to
add some extra explanation how I’m reading these books and series which may not
actually be considered part of the review, but explain some of my approach
As I read this series
I have an increasing sense of disconnect. It may be because it’s been such a
long time since I read the first books in the series but I’ve read far longer
series and not felt the same sense of shattering. I just can’t figure how we
got here. How did the characters in Death’s
Hand end up here? I think it could be more my confusion with the Descent
Verse in general - this is a shared world with 12 separate series in it - I
have read books from 6 of them and I can’t make them fit together! All of these
books all belong in the same world setting but by head is throbbing trying to
make them fit together. One of the reasons I’ve made a new effort to catch up
on this series is that after Drawing Dead (a book I loved) I was so utterly
lost and confused that I decided it was time to tackle this whole world in
chronological order. Ironically most of the books and series have been
excellent and if I wasn’t told they all exist in the same world I’d probably
just run with it and be happy - but knowing they’re in the same world just
keeps biting at me.
Finishing Paradise
Damned marks the second of those 12 series I have no finished and I’m left
feeling… accomplished. Like I am taking concrete steps in a process which also
makes me question whether my desire to reach this overall goal and
ur-understanding could lead me to treating the books as research “aha, this is
where THAT fits in” rather than stories.
Despite all that I
have to say this world has me. Yes I am committed to those 12 series out of a
sort of obsessive need to make everything fit in my own head, but also because
I know every step of the way will be fun and fascinating and deep and action
packed and definitely worth travelling
(Oh and why does this
cover say “book 6” when there have been 7 books?)
