Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The 'Unquiet Gods' series, by David E. Pascoe


I borrowed each of the six stories in the Unquiet Gods series through the KU program. A smidge less than $10 per month, and I get some great books. You should try it!
Caveat: these books are borderline creepy, so creepy that they might scare me off. What kept me with the story is the theme of redemption in each of the stories; each character has flaws, but each is determined not to be victims of the dark forces.
I reviewed Shadow Hands some time back, and it's got a line that I might just write down on a sheet of paper, and look at when I want to know what a good writer can do: "She played until her hands hurt, and her heart didn't."
MAN, that is a good line!
It's speaking about Melody, the main character in the first book. She really sets up the rest of the series: evil creepy things are out to get her, and she's the only one who can see them. She discovers that her music has power, though; whether on her violin, or a penny whistle, or just humming, Melody can drive the forces of darkness away. And she gets a gold coin, as well.
The gold coin is passed from character to character throughout the series; that, and Melody's music, tie things together.
Ummmm....I guess the evil monsters that no one else can see sort of tie things together, too.  But in a bad way, y'know?
After Melody triumphs, she meets up with Tourney, a homeless veteran. The monsters are after his friends. Tourney has a weapon of power, two pieces of rebar welded together, and secured with duct tape and cord. It can whack monsters. (Coin pass. Look, it gets passed EVERY TIME, okay, I'm not going to mention it any more.)(Well, yeah, maybe I will. For continuity, or whatever.)
Tourney comes to the assistance of Mike the Bouncer, and passes thew coin to him. Mike is gifted with the power to heal, in addition to his ability to hippo stomp people.
Mike PARTIALLY heals Pat (his story comes later), but he passes the coin to Anne, a fellow martial artist and bouncer. She has a special ability to assault the forces of evil who are attacking her younger sib and other people, and she passes the coin on to Vincent.
Vincent is an astoundingly gifted violinist, who has his musical ability stripped away. He also is the figure pursued during a creepy, creepy sequence, when strangers and friends all combine to drive him crazy. This would make a great scene in a movie, and in fact, it's pretty easy to visualize as it's written. He falls, literally, into a safe place, where he is given a book of power, and, we are led to understand, a future.
Vincent passes the coin to Pat, who was partially healed by Mike. Pat is a NYPD detective, who is under a cloud due to his bizarre actions earlier. He teams up with Melody (circle complete), and the two of them contrive to rescue and attack people and things which need it. HOWEVER, this is NOT the end of the series. The other stories just aren't released yet.
I don't quite understand the reason the stories are released individually. I confess: I have done nothing like a page count, and I read blisteringly fast, so I don't know whether the combination is too long for a book, or if they are all novella length, or short stories, or whatever. That's one of the advantages of the KU program; you pay one price, and you can read all month: novels, short stories, doesn't matter what the list price is, you get them equally free.
I have written individual reviews of these works on Amazon. Those of you who enjoy David's work should do the same. Reviews are ONE of the factors that contribute to books moving up the list. It is unclear to me how much the RATING of the REVIEWER contributes to that movement; however, until I hear otherwise, I'm operating with the assumption that a highly rated reviewer carries more weight than a lowly rated reviewer. THAT MAY NOT BE THE CASE; AMAZON KNOWS, BUT I DO NOT! In any event, I ask you to read my review, and if you find it helpful, please mark it so. The authors will benefit, and on their behalf, I thank you.

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