Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
In this cataclismic ending of the the Nightwalker and World of the Nightwalker series, I came to love the enemy. Kamenati was the second in command to Odjit of the Templer Bodywalkers for centuries. Every reincarnation he studied and learned more magic spells and fought to destroy the Politic and in particular, Menes and Hatshepsut, their leaders. Kamen was responsible for Menes death in his last reincarnation. But when Kamen tried to heal a dying Odjit, he resurrected the imp God, Apep, he knew there was only one person he could turn to to help destroy his mistake -- Menes, the Politic and their allies.
Apep/Odjit's plan to destroy the nightwalkers so that she may be free to control the humans, who will worship her or die, is all on Kamen's shoulders. Guilt is nothing that Kamen has ever dealt with before and now the weight of what he has done, in this life and in the past, is eating at him and tearing down his centuries of belief of his own self-importance. He searches day and night for the right spell that will destroy Apep.
First, they must get all twelve of the nightwalkers working together. They already have the vampires, druids, demons, shadowdellers, Lycanthropes and Mistrals working with them. They just can't see them yet. Centuries ago, Apep cursed them so they would not know of each other's existence and therefore, they could never band together to destroy him. So far the Politic have drawn together the night angels, the bodywalkers, and the Djinn. They just need to convince the mystics, the phoenixes and the deadly wraiths to join forces to save the world. Since none of these groups socialize outside of their own groups, it will not be easy to convince them of the necessity to band together to save the world.
As a self-imposed penance, Kamen has offered to approach these groups and beg for their assistance. None of them welcome outsiders and the wraiths, in particular, can and will kill with only a touch of their hand, and sometimes just for fun. It is more than just luck that Kamen finds, Geneviéve, a half-human, half-wraith who has been ostracized all her life by her own people. She is willing to help Kamen convince the wraiths and the others to join the Politic against Apep.
The more time they spend together, the more Kamen realizes that Viève attracts him like no woman has done in all his reincarnations. Where once Kamen would have believed that this woman would have been his reward for his greatness, a demoralized and repentant Kamen doesn't believe he is worthy of a woman like Viève. Will he toss away love simply because he no longer feels worthy of such a gift?
THOUGHTS:
Yeah, yeah big epic battle. All major characters risk their lives. Some will die. The battle was important and the big payoff of the series, but I was enthralled here with the budding relationship between Kamen and Viève. Kamen has been brought to his knees and made humble after realizing his mistakes to the Politic Bodywalkers and their allies and to the world in general. In prior stories, he attacked Menes and he even allowed Leo to be tortured and didn't care. He walked away from Leo's pain and fear because it meant nothing to him. He knows what is happening is all his fault and has come to realize that he followed Odjit blindly because he liked the power and the privilege and he was allowed to do what he wanted which was to study magic and become even more powerful. So we shouldn't like Kamen or root for his HEA, or at least not the Kamen we first met in Forbidden.
It is the new, repentant Kamen that we are first learning to like and then to love. Mostly I liked him for his treatment of Viève. As a half-breed, Viéve was unwanted and barely tolerated by the wraiths and this fact was impressed upon her often by all the wraiths, including her own mother. When they meet, Viève has no self-esteem. She believes everything she has ever been told, that she is unwanted, that she causes problems, that she has no value, that she will never have a mate or be wanted by a male. It is Kamen who begins to convince Viève that whatever the wraiths might think of her, she has value and would fit anywhere, whether it would be with the humans or with the Politic bodywalkers and other nightwalkers. He even yells at her when she starts to devalue herself in front of him until she begins to understands that the nightwalkers she is working with appreciate her and value her working with them. We see her start to blossom due to Kamen's attention to her.
Kamen is amazed by his own desire for Viève since he hasn't been interested in sex this reincarnation and barely had any interest in his last one. So much so that he first accuses her of bespelling him to desire her. It is particularly interesting to see that as Kamen helps build Viève's self-esteem, through his words and his desire for her, and the more she becomes confident, the more Kamen feels that he doesn't deserve her or her love. He has come to despise himself and his past so much so that even when the Politic try to say they forgive him after all he does to right his wrongs, we find it is Kamen who can't accept forgiveness for his actions.
I have only read one of the Nightwalkers books and the World of Nightwalkers series. For those who have read both series, there is time spent with each of the couples from the original Nightwalker series so there is a little reunion with these favorite characters.
There is an epic battle and death and destruction will occur. It will not be 100 percent win-win for the good guys. But in this story, I found myself amazed to come to like Kamen as much as I did and his relationship with Viève.
Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 8 August, 2015: Finished reading
- 8 August, 2015: Reviewed