To slay or to heal?In the spring of 1338, young William of Leaves knows only of remedies, herbs and his mother’s kindness. But when he is forced to watch as she is dragged to a witch’s pyre by a mob led by the Bishop of London, the mysterious immortal apothecary, Albion Ravistelle, promises the boy a chance at vengeance. In the summer of 1972, Helen Storm is a stoned groupie on the sunset strip … strip with a very special condition: she is immortal. When her life intersects with a famous guitar player, she is introduced to her future as a deadly and remorseless assassin.In present day, psychologist Loche Newirth and Julia Iris must come to terms with Loche’s prophetic writings that have changed the course of history and shaped the lives of William, Helen, and countless others. As a war breaks out between the immortals on earth and Albion Ravistelle, Loche must accept the realities he has authored and cross over into death–he must enter again into Basil Fenn’s paintings to find a way to end the conflict.In Part Two of The Newirth Mythology, Koep entwines the stories of characters exploring myth, memory, revenge and the hope of forgiveness.
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I was very excited when I saw this title – it sounded so intriguing, and when I looked up the first in the series it looked amazing… I got the first (The Invasion of Heaven) from Amazon (it was a Kindle Lending Library book!) and tore through it. It was incredible – complex, full of twists and turns and loop-the-loops. Half the time, I had no idea which end was up – in the best possible way. I couldn’t tell if the characters were delusional or the world was. And when the big reveal came, it all got even weirder and even better. It ended with a vengeance, and I couldn’t WAIT to start this second installment.
Then I started this second installment. Sigh…
I know that second books in trilogies often suffer as individual reads (particularly when you read them for the first time). I’ve seen them compared to middle children, a comparison which makes me laugh because it’s often so true – there’s none of the magic of seeing everything for the first time, none of the closure of knowing this is the last time you’ll be a part of this particular world… I try to give second books an extra bit of benefit-of-the-doubt as a result, since I know they often (unfairly) bear the brunt of keeping things moving and tying everything together. I tried that strategy with this one. And tried again. And again…
But no matter what I tried telling myself, I could NOT get into this one.
There are SO MANY characters and story lines, and they are so wildly divergent and rambling, that even though I knew that they must come together and that they’d likely do so in a crazy-cool-random way, I couldn’t stay in the story(ies). It seemed so far afield from the constant action and bizarreness of the first book. In that one, there was never a point that I wasn’t questioning what was going on or where the story would go next – I literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, the questions were so thick on the ground and the uncertainties so compelling… But this book just dragged at me. I couldn’t find myself caring enough to keep turning pages, let alone turn them with eager anticipation. I looked up other people’s comments to see if I was alone in this feeling, and see if I just needed to slog through the beginning to get there. Unfortunately, it seems that my experience is all too common among readers. It’s a tragic shame, because the concept is so cleverly played out in The Invasion of Heaven…
It’s been three years since the release of that book; I may have to wait three more until the conclusion is available and try again, because I’d really like to know how this whole thing wraps up. But I just couldn’t slog through it now, painfully and slowly, knowing I’d have to do it again when the next installment is available (because there’s no way one could wait years between these books and keep all of the relevant weirdness clear enough to follow it to its conclusion)…
My review copy of Leaves of Fire was provided by NetGalley.