Testimony

This review contains spoilers
Average Rating 4/5
Writing Style 3/5
A while ago, I thought of the Soul Monger series and I was curious how it would end. I asked Mathilda for a copy and here I am.
Pros:
The books are good and incorporate a lot of characters from the old testament, but Matilda has given them new meanings in this science fantasy trilogy.
Cons:
A concern with the books is the excessive use of adverbs. The average sentence of the book runs like this ‘“You look beautiful today,” Harry said lovingly and hugged Laurel gently.’.
Using 2-3 adverbs per sentence is not good for pacing, and the book would flow better if the writer edited most of them out.
‘“You look beautiful today,” Harry said and hugged Laurel’ conveys the same message and flows better.
Plot summary (Spoilers)
In book 1, The soul monger Darlen, kidnaps the main character, Laurel, from Earth to a parallel universe. Laurel meets with a group of people from similar circumstances and Darlen reveals that Laurel and the others are whole souls, i.e. have superpowers, in the parallel universe. Through a turn of events, Laurel decides to help her kidnappers from the League federation in their war against the count of Gartrya.
During the war, the whole soul Gabriel, who works for the Count of Gartrya, captures Laurel. They develop a Stockholm Syndrome affair, and in the end, Laurel has turned Gabriel against his boss.
Through a turn of events, Laurel falls unconscious and when she wakes up the war is over, and both the count and Gabriel is dead.
In book 2 Laurel gives birth to her daughter Ava, who she conceived with Gabriel. Since Gabriel is dead, she starts a relationship with her commander in the League army, Harry.
To stir the pot a bit, Laurel breaks into the headquarters of the League leader Anukkh and steals evidence of his crimes. When she releases this evidence, Anukkh is disposed from power, an event that brings civil war to the League.
Laurel is not interested in participating in the League civil war. Instead, she gathers her friends and goes on a galactic quest to learn about her powers. On her journey, she comes across various characters that teach her new magical powers, and some characters that want to kill her. At the end of the road, she finds a portal that takes her 5000 years back in time.
Book 3:
In book 3 Laurel and her friends have travelled back in time to when the Bible was written. She comes across a planet, Eden that symbolises the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, the Masters has destroyed most of Eden. The Masters is an evil race of genetically-engineered gigantic humans with a terrible body odour. The Masters like to eat people alive, and their boys eat up their mothers as a rite of passage, and they lack any redeeming qualities.
Laurel decides to help the Eden population, the Edensai, to fight the Masters. Unfortunately, her military advisors are idiots and they don’t object to her plan. ‘To use her teleportation magic and bring a big bomb onto the Masters’ command ship to shoot it down from orbit. Once the command ship is down, Laurel and Ava plan to use their Biblical Floods ability to drench the planet and kill everyone. This includes the Edensai they are there to protect.’
If Laurel was smart, she would have used the teleportation skill to bring down the masters’ ship, and then shot at the Masters from orbit. Thus, avoiding killing the people she means to save.
Laurel carries out her plan and wipes out the Masters. Since almost every Edensai inhabitant died due to Laurel’s questionable plan, she decides to save their future as a species. Laurel has her stepson Marcel impregnate every remaining Edensai woman using futuristic IVF technology. After ensuring that Marcel has the most progeny in the history of humankind, Laurel travels through the portal back to the present time. Laurel’s story is almost over, but she decides to visit an old friend, Chloe, who is one of the whole souls from the first book.
Chloe’s employer is a dictatorship run by crazy scientists, and she wants to take Laurel a prisoner. A bunch of crazy scientists is no match for Laurel. She knocks Chloe out and returns to the planet Illuvi, where she lives out her days with a race of humanoids with magical capabilities.