Heroes from the Multiverse travel from the North the South Pole of the Earth, from the deep sea to the top of the mysterious mountains. They don’t kill evil. They destroy generations of them. The Zodiac Collection brings together 4 novellas introducing the incredible journeys our supernatural heroes go through to safeguard humankind. ASH OF SCORPIO – BLOODSTONE TRILOGY – PREQUEL When hope turns … SCORPIO – BLOODSTONE TRILOGY – PREQUEL
When hope turns into ashes, hero rises
Imagine a time when the Arctic ice sinks.
In the snow, she rises a heroine who wins the battle of the last mage tribe in Greenland, saves humankind, and makes sacrifices.
Sedna is one of the best in her business as a professional antique dealer. That is what she considers a day job – a facade of her paranormal business. At night, she is running for the leadership of one of the most brutal mage tribe in Greenland.
A supernatural battle goes wrong, humankind is at risk, and her ex-boyfriend comes back as a supernatural soldier to save the day! That is none of her business until he asks her not only to forgive him for what he did but to help him fight against her own tribe.
VIRGO – MINDSCAPE TRILOGY – EPILOGUE
Imagine if it was hot in Antarctica! Watching the polar caps burn.
Madeline is no longer a journalist in New York, but her connection during the peak of her career deems to be useful when she needs to assist her husband, Ciaran, to stop a plot in the paranormal world, that might destroy the Antarctica and Earth. The only weapon they have is their Silver Blood. The only contact they have is a retired journalist living in Argentina. Yet they fight the vicious paranormal and space creatures to obtain the Virgo key to save Earth.
PISCES – MERWORLD TRILOGY – PREQUEL
Computer hacker, Lorcan, is finishing the last spy job so that he could come home and propose to his childhood sweet heart. Unfortunately, the job goes wrong and he is trapped in a magical world underneath the deep sea where mer-creatures hunt for a secret key they think he has stolen.
LIBRA – SPECTRUM OF MAGIC – EPILOGUE
Imagine if Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean vanish with the wrong turn of a key!
As a silver blood soldier, it is Roy’s mission to stop that from happening. As the alpha of a werefox clan, Mori uses all of her skills to help her husband prevent the catastrophe to both Earth and the paranormal worlds. Together, they tread the dangerous water, fighting the most notorious supernatural forces from the multiverse and the magical land.
For the reading order and information about the Multiverse Collection, please go to http://dnleo.com
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Keys to the Universe
Made up of bits and pieces of other series, this box set offers glimpses into the broader multiverse and some of the inner workings and crises with which the rulers must contend. Each world is allegedly free to run itself as long as it isn’t threatening the balance and peace of the whole. But villains abound and must be prevented from taking over. Interestingly, most Noble worlds seem to be based on the concept of benevolent dictatorship, an absolutely powerful monarch with a privy council, all with the greater good in mind–in principle. Using whatever cosmology you prefer, the potential for evil is endless and must constantly be battled (to our endless entertainment). I’ve been dipping in and out of the series with the goal of eventually reading all (although I suspect author D.N. Leo can create faster than I can consume!) and this set makes a nice overview, although ideally other background tales would have been read first. Narration by Catherine Edwards (on most of the stories in this group) and Claire Lindsay (“Spellbreaker” only) helps bring additional life to the stories. Each tale in this set is from a different series, so only vaguely links with the others in that each involves Silver Blood and a Zodiac talisman/key. (A reading order is suggested but each tale can stand alone as its own adventure.)
The common theme to this set is a series of keys, each called after a Zodiac sign, that hold or control power, be it keeping a planet in stasis or another critical purpose. The Keymaker, whom we first meet in “Scorpio,” book 1, reappears (together with the baby angel he rescued), in “Light of Demon,” book 5. In fact, I’m not sure by what logic the “Crossworld” box set was ordered. For instance, in the various series within the multiverse, “Light of Demon (Bloodstone Trilogy #1),” #5 in the Crossworld, follows “Ash of Scorpio (Bloodstone Prequel),” the first book in this compilation–which is also known as “Silver Blood: Scorpio (Silver Blood #3).” As the multiverse expands, many of the books occupy space in a number of the series’ overlapping story lines. Kind of like real life!
Within this box you may find (various of the compilations have fewer titles–be sure to check before buying to be sure which stories are included!):
ASH OF SCORPIO-BLOODSTONE TRILOGY-PREQUEL [Crossworld Box Book 1]–Lightning Strikes!
There is no reason for this book not to be able to stand on its own as a great adventure, but this time the background details are so scanty that if you are not intimately familiar with the Multiverse you will get confused by many of the characters. I’ve read a fair number of different stories in the MANY series and still got confused by portions of the plot. And that is a shame because there really is a good story here with great action and adventure, a mixed bag of likeable and villainous characters (something for everyone!) and a conclusion which leaves plenty of room for additional stories to be told.
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VIRGO-MINDSCAPE TRILOGY-EPILOGUE [Crossworld Box Book 2]–Old Enemies
Use of Zodiac signs to identify the talismans being sought gave me the mild expectation that critical key elements associated with each sign would play roles in the solution. And, an analysis of the situation is critical to the solution for two species (Virgos being, allegedly, analytical). But, frankly, I was more caught up in the action and derring do of Madeline and Ciaran than in deeper meanings while I listened to Catherine Edwards’s easy narration. An enjoyable adventure!
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PISCES-MERWORLD TRILOGY-PREQUEL [Crossworld Box Book 3]–The Power of Love
Silver Blood shows up in the oddest of places! This transdimensional undersea world interfaces with the human world and various injuries repeatedly reduce various heroes to the brink of death. With recent discoveries of the permanence of brain trauma, I envy none of these characters their old age! There are some time loops here, too.
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LIBRA-SPECTRUM OF MAGIC-EPILOGUE [Crossworld Box Book 4]–Shapeshifters
Author D.N. Leo has a fertile and complex imagination. She has created an enormous multiverse that embraces every conceivable being. The ruling paradigm is power and to achieve, garner or steal power (or block others from stealing it) is frequently the core of each adventure. In this story, an infant, a were-fox, is the central to obtaining a key, the Libra key. Magic, shapeshifting, silver blood, jungle and water obstacles, and swordfights abound. I frequently felt I was in the midst of an extremely active RPG (Role Playing Game) and a bit lost as this is somewhat different from most of the other books in the series that I have read to date. Catherine Edwards ably narrated.
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LIGHT OF DEMON (Bloodstone Trilogy #1) [Crossworld Box Book 5]–Tech Reliant
Strongly coherent, action-packed, with powerful characters, this tale posits a future world in which values have changed radically and “legal” concerns come down to good versus evil. Not a friendly nor inviting place to live, the physical beauty of “New Australia” notwithstanding.
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SPELL BREAKER (Spectrum of Magic #1) [Crossworld Box Book 6]–How to Steal a Million
The nice thing about writing a book is that you can create and control your own universe, describe the game rules, and set in motion the circumstances that will lead to the end result–although I’ve heard many an author say that having provided the background, their characters take off and do their own thing. Author D.N. Leo has created a multiverse running through a multitude of books in a number of series.
Reading and listening (I am rapidly becoming addicted to audiobooks) I was immersed only in THIS story which started out with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole (whoops–wrong media/wrong generation; if you’ve never seen the film “How to Steal a Million,” put it on your MUST DO list!) . . . a young woman and man trying to steal an object to order for an unknown recipient. Almost immediately elements of the supernatural are evident as a grinning skull, weeds, and bony limbs attempt to entrap and drown our heroine (which would have made for an extremely short novel, had they succeeded).
Narrator Claire Lindsay has a crisp, clean voice and distinct character vocalizations and accents. If you are just reading you will have to supply your own inflections and accents. Suffice it to say this is a gripping tale which does NOT leave you hanging although there are plenty of open doors left to explore.