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On Midnight Wings
by
Adrian Phoenix
urban fantasy in Paperback edition that was published by Pocket Books on September 24, 2013 and has 386 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include A Rush of Wings, In the Blood, Beneath the Skin, Etched in Bone, Black Dust Mambo, Black Heart Loa
Fifth in The Maker’s Song urban fantasy series revolving around young Dante Baptiste, a Maker who is half-vampire/half-Fallen angel.
My Take
This one is a combination bridge and tidy-up before the huge action sequence that seems to be setting up for book 6. It’s driven me nuts waiting for Phoenix to release this story, and after reading the scenes in which Dante is fracturing…all I can say is wow. I thoroughly understand why it took so long, and as much as it pains me to say this, it’s okay if it takes her this long again to get book 6 right…*blubber, sob*…
Phoenix pulled me inside of Dante’s mind, pulling me into his nightmare in such a way that I completely got it. It made so much sense. Brava! And it didn’t make me cry…it had gone way beyond crying… He’s such a good man, struggling so hard to do what’s right, fighting against his programming.
Oooh, Phoenix is so mean. She gives out all these bonds and psychic connections, and then prevents them from working. Tricksy. The odd thing about all this tension supposedly being created is that I didn’t feel tense. Yes, I did race through the pages, desperate to learn what happens next, but the fear was missing.
It’s difficult to believe all these federal agents are this stupid. They did their best to torture, er, create, Dante as a sociopath, and when he acts like one—especially when they continue to torture and imprison him, send assassins after him, just how do they expect him to act? I mean, duh. It’s incredible the resources and work they put into taking Dante out. The total lack of morals or ethics.
It certainly feels true about the agency rivalry, although I do hope that there is nothing like a Bad Seed Project anywhere. The level of evil this stoops to! And it’s exhausting with all these people after them all.
Ooh, Mauvais is pissed! He had no idea about Dante and the idiot actually thinks he’ll be able to talk Dante into working with him??
The Story
The story takes up where it left off in Etched in Bone, 4, with Dante and Heather captured by different forces and spirited away. With Lucien gone and the rest of the band battling for their lives.
There are too many after them, coming from too many directions, and neither Lucien nor Von can find Heather or Dante.
And don’t count on loyalty or familial love…
The Characters
Dante “Tee-Tee” Baptiste Prejean is both nightkind and Fallen angel, for Lucien De Noir, the Nightbringer, is his father. But he’s also a creawdwr, capable of Making and Unmaking, a godlike being, and one who was tortured throughout his childhood in the Bad Seed Project, making him into the sociopath, S. Genevieve was Dante’s mother. Members of the band include Jack Cheramie, their human drummer. Both Silver and Von McGuinn are nightkind; Silver was human before he was turned while Von, a nomad, is an Ilygad, a Keeper of nightkind history. The Cage is/was the bar where Dante and his friends held sway. Simone was Trey‘s sister. The one who died in the fire.
As a True Blood, Dante’s existence is highly prized by the Elohim who want to control him. That he is also a vampire ensures that vampires also want to control him. Papa Prejean was his last foster father. The one who used Chloe to control him, force him to allow himself to be used by the perverts Papa sold him to night after night.
Heather Wallace was FBI before she fell in love with Dante. Bonded with him as his calon-cyfaill, she’ll do anything for him. Annie Wallace is Heather’s bipolar sister, desperate for her father’s approval. Special Agent James Wallace is their amazingly selfish, single-minded father, who left Dante to die.
The FBI
Special Agent-in-Charge Oscar Heyne is Wallace’s direct supervisor. And nightkind. Teodoro Díon intends to break Dante, make him into the Great Destroyer in revenge for what the Elohim did to his daughter. Webster is Díon’s supervisor. Barry Lang is the ADIC in Washington D.C. Caterina Cortini is an assassin reprogrammed by Díon. Seraphina Ivey has nephilim blood and has gone along with Díon’s plans until now.
Shadow Branch Agent Emmett Thibodaux was with Bad Seed before he learned the truth in Beneath the Skin, 3. Merri Goodnight is his partner. Galiana is Merri’s mère de sang and part of the Conseil du Sang of vampires who intend to claim Dante.
Bad Seed has tortured Dante before at the Doucet-Bainbridge Sanitarium where they have imprisoned young Violet, the little girl Dante brought back from the dead. I do like Violet. A most intelligent little girl. Chloe is a treasured memory of a little girl from Dante’s past. Joe and Tyler are orderlies who question their orders. Richard Purcell is a Shadow Branch agent who is dying to torture and kill Dante. Ya wanna talk sociopath…? Here’s your man…! Bronson, Holland, Roberts, and DeAgostino are vicious jerks just like Purcell.
The Strickland Deprogramming Institute is in Dallas, Texas. Allan Wade is the therapist treating the “deluded” Heather. Sue is one of the nurses.
Guy Mauvais is the Lord of New Orleans vampires and feuding with Dante and his people. Well, he burned their house down and murdered Simone… Edmond is his majordomo. Phaedra. Loki is a Fallen angel with vicious mischief on his mind. Giovanni Toscanini is Renata’s fil de sang, and Caterina is his sister.
Nightkind are what we think of as vampires. Most are made; very few, like Dante, are born. True Bloods.
Renata Alessa Cortina is high priestess of the vampire Cercle de Druide based in Rome.
Holly Miková was llafnau, the nightkind equivalent of Navy SEALS, a special forces branch of the Ilygaid.
The Elohim are angels who live in Gehenna, Fallen angels, who are desperate for another Maker since their last one died, some 2,000 years ago. The Morningstar has taken a pledge from Dante. Lucien considers Gabriel, one of the remaining Celestial Seven, a seat-warming pretender to the throne. Astarte is one of the angels who lied to Dante. Hekate, the Morningstar’s daughter, is a healer and a former lover of Lucien’s. Yahweh was the last creawdwr whom Lucien killed. Leviathan was Yahweh’s mother, and she’s threatening to kill or take a child of Lucien’s if he should ever have one. Michael is a Fallen who has been imprisoned inside a tomb and has the Steel Bond.
The Cover and Title
The cover is aswirl in wisps surrounding an intent, black-leather-clad Heather focused on firing her gun, blazing with fire from its muzzle as well as the fire behind her that encompasses Dante.
There are so many possibilities with this title, and my thoughts lean toward Dante’s state of mind plus the color of his wings, for he’s descending into madness On Midnight Wings.
