I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Host
by
Faith Hunter
It is part of the Rogue Mage #3, Thorn St. Croix #3 series and is a religious, science fiction, apocalyptic in a Kindle edition that was published by ROC on November 1, 2007 and has 356 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Raven Cursed, An Apple for the Creature, Death's Rival, Blood Trade, Kicking It, Blood in Her Veins, Mercy Blade, Shadow Rites, Bloodring, Seraphs, Dark Queen, Shattered Bonds, Black Arts, Broken Soul, Dark Heir, Cold Reign, Blood of the Earth, Curse on the Land, "Water Witch", "Explosion On King's Street", Skinwalker, Dirty Deeds, "Shiloh and the Brick", "Black Friday Shopping with Nell and Occam", Circle of the Moon, Blood Cross, Spells for the Dead, "Easy Pickings", True Dead, Dirty Deeds 2, Trials, Junkyard Cats, Rift in the Soul, Junkyard Bargain, Junkyard War , Junkyard Roadhouse, Flame in the Dark
Third (and last, wahh) in the Rogue Mage / Thorn St. Croix apocalyptic, religious, science fiction series and revolving around Thorn St Croix, a stone mage in training. It’s 105 Post-Apocalypse year.
My Take
It’s the end of the world with seraphs taking over from humans, not allowing violence between mages and humans. Between humans and humans? They don’t care.
Parts of the world are no longer habitable. The ice age has begun. Small pockets of humanity remain with religion at its highest. Only now is technology beginning to regenerate.
Bigotry is everywhere, against any who are different from humans. Religious fervor is everywhere with their rigid sense of morality.
A neomage, Thorn has fought and will fight beside seraphs with us getting her perspective through first person protagonist point-of-view. Fortunately, she’s proven herself to the people of Mineral City — she’s now “our town mage”.
It’s good versus evil with a completely different take on the angels of God, and Thorn using passages from the Bible to overcome evil. There is no end of action with a wide range of characters on both sides, all of it revolving around religion, temptations, and battle.
Oh, lol, Thorn realizes Jones is on probation for his temper. He’s certainly not demonstrating any diplomacy himself. Thorn, Audric, and Rupert complete Jones’ dismay with a few home truths, ROFLMAO. Then he displays his cowardice. Thorn and friends do have “fun” with Jones. The description of his future living quarters is so depressing and serves him right. I loved imagining his dismay, lol.
Ooh, yes! I love how Thorn takes that acting priestess down!
That Culpepper is such a jerk!!
In the time of survival, all religions worked together. Now, they’re sparring over their disagreements over dogma.
And everyone forgets that the seraphs are on Thorn’s side.
The Story
Evil seeks Thorn St Croix. Including Cheran Jones, who issues threats and fights from cover, if necessary.
The Dark is using human deaths to provide the energy needed to free the Dragon, who wants a child by Thorn.
The acting mage priestess is threatening Thorn with punishment.
Mineral City is under severe threat from a Darkness invasion by a Prince of the underworld, and the elders have asked Thorn to take in the town’s children and elderly, to protect them.
The Characters
Mentally open to all mage-minds, Thorn St Croix is a jeweler and now a licensed stone omega neomage, able to command seraphs in battle. Audric Cooper is Thorn’s champard, a half-human, half-mage bodyguard cum teacher cum friend, bound servant to Raziel (in Seraphs, 2) — and half-breed mule. Her business partners in Thorn’s Gems include the gay Rupert Stanhope, a several-times great-grandson of Benaiah Stanhope, a.k.a. Mole Man, and Jacey. Cissy is Jacey’s nine-year-old daughter. Thorn’s parents were killed by a Prince of the Dark. Her twin sister, Rose, a licensed earth mage in Atlanta, is a captive.
The Battle Station Consulate is established and licensed by the High Host.
Lucas Stanhope, Rupert’s brother, is Thorn’s ex-husband. Ciana is Lucas’ daughter, Thorn’s stepdaughter, given a pin by a seraph. Gramma is a succubus queen. Marla had been Lucas’ first wife. Jane Hilton had been his third wife. Thaddeus “Thad” Bartholomew, a third-generation kylen, is a Stanhope cousin and a Hand of the Law for Carolina law enforcement. It seems the Stanhopes are not fully human.
Cheran Jones, a snooty, extremely bigoted steel mage, too good for everyone around him, is a emissary from the New Orleans Enclave. He’s supposed to instruct Thorn in swordplay and diplomatic protocol between humans and angels. Gag
Mineral City, Carolina, is . . .
. . . living in the shadow of the Trine in the Appalachian Mountains. The Central Baptist Church is the town hall. Elders of the town include Shamus Waldroup, a senior elder and a town father who owns a bakery; Jasper is one of the youngest Elders; the hateful Perkins and Culpepper; and, Ebenezer. Ernest Waldroup is Shamus’ brother, an elder, and the chief bishop of the Atlanta kirk. Derek Culpepper is the elder’s son.
The Schuberts own Blue Tick Hound Guns. Gloria Stein has two kids and a husband, the only Jewish family in town. Darlene Smythe has a dress shop next door to Thorn’s Gems. Miz Essie sometimes takes boarders. Some of the children include Kimmer and Estrella. Zeddy, Big Zed’s oldest, works at the bakery.
Romona Benson is a journalist.
Enclaves are . . .
. . . reservations for these wild mages, neomages, to protect them. Babies conceived just before the first plague are perfect until their abilities manifest. Wild mages. Slaughtered by bigotry. Jones is from Thorn’s home Enclave, New Orleans, where Lolo, a.k.a. Daria, is Thorn and Rose’s kylen grandmother and the priestess of the New Orleans Enclave. The acting priestess of the New Orleans Enclave threatening Thorn, is Élan of the line of Eugene.
The Administration of the ArchSeraph (AAS) regulates neomages, hunting down any unlicensed neomage. Nazareth Durbage was one of them (Seraphs).
The High Host of the Seraphim are . . .
. . . the ruling council of seraphs, Major Princes of the Light, angels of punishment who descended upon Earth and destroyed its populations. Stars of the Morning are the primary combatants of the war in the heavens, greater even than Major Princes of the Light. Now humanity answers to them. Realms of Light are where the seraphs live. Raziel, who likes Thorn, is a warrior angel, who bound Audric in Seraphs. Uriel. Ravens One, Two, and Three are not there to help. Flames are balls of plasma who can do battle and heal.
Zadkiel, rescued in Seraphs when he placed Thorn under his protection, is a seraph with Holy Amethyst his cherub, and he’s battle companion to ArchSeraph Michael. Cherubim are nothing like we think! Cheriour is an Angel of Punishment and Judgment. Mutuol. Malashe-el is a former daywalker.
Barak was a Watcher imprisoned and now possessed by the Dragon. Watchers are seraphs who left heaven willingly to mate with human women. Their punishment is an inability to transmogrify or return to heaven.
The Earth Invasion Heretics are . . .
. . . enemies of the AAS who believe seraphs and Darkness are alien invaders. Members include Joseph Barefoot who had given his life to save Mineral City; Tomas and Rickie Ernandez; and, Eli Walker, who is a miner. All three and Durbarge had gone underground with Thorn to battle Darkness.
The Darkness
The Major Darkness is ruled by the Lord of the Dark, a.k.a. the Great Red Dragon or Satan, and includes dragons, a.k.a. satanels. Lesser Darkness includes spawn, dragonets created by Lord Forcas, and the succubi who are both made with Mole Man’s blood. Azazel, the left-hand of Satan, is believed to be a Leviathan, an evil that played two roles in the rebellion. Then there are neomages who have gone to the Dark, Dark mages. A Fallen Watcher has gone to the Dark.
Elijah is a prophet. A healing dome is a seraph energy construct. The River of Time may be a fourth dimension that gives seraphs access to all time throughout the universe.
Mages, a.k.a. neomages, use the leftover energies of creation and are bound by the laws of physics in many ways. They are the first unforeseen and aren’t fertile with humans but they are with seraphs whose presence causes a mage to go into heat. Mules are the second unforeseen, sterile, incompletely developed, and half-human, half-seraph. Kylen are half-mage, half-angel who may only breed with humans with all offspring taken to a Realm of Light. Mage bliss is a compulsion after a human has sex with a mage. A mage visa provides a neomage with the ability to speak loudly and gives diplomatic advice. Tears of Taharial is a curse. Damocles had been a battle mage of renown using the longsword his parents made. The Apache Tear is an obsidian amulet that helps mute mind voices.
An assey is supposed to protect a mage in the human population. A mistrend is a blended word of mistress and friend.
The Cover and Title
The cover is patriotic with its blues of the smoke rising and the shingled side of the building with the red-haired Thorn in a shiny black PVC jumpsuit, a red cape flaring around her, standing in profile but looking out at us, her sword clenched in both hands. All the text is in white from the testimonial at the top, the title crossing Thorn’s waist with the series info below it, to the author’s name at the bottom with an info blurb below that. An orange colophon for the publisher is in the top right corner.
The title is about the Heavenly Host of angels — the good and the bad of it.
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