Thursday, June 13, 2013

Review: Gemini Rising: Ethereal Fury by Jessica O'Gorek


BEWARE! THE PLANET IS WOUNDED... THE GEMINI ARE RISING AND OUR TIME ON EARTH IS LIMITED 

Angry at the human race and its methodical destruction of her resources, Mother Earth recruits souls who have just left their bodies to serve Her, and turns them against humanity. Gemini, a clan of paranormal beings, picked from these possessed humans, emerges. A powerful, rising force proceeds to carry out Mother Nature’s plan to systematically destroy towns, cities, states… and eventually, the world. 

Amidst the chaos, a forbidden relationship between a human girl, Violette, and Onyx, a lead Gemini, begins. They will both find themselves in the middle of a revolutionary war that will either save, or destroy our world.


A free copy was provided to me in return for an honest review.

Gemini Rising has  kind of an otherworldly feel to it a lot of the time.  It’s a complex book, I’ve decided; the characters have layers to them, even Onyx, who you see first as his human life in the prologue.  The author does well in connecting previously mentioned plot points to ones that others mention later, showing just how small the operation the Gemini are carrying out really is right now- Violette reads a book about previous demon possessions, and one of the stories even seems to imply that Father Darius is a survivor of it.

The book also isn’t black and white- while the Gemini have their hearts (or lack-there-of) in the right place in wanting to protect the Earth from being ruined, they mass-murder and possess people without caring about the consequences.  The church believes that the Gemini are some kind of demons that only care about destroying them because they believe in God (which is a reasonable assumption, since the Gemini almost exclusively target churches when they go to a new town) but they are more than willing to maim, trap and kill anyone who gets possessed by the Gemini, just because it’s quicker and easier than trying to drive them out.  The Gemini do seem a bit more sadistic, though; the church officials do it because they think it’s right, and they have no personal connections to the “demons” they’re getting rid of.  When the man who becomes Onyx is killed and dragged before The Mother, however, they purposefully torture him mentally with information about what they plan to do, knowing full-well that when they make him one of them, he won’t remember a single thing.  Given that, there’s really nothing to be gained from letting Onyx as a human being know about them other than scaring him.

The book does have its flaws, mostly editing problems.  Words are often missing from sentences, at one point the narration seemed to really like using the word “literally,” and it can sometimes get either overly-complicated or repetitive. (for instance, it’d do something like “’It will be okay.’ He tried to reassure her.”) 


Regardless, this is definitely a book worth your time if it’s your thing- and even if it isn’t, it can’t hurt, right?  Happy reading!

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