Blood Moon: The Rising series: Book 2 by Heather Graham and Jon Land
What's It About?
The monk knew he was going to die; he’d known it ever since he’d undertaken this missionAuthors Heather Graham and Jon Land know their way around action-packed thrillers. They don’t mess around in their latest novel, Blood Moon (Tor Books), putting all of humanity in peril in this second of an ongoing series that began with The Rising.
Graham and Land teleport the readers onto an Earth in which humanity faces attack from advanced, extra-dimensional forces. Our fate depends in large part on two feisty teenagers, Alex and Sam, and a mysterious old book that its protectors will die to preserve. The authors weave the intriguing questions raised by all good puzzle-quest thrillers with nearly non-stop action that will entertain readers of every age.
MYSTERIOUS MONKS AND FEISTY TEENS
The story opens with a brief, stage-setting introduction, particularly useful for those who missed The Rising and will need some time to connect events and characters. Then you’re dropped into an Austrian abbey in 1865 in which a mysterious monk risks his life in a heart-pounding chase through tunnels and rooms that are hundreds of years old.
“The monk knew he was going to die; he’d known it ever since he’d undertaken this mission,” is how the prologue opens. “ … But that didn’t matter, he didn’t matter. Only the book did.”
The quest centers on a book written in an indecipherable language. The monk knows it must be protected and hidden from a powerful alien enemy, and we soon learn that it holds keys that could stop a plot that would replace humanity on Earth.
This sets up the reader for the unfolding saga of the main characters, high school seniors Alex Chin and Samantha Dixon, who are still recovering from events that climaxed on Alcatraz Island a few days earlier in The Rising.
Scientists have opened a portal to other dimensions with clearly unintended consequences, allowing the aliens to enter our world and scatter fearful weapons across the globe. The battle just won is little more than a recess for what could come next.
COUNTDOWN TO DOOMSDAY
Sam and Alex also face an enemy with patience, who’s willing to play a long game over centuries with technology and weapons humanity can’t match – including powerful creatures that can form out of the soil under their feet.
And just like on our planet, not everyone on this uber-advanced, Earth-like world has the same views, and that offers glimpses of hope to our intrepid teens. This alien race has rebel factions who oppose conquest and annihilation. I found myself wishing for scenes on the alien world and more insight into what was happening on the bad-guy side of the dimensional door.
The quest climaxes around the ruins of El Mirador, a lost Mayan city, as a blood moon is about to rise; a blood moon that can be the trigger of the ticking doomsday clock.
BUDDING ROMANCE AMIDST ADVENTURE
Alex and Sam know they must find the book. As they search, it becomes more apparent that Alex is no random teenager. As he discovers and tries his special powers, he wonders if he stands in both worlds. Meanwhile, the blossoming, banter-filled relationship between Sam and Alex might be predictable, but it’s still fun. And the creative, scary ways that Graham and Land have concocted for the aliens to deploy their superior technology will fascinate.
Graham has authored more than 200 novels and novellas with an estimated 60 million books in print. Her list of awards includes the ThrillerMaster Award from the International Thriller Writers. Land has had 17 novels on national best-seller lists. His latest efforts include a series featuring a strong, heroic female Texas Ranger named Caitlin Strong.
In the best spirit of series fiction, their joint venture leaves you wanting to know “what’s next.” Indeed, as the characters in Blood Moon confront the immediate crisis, you can sense there’s more action (and problems) to come for some of the key characters. No spoilers here, but trust me, you’ll want to find out.
