Review: Magnificent Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 22, 2013
** spoiler alert ** Ascendant by Richard DenoncourtAscendant by Richard Denoncourt is a four part book. In the first part, Origins you are introduced to Claudia Cairne (a telepath) who is fleeing with her son Michael from a research facility run by Harris Kole. Claudia arranged for her son to be taken to a safe place so he could grow up nowhere near Harris Kole and the research facility. Claudia sacrificed herself and gets captured in order to give her son Michael time to get away. After killing Koles men with her telepathic abilities, Claudia is face to face with Kole. She puts a gun to her head and pulls the trigger.Now we fast forward to when Michael is older(17) and he works as a dishwasher at his family's Italian restaurant called Lanza's with his mom, dad and his brother Benny(who are actually his Aunt, Uncle and cousin). He lives in The People's Republic, where the government uses telepaths, which they call "ments", to detect those who are disloyal to the One President. If they are disloyal, they get thrown into a labor camp.In order to make some extra money for his family and for himself, Michael builds illegal radios in his spare time and sells them on the black market. Michael finds a discarded robot which he brings back to his house and takes it apart and sells the pieces on the black market for a lot of money. Michael starts hearing voices and seeing little strings in the middle of people's foreheads but he dismisses it. One day he over hears his Uncle Sal talking to his parents about his mother doing something a couple times a week. Michael has no idea what they are talking about but finds out a week later. He finds his Uncle Sal trying to have sex with his mother. Michael becomes enraged and tells Sal to stop. Sal ends up in a vegetative state from Michael's telepathic mumbo jumbo.Since Michael is now transmitting his telepathic abilities and is not blocking other people out someone is sent into to get him and bring him to a safe place. The person that was chosen was a man named Dominic. Dominic introduced himself to Michael telepathically when Michael was being interviewed about his Uncle Sal by a ment and a FSD Agent. Dominic told Michael how to block the ment so he could lie and go undetected. Later he met with Michael behind the restaurant and told him he could give him a new life. Michael refused and told him to leave him alone. Later that night he was pulled out of bed by Welcher and Boyd, the two men that worked with his Uncle Sal. They drug him down to the basement where his brother Benny was handcuffed to a chair. They explained to Michael they knew he was a telepath and they wanted him to undo what he did to his Uncle. Boyd uses a broken bottle and cuts Benny under the chin and hits an artery. Benny slumps over and dies. Michael is contacted telepathically by Dominic again and asks if he wants his help now. Michael loses it and kills both Boyd and Welcher, accidentally kills his parents and a lot of other people. Michael also tries to kill Dominic because he is in total melt down mode but Dominic injects him with some type of drug and he blacks out. Dominic later explains they are crossing the border and going where he will be safe and with other telepaths like himself. Michael thinks about what Benny said to him the day they sat outside when they were drunk. "Someday you'll make us all proud." Michael didn't want to disappoint his brother (cousin).Episode 2: Children of Ment -Children of Ment is mostly about Michael settling into the town of Gulch in the Eastlands. Dominic takes him to a house where other Ments live and shows Michael to his room. Dominic tells Michael the best thing he can do is to fit in with everyone and follow the rules. Michael meets some of the other Ments like Peter Eli and Ian . Also, when Michael went to eat lunch, he met Charlotte, her son William and her sister Arielle who runs The Cold War Café. Arielle is an empath and Charlotte a type 2 ment .In the town of Gulch, you have a man named John Meacham who is in charge and he has two close henchmen that work for him, Warren and Elkin. Meacham tells Warren and Elkin to keep an eye on Michael but not to touch him. Meacham doesn't like the Ments and he especially doesn't like that Louis Blake and Dominic brought Michael to Gulch.While Michael becomes acclimated to Gulch and its people Blake and Dominic start to secretly train Michael and some of the other Ments in combat telepathy (since it is illegal to do so in Gulch).Combat telepathy is where "they share their senses and thoughts with one another in order to solve a problem as one unit". Blake tells them with training they can shape their telepathy into an impenetrable shield against their enemies.One day while playing capture the flag, they were caught by Warren and Elkin. They were all taken in (arrested) but Blake took their place and he was put in jail. Before Blake's trial, they went to Praetoria to see if they could telepathically pinpoint the three woman that were kidnapped from Gulch several years ago. Since they were successful in locating the girls, they devised a plan to rescue them. After Blake's trial and he was found guilty, Michael came forward and told the town they had found the girls and could rescue them but they needed to be able to practice their Ment skills. So the town allowed them to practice freely. They also made a deal that if they came back with the girls, Blake would be set free from jail.In Episode 3: People's Republic starts out with the guys going over their plan to get the girls (Fran Baker, Rocio Martinez, Sally Woodhouse) away from the depraved city of Praetoria (known for its sex slave trade). When they arrive, another Ment, Dietrich working for Roman the chieftain of Praetoria, is able to feel them with his senses. Dietrich however is an undercover spy working for Harris Kole. Dietrich is keeping an eye on Roman's military strength and operations but is also looking out for Blake, Michael and some other targets. After Dietrich senses the Ments blocking him, he takes to the streets to try and find them. Michael and the others are able to get the girls but when Michael is leaving with Fran, Dietrich tries to shoot him and ends up shooting Fran. Michael ends up with Dietrich's gun but is unable to shoot him. Ian comes down from the third floor and see's Michael and takes the gun and shoots Dietrich three times in the chest. He was going to shoot him in the head but Michael stopped him. (You later learn that he did not die from the gunshot wounds) They all get out safely and go back to Gulch.After they get back, a party is held for the girls and their rescuers. John Meacham is livid when they come back, Blake is let out of prison and Michael finally kisses Arielle. Blake had a spy (Kiernan Sail) working as one of John Meacham henchman but he was found snooping in the barns. Kiernan went to Blake and told him that Meacham was stock piling assault rifles and he planned on assassinating Blake along with taking over the towns of Lansing and Outridge. As Kiernan was telling Blake about the guns and that he had to leave town, he was shot in the head by a sniper.After that, let's just say the s*** hits the fan. The town gets shot up, Meacham gets arrested and put in jail for his crimes and then is exiled after his trial. While Meacham is walking on the road he is met by Dominic, who does what should have been done in the first place, and slits Meacham's throat. Most of Meacham's men died except Warren who was able to escape into the woods.Charlotte and her sister Arielle get into a huge fight about Michael. After the fight, the conniving bitch that Charlotte is, cooks up a plan to get back at Michael for not wanting her instead of her sister. Charlotte changes herself to look like Arielle, goes to Michael's room and has sex with her. (Even though Michael knows something is off, he still goes through with it.) Charlotte changes back into herself and starts saying that Michael raped her.In Episode 4: Uprising begins with Midas Ford running a test on Charlotte. It comes out positive but it doesn't say if it is Michaels DNA or not. Ian comes to Michael's defense and says that Charlotte used a Chameleon effect on Michael. Arielle later gets Charlotte to confess Michael did not rape her. However, Michael leaves Gulch voluntarily for a while. Meanwhile, you have Charlotte feeding information to Warren and Dietrich who are in the woods keeping watch over the town.One day William, Charlotte's son sees a group of boys stick fighting. He starts getting angry and wants to hurt the boys like they have hurt him in the past. William becomes so angry, he ends up breaking one of the boys jaw. After the incident, Charlotte pulls William aside and tells him that he is a Type 1 Ment, just like Michael (and is also a shield for his mother).About five months after Michael left, some soldiers that had been captured and put into one of Kole's labor camps , come walking into Gulch waving a white flag. They proceed to tell them that Michael helped them escape by rising up against the guards and causing a riot in the camp. Michael sent them for medical supplies to help the injured and to let them know he was bringing an army to escort them to NDR.After Michael comes back, he finds out that Arielle and Charlotte are pregnant. Michael decides that they should leave for NDR right away. Everyone isn't happy about leaving and tensions rise. Later, Warren and Dietrich capture Arielle and have her taken Halepern Hospital in Gadlin.(Harris Kole's hospital) Michael was celebrating with his men and had a few drinks and then realized he couldn't feel Arielle telepathically. He goes outside and Dietrich and Warren are there to meet him and knock him out. The town of Gulch is then attacked by Dietrich and Kole's men. The town's people fight back, along with the ments. Charlotte ends up shooting and killing Eli. Pete ends up shooting Dietrich, killing him and saving Ian. After the dust settles, Blake finds Michael and tells him Arielle is gone. Pete and Ian captured Charlotte and drug her back to where Michael was and Michael asked Charlotte where they took Arielle. Charlotte told Michael she didn't know where they took her. Michael believes her but then Warren comes from the shadows with a knife to Midas Fords throat. Warren ends up telling Michael where Arielle is in exchange for his life, Charlotte's and Williams.Michael goes after Arielle and his men follow him. Unfortunately, he was too late because they had already cut the baby out of Arielle and left her to die on the table. Michael holds her as she dies in his arms swearing that he will get there baby back. Michael ends up killing all the soldiers at the hospital with the "death whisper" after Arielle takes her last breath.Dominic, Ian and Pete go to Gulch to get the baby Charlotte had with Michael who she named Sebastian. Of course Charlotte and Midas Ford say they cannot take the baby but they do anyway. Meanwhile, the People's Republic is celebrating their 50th anniversary. Harris Kole is making a speech and the feed to the large screen TV's went out. Michael ends up controlling Harris Kole with his ment abilities and has Kole put a gun to his head and shoot himself. Michael tells the people it is time to be free.You skip ahead 10 years, William buries his mom and vows to burn down New Dallas Republic (NDR).Ascendant by Richard Denoncourt is a brilliantly written book. The author is descriptive and sets the scene for his readers. The story is full of action and does not drag. You are constantly being drawn into the story. The characters are well rounded and have growth through the story. Michael is not just your average teenage boy even though he acts like one. He evolves into a strong, dominant leader that people look up to.Ascendant was absolutely a captivating story that had me flipping the pages eagerly. This book will not disappoint. Do not let the fact that the book is over 600 pages deter you from reading it. Once you start the book, you become so engrossed in it and the pages just fly by and several hours later you are done. Denoncourt did a wonderful job in writing this book.I won this through Goodreads Giveaway and have given an honest review.4.4 Stars