Review: ok
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 11, 2013
I didn't hate it! I know, normally that wouldn't be a recommendation for a book But considering how I felt at the end of book two, a basic, 'I didn't hate it' is high praise indeed.Michel never managed to endear himself to me and for much of this book I wished he would disappear again. But at the VERY end, he showed a side I could maybe like. Eve was still pitiful. She just showed no real volition. She basically went with any man who came for her. Yea, she complained about it, but when Michel came for her she went with him, then when Julien showed up she scarpered with him, then Michel took her again, and then Dylan snatched her up and she just floated along with him too. She went along with Soran's plans and basically allowed herself to be used by everyone. She was a seriously, wimpy woman who I didn't enjoy at all. BUT, I didn't want to slowly scrape the skin from her scalp as I did throughout Ascension. That's an improvement right? Julien however, Julien I fell a little in love with. I think it was the first time in the whole series I actual connected with a character. Too bad he was so easily controlled.I'm still lost about Michel's insistence on total submission from Eve. It just made no sense. Every-time Eve asked why he wanted it, he responded with some variation of, "I don't want it, you do" (which already annoys me because it inferred she was too stupid to even know her own feelings, but he of course could) or "we have to do it to fool Soran." Both answers bother me.The first because it's an occluded fallacy. It ignores the fact that he wanted it very much and not just for her benefit. It's what he liked in general. This was made apparent on numerous occupations, though he seemed to continue to deny it. Plus, if it really were just for her, all that would be needed would be sexual domination, which she was willing to give him. It was blind control of the rest of her life she chafed about and that non-sexual domination (what she wore or ate, whether she was or wasn't on birth control, where she lived, when she was allowed to speak, etc) in no way addressed her personal issues that submission was claimed to free her from.Second, how exactly was her act of submission supposed to fool the super-evil, TELEPATHIC bad-guy? It just wouldn't. So why bother with the act? It all felt like Michel's lie to get control of her, which made me hate him and lose respect for her for allowing it.Though most of the writing was fine, the whole 'for' thing became like nails on a chalkboard to me. Here is an example sentence, "He pulls me into his arms and I let him, not fighting his touch for I need it now." Multiply that by about 400. The patter started to grate.The book did drag a bit in the middle, but Eve was finally allowed to leave the bedroom long enough to participate in at least some of the action—even if it was blindly, without being told the details (little more than an animate tool). I swear there wasn't a single man in the book(s) who thought she deserved to know anything, let alone be party to a decision and she let this pattern ride. I still think the vampire/angel Biblical battle plot is an interesting one. Too bad it's being drug over so many books. Though this book does actually have a conclusion of sorts, a new arc was established at the tale end. So, there must be more books to come.