THE TURNING POINT

Ash’s third volume of the ELI Chronicles sees animals attacking humans and vampires.

In 2041, Ruby Spencer is a vampire who acts as The Tether, whose duty is to “bring safety, balance, and harmony to every living thing in the world and universe.” Her blood can heal people, but it turns them into vampires, so she declined to cure first lady Irene Unger who was suffering from stage 4 ovarian cancer. Desperate for a cure, President Will Unger pardoned imprisoned “dark science deviant” Emory Bradshaw, who genetically crossed Irene with a cancer-proof naked mole-rat; the president then asks Ruby to end the resulting monstrous hybrid's suffering. However, the president feels betrayed for her refusal to cure his wife, so he helps Emory and former Russian ruler Vladimir Volkov kidnap her and bring her to a Siberian lab, where they plan to use “genetically enhanced wolf venom” to create new hybrids. Meanwhile, on the planet Athanasia, alpha wolf Lykos plans for the Turning Point, when animals everywhere will attack human and vampire “uprights”; it goes into effect on the planet Besto Polus, under the leadership of the female wolf Filtiarn. Back on Earth, Ruby’s husband, Clay, and their 9-year-old daughter, Gabby, witness coyote and bird attacks. And whose side will the devious Zagan Glissendorf join now that he’s limited to a ghostly form after previous novels’ events? Ash is a fearless author who holds little back in terms of imagination and worldbuilding. Her formidable vision holds together seemingly disparate elements, such as vampires and alien worlds, and it certainly helps that she winks frequently at her readers. There’s a line, for example, about how Filtiarn’s rivals’ “penises had been sun-dried” and “given to the female pups as chews” that’s as inspired as it is bizarre. Overall, the narrative functions as a rallying cry for animal rights, but it’s also a study of transformation. Major characters become new beings for excitement’s sake while Zagan’s arc is an earnest affair of the heart. Seasoned genre fans will be impressed by how the author balances action, gore, and heart in this volume.

Ash combines an array of fantasy concepts in a rousing new series entry.