Just a short post here to spread the word about a great series by my friend,
and extraordinary author, Shannon Knight. I've received copies of all three
books for free and am writing this review voluntarily.
The Grave Chronicles series is a sci-fi/ fantasy series set in the
future.
It is important to note that these books are not standalone stories. I urge
readers to read the series in order to get the full effect of the story.
The first book of the series is Grave Cold. In it, the reader is introduced
to some characters appearing throughout the series. The blurb on the back of
the book will give one a sense of what to expect...
Something strange is happening in the District of Portland (DP). As a
result, a biting cold is spreading out from the city, expanding into the far
wilderness, acting as a beacon for ravens. Most people don’t know that when
someone dies, they remain trapped within their bodies until a raven, a
long-lived person with a duty to the dead, releases them. For some reason, the
cold call of death has expanded so far as to reach Nyle, a raven who hasn’t
stepped foot into a city for centuries.
Cait, a beautician in DP with a mysterious problem of her own, has been
unable to sleep due to the dead invading her dreams. She decides to camp
outside the city walls and meets Nyle, who recognizes her as a necromancer and
convinces her to smuggle him in. Together, they discover that the dead of DP
are being used as an energy source. They must protect the dead and stop the
technology from spreading before the abuse of the dead becomes a worldwide
menace and they themselves end up on a laboratory table or trapped in a
machine.
In the second book, we are introduced to more characters, and ones we
already know are greatly developed. For me, the main theme in Death Rights is
fighting for justice in a society stripped of the rights of the living and the
dead.
In the final book of the series, Memento Mori Station, the reader moves a
thousand years into the future. The raven, Nile, still lives and learns there
is a place where he must go to help his friend, and correct a mistake he made.
It will take a twenty-year space voyage to complete the tasks, but then, what's
two decades for someone who has lived for as long as he has? This one is a
space opera the likes of which I found to be marvelous!
Shannon's storytelling defies being placed into a single category and should
appeal to a wide range of readers. The Grave Chronicles are loaded with
allegory, speaking to moral, ethical, and political issues of the past and
present, and hopefully, will speak to the future.
Series Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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