Terminus

       


Review of Terminus by Joshua Graham


Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: Having witnessed one too many senseless deaths, Nikolai, a disillusioned Reaper 3rd Class, resigns his commission with the Angel Forces after a tedious century of gathering souls.

Immediately, another division recruits him with the promise of a more rewarding career, and issues his initial assignments: To bring down a few very dangerous threats to the human race. In the process, Nikolai falls in love with one of his targets-Hope Matheson, a woman who will lead thousands astray.

Caught between conflicting agendas, Nikolai chooses to "fall" from his celestial state and become mortal in order to circumvent angel law and be with her. But for angels and humans alike, things are not always as they appear. Still a target, the threat against Hope's life intensifies.

Now, in order to save her, Nikolai must rally the last remnants of his failing supernatural abilities to prevent her assassination, as well as the destruction of an entire city by a nuclear terrorist strike.

But his time and power are running out...

Terminus is a perspective-altering saga that delves into ageless themes of redemption, destiny, and the eternal power of love.

My Review:

The title of this one comes from the name of the “construct” where the main character, an angel named Nikolai, or sometimes Nick, takes the souls that he ushers into eternity. It is constructed as a duplicate of Victoria Station in London as it would have appeared in 1910. Nick thinks it makes it easier on the souls who pass through there if they can think of their journey as just another train trip.

This Thriller was unlike any that I had ever read before. As I already mentioned we have an angel as a main character. We are introduced to him as he takes a little girl to the construct and puts her on the train.

He then decides that he is tired of being a reaper and wants a job that makes more sense. That is when he ends up in Angel Resources and is recruited by an angel by the name of Morloch for a more top secret assignment. His first job is to stop a preacher from reading his Bible and following his usual routine.

But when the man’s child is about to be hit by an oncoming car, Nick can’t help himself. He jumps into the street to save the boy. And thus begins a series of jobs where Nick seems to do the opposite of his assignments because they just don’t make any sense but when he stops Hope Matheson rather than encouraging her to commit suicide, everything changes.

The stakes get higher and higher as Nick finds himself falling from grace and falling for Hope. She becomes a target of Nick’s new boss and Nick must find out why so that he can protect her from the angel Lena who still wants Hope dead.

The positives on this one are this one are many. The characters are great, even if they are not always Biblically accurate and yet the author does manage to keep remarkably close to the verses in the Bible that speak of this subject. The plot is not at all predictable. In fact, it is quite engaging. And the supernatural setting is interesting.

As for negatives, I had a tough time coming up with any. So there are none listed here. If you do read this, I suggest that you also read the final note from the author as it explains the thought process of our author. I found it very interesting and informative.