Ancient

Ancient
Ancient eBook Cover, written by Niall Teasdale
Author(s)	Niall Teasdale
Cover artist	Niall Teasdale
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Thaumatology
Genre(s)	Fantasy Mystery Adventure
Publisher	Smashwords Amazon Digital Services
Publication date	August 25, 2012
Media type	eBook
Length	124 Pages
ISBN	9781476229041
ASIN	B00923F8AS
Preceded by	Eagle’s Shadow
Followed by	Dragonfall

For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).

Ancient is an eBook written by Niall Teasdale. It is the eighth work, tenth if the anthologies are counted, in the Thaumatology series by this author. In this series, the character Lily Carpenter is a half-succubus and a friend to the main character of the series Ceridwyn Brent.

Overview

• Title: Ancient
• Author: Niall Teasdale
• Published By: Smashwords & Amazon Digital Services
• Length: 124 Pages
• Format: eBook
• ISBN: 9781476229041
• ASIN: B00923F8AS
• Publishing Date: August 25, 2012

Other Works in this Series on SuccuWiki

• Thaumatology 101
• Demon’s Moon
• Legacy
• Tales from High Towers' Study
• Dragon's Blood
• Disturbia
• Hammer of Witches
• Tales from the Dubh Linn
• Eagle’s Shadow
• Dragonfall
• The Other Side of Hell
• For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
• Vengeance

Plot Summary

Ceridwyn Brent has invented a way of creating an artificial ley line and is planning to use it to generate free, clean electricity. To do that, however, she needs to start the line in an area of high magical energy and in Europe that means the German Rift. At the end of World War II, a series of huge explosions in German cities cracked open the world, letting demons and fae run rampant, and that rift line is still a huge area of high magic. So, Ceri and her friend, Lily Carpenter, must walk into what is left of Hamburg to initiate the ley line.

Something is wrong in the ruins of Hamburg, however. Sensitives are having strange dreams of some old evil rising from underground and the shadows seem to move on their own. Something bad has woken up and it seems to be fascinated by Ceri. It also has far more extreme motives and, when it follows Ceri and Lily back to London, blood and chaos are not far behind

Book Review

The following review was first published by Tera on her Blog, A Succubi's Tale on December 7th, 2012

There is an underlying theme in this work that revolves around the question of, what frightens you the most? There are some very specific things that Ceri sees in this story that tell a great deal about her. Some of which, if you have been paying attention to the series are quite obvious, but there are some that are much less so which was interesting. More so, the being that Ceri and her friends face reflects and in a way, lives for the application of those fears to gain more power for itself.

The thing of that is, while that threat is faced, the world around Ceri begins to come apart at the seams. It reminded me a lot of the 1950s in America where there was a Communist around every corner and everyone was a spy. The sheer level of paranoia that builds up and around Ceri is really something to see.

What makes that worse is that there are strings being pulled and in that larger questions remain at the end of the work that will, I am quite sure, return again in the series. I am expecting that the question of “who do you trust?” will be an ongoing theme from here till that mystery is solved fully…

I rather liked Ceri and Lily’s comment at one point in the story about how they seem to always be involved in the worst possible situations over and over again… It made me pause and wonder, quite seriously, what it would be like for them to have absolutely nothing of consequence happen at some point in the series… It would never happen of course, but the thought itself was amusing to me at least…

I think this particular story is the most fast paced of the series in that you are taking from place to place and event to event without having a lot of time to reflect on what just happened. In a way that is telling in what Lily and Ceri go through, and that was a nice touch to the telling as well.

At one point Ceri confronts an angel in her home, and, to be honest, I thought that it was the funniest thing I have ever read. The angel is someone that I do hope we see again really as they have quite a lot of personality and would be a pleasure to see return once more. Reflecting against that, the glimpses of the underground of the vampires, the inter workings of the military and government, the inherent fears in them all and the events, mainly bad ones for several characters in the story, are driving forces to the story. It is a shame that in all of that a stupid mistake takes one of them away forever…

There is of course tension in this work from the main story, but as well, there is a bit of tension in Ceri discovering her nature as a Domme and that nature coming out in force as the story progresses. I have to say that I understand that Ceri is changing, has changed and will change further… I am perhaps a bit saddened by the loss of the innocent Ceri for the more worldly one that we see now.

Ceri has grown in her own skin in more than one way as has Lily. There is a bit more known about Twill which was nice and the relationships with Michael, Ceri’s werewolf mate were wonderful to see. He really does come into his own in this story and it is nice to see that he does.

While all of the characters I have come to enjoy appear, the thing that I discovered was that they all have something bothering them and that in a way is Ceri herself. The question is, what happens when she finally becomes who or what she seems to be transforming into. There isn’t a lot physically that happens in this book, but, mentally and emotionally, as I have said before, she has changed…

What that amounts to will be something I will be looking forward to seeing in the future…

Wonderfully told as always, Niall didn’t disappoint and so another five pitchforks of course…

External Links

• This work in Various Formats at Smashwords.com
• This work in Kindle Format at Amazon.com
• The Thaumatology Blog by this author