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Scent of a Battle (eBook)
| Scent of a Battle | |
|---|---|
 Scent of a Battle eBook Cover, written by Lynn Carter | |
| Author(s) | Lynn Carter |
| Series | Incubus |
| Publisher | Passion Life Publishing |
| Publication date | July 12, 2016 |
| Media type | eBook |
| Length | 64 Pages |
| ASIN | B01IE1KTKW |
| Preceded by | Scent of a Conquest |
For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).
For other uses of the word Incubus, see Incubus (disambiguation).
Scent of a Battle is an eBook written by Lynn Carter. It is the second work in the Incubus series by this author. In this work the character Thu’ban is an Incubus and there is mention of both Succubi and Incubi in general.
Overview
- Title: Scent of a Battle
- Author: Lynn Carter
- Published By: Passion Life Publishing
- Length: 64 Pages
- Format: eBook
- ASIN: B01IE1KTKW
- Publishing Date: July 12, 2016
Other Works in this Series on SuccuWiki
Plot Summary
In the twenty-first century, when the old legends have been recast as harmless fairy tales, a young girl falls prey to the hunger of the night. The unholy incubus emerges on ebony wings from the darkness to sip her life force and drives her to the point of insanity with primal lust, threatening madness with the addictive seduction of the deepest and wildest of physical pleasures. beautiful doctor intervenes to save her young patient and becomes the new focus of the creature's hunger.
Can the doctor survive the torments of the night where countless others have perished? What can she do to save herself when science is not even equipped to admit the existence of such horrors? But the ancient terror of the night has an adversary. Mortals are not entirely powerless in the face of the demons of darkness. The darkness has an adversary, an unlikely hero who emerges from his secret background in the form of Oswald Albright, an elderly gentleman with his own dark history.
As ancient enemies draw up the battle lines over the life and body of a beautiful, talented woman, a new era witnesses a timeless contest where life or death are the only prizes. And so the battle begins.
Book Review
The following review was originally published by Tera on her Blog, A Succubi's Tale on July 26, 2016
Seeking rest, a soul returns to her family for solace. But along with the soul comes the incubus hunting her and battle lines are drawn. The fight begins but there is always a cost in every battle. The question, as always, is who pays and who loses in the end?
It’s impossible to divide this series into the individual works for review because the two are so tighten interwoven. The story continues from one to the other and honestly the author needs to release this series as a single work at some point, which I expect them to do. There’s a deep connection in the first, where the story is grounded, forms and starts to develop, and the second where the effects are seen, the choices made, and the battle fought.
That all said, the work is very well written, the plot is solid, the characters have strong voices, history and backgrounds. Everything in the story matters, and in the telling of that story the characters are forced to develop and change. There’s no rush in telling the story, the words speak as they need to and doing so means there’s so much detail and thought to make this work amazing.
The incubus of this series, Thu’ban, in the first work hovers about the edges of the story, pushing things forwards, but really there’s nothing that really says what they are life. The second work brings them out fully and when they appear it’s a mixture of emotions about them. The teasing glimpses of this character seem to indicate they are something different, something unique. The second work peels that back and the character is… if not quite stereotypically evil, they are extremely close to being so. It’s a bit disappointing at the climax, the confrontation, how the character loses themselves and it just didn’t fit in well with the rest of the story.
Settling Thu’ban aside, the other characters, Oswald, Agnes and Borena, are compelling ones. Their histories, the connection amongst them are wonderful. Oswald is a fascinating character, one that takes the story completely when he appears. Before that, Agnes is a force of nature in her own right and Borena herself, confused and under attack, is nonetheless a telling force as well. Really it is the characters that drive this story, all of them, and there’s no doubt they are some of the strongest characters I have read in some time.
The plot and storytelling is excellent, the author’s writing is amazing. The building up of tension is well done and it turns the work into a page turning need to see what comes next. The climax is telling, there is meaning in the moment and when it passes, the moments that follow are still powerful and well done. Except for one thing. The last page, the very end of the series which brings with it something I can’t quite understand. A twist ending.
The twist ending really wasn’t necessary. It just feels very tacked onto the series, an afterthought as if to tease the reader that there will be more in the series to come. That twist reads very much like a typical 80s slasher film ending and that disappointed me the most.
With how well the series was written, with how strong the characters are, the ending just falls flat on its face. It just doesn’t work, doesn’t need to be there. The preceding few pages made a clear suggestion about what happened and the author could have stopped there. Instead they went a little bit too far and shattered what was amazing in what came before.
Four out of five pitchforks.
If the ending hadn’t been as it is, I would have given this series four and a half pitchforks. But that ending just didn’t need to be there. Now, if it does lead to another work in the series, which might be a possibility, then it makes some sense. But if the series ends here, then it is an ending for shock value which wasn’t needed.
The series was perfectly capable of standing on its own and doing so well. It’s a shame the author felt they needed to put the twist in.