The Prophet Wars 2: Dead or Alive by Thomas Emson

Look at that cover! Perfect for the red square of Indiecember!

Billy Kingdom may have escaped from Project 9:6, but Grigori is no where to be seen, and he’s captured by Lord Seven Blades, one of the crime lords who now run London.

Meanwhile, Tawny has had the right and left hemispheres of her brain severed, and now lacks empathy. She’s become the project’s most ruthless killing machine, and, when it comes to Billy, all she knows is that he betrayed her.

Continuing from Volume 1, Volume 2 follows Billy as he fights to be reunited with his mum and sister, and Tawny as she fights. The country falls further into poverty and chaos as the natural disasters the prophets’ dream about continue to come to pass. The world is ending, but it won’t go out with a whimper if Billy has anything to do with it.

I enjoyed reading about Billy and Tawny once again. They are compelling characters, and their diverging storylines are interesting and heartbreaking. I loved Tawny in the first book, and I hated seeing her reduced to a killing machine in this volume. Billy was a little more passive in his storyline, but it was good to see him struggle to find his family. The biblical references continue, and I’m part nervous and intrigued to read how the author will handle the storyline in future volumes.

Unfortunately, one plot point shattered my suspension of disbelief and took me out of the storyline. One of the children that has been experimented on and turned into a killing machine, in a project funded in part by the UK government and publicly supported by the UK prime minister, inadvertently dies, and the government decides to shut down the project because of bad press. One accidental death, that could be easily covered up, versus a whole project that involved experimenting on babies and a very public telekinetic manipulation of the River Thames in broad daylight? I don’t buy it. I think there were many different ways the author could have chosen to produce the same result. This pulled me out of the story and I am afraid knocked off dogs from my rating.

Therefore, I award The Prophet Wars Volume 2: Dead or Alive…

The Prophet Wars Volume 2: Dead or Alive ebook is available on Amazon, priced $1.59.