SpecMusicMuse Review: The Storm Guardians (Rising Dawn, Book 2) – Stephen Zimmer

The second book in Stephen Zimmer’s Rising Dawn saga, The Storm Guardians, starts out strong and stays that way. Where the first book, The Exodus Gate, primarily set the saga up, it’s in the second book where it picks up the pace.

The setting is like a paralell modern day world. A very familiar world where mostly the names have changed: the UCAS=USA, Grand Charter=Constitution, Yorvik–you get the picture. Although I’m not exactly sure about the small town Godwinton…. (Godwin’s Law?)

The shapeshifting An-Ki are now divided into three clans and despite crossing time and space to escape the global flood and find themselves in a time period they know nothing about, they still find themselves pursued by their ancient Nephilim enemy that managed to cross the Gate as well. Fortunately, they now have help, in the form of a new order of Avatars known as the Watchers.

However, in the spirit world, Beleth leads an army of nasties out of the Abyss and invades Purgatarion in what is quite possibly the most epic and imaginative battle I have ever read in any fantasy novel. Heck, you even get to root for spiders (for once).

All this while Dagian Underwood, Jovan, and the rest of the conspirators (a mixed bag of human and Dark Avatars) continue their march toward a one world government with the revealing of Living ID, along with a federal assault on a home in Godwinton reminiscent of real world events such as Waco and the Brown residence.

The second book reveals many mysteries as Benedict Darwin and the gang continues to find themselves caught up in a conflict so big that no single world can contain it. It contains a large cast of characters, yet Zimmer manages to keep the pace going while still giving each chracter’s proper time in the spotlight. If anything, The Storm Guardians, is a promising continuation to the saga.

Best to read while listening to: Anything from Rob Zombie (no joke). Also, there’s a new band called the Sons of Liberty….