Original Title: The Doom of Undal
Year Published: 2015
Published by: 5 Prince Publishing (an arc was kindly provided through NetGalley)
First Sentence: "'Shhh' said a childish voice in a faint whisper, 'It's time to wake up.'"
Goodreads Rating: 5/5
Plot:
The Dragon Court has ruled Tiamut uncontested for millennia, bringing knowledge and prosperity to all.
Yet all is not as it seems---far to the West in the land of Undal, mightiest of the nations, the Royal Queen and her children are struck with a mysterious illness and perish. Was the Dragon Court responsible? Or had the Queen had been experimenting with dark magic?
Her grieving son, trained in the dark arts by the goddess Eris herself, swears vengeance. When he defies the Dragon Court and they rescind their blessing on his royal house, he must turn to his mother's experiments and ancient blood rituals to achieve his aims. In his quest for truth, he will become the greatest threat Tiamut has ever known.
With details pulled directly from Plato (yes, THAT Plato), The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, Sumerian and Egyptian mythology, The Doom of Undal tells the story of the Fall of Atlantis.
My thoughts:
Wow. Just wow... This book is just so ... so... epic. I absolutely adored it and it has been safely and securely been added to my all time favourite books.
The Doom of Undal is the sequel to The Serpent Priestess of the Annunaki, and it picks up pretty much towards the end of the first book. Many characters from the first book are present in this one, which created a nice feeling of familiarity.
In this book, we get to follow three sisters on their journey from childhood to adulthood. The sisters, Sobekh, Hathor and Rhea, are all destined for different aspects of the society governed by the Dragon Court and, therefore, their journeys are vastly different. The plot is nicely divided between the three, with slightly more focus on Hathor and Rhea, which works wonderfully since they are two very interesting characters. So much happens to these characters and the character development deserves all the awards. You feel for the characters, smile in their time of joy and your heart will ache so bad during their hardships.
The antagonist is at first very unlikely, and then through fantastically written hints, it is easy to see how and why the antagonist becomes the antagonist. I will not say who it is because of spoilers! However, it is fascinating to see how the character slowly descends into madness. Amazing.
Egyptian and Sumerian mythology is seamlessly weaved into the plot and used perfectly through the book, just like Christianity was used in the first book. No, you don't need to know the mythology, but if you do you will easily find it in the book.
Sisowath have fixed the one thing that made The Serpent Priestess of the Annunaki hard to take in, which was the density of the book. In this one, there is much more dialogue which makes it flow so much better and is the one reason for why this one gets 5/5 when book number 1 did not.
The cliffhanger though is just pure evil. How can you do this to me Sisowath?! I need to know what happens next!
Do I recommend it?
YES! Such an epic fantasy that will get its claws in you from page 1 and won't let go until the final page.
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