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Fires of Redemption #1
From the Ashes
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant. Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called that and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father's inhuman empire.
Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford--antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
One kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. But when his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias's hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile deeper, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean--or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford--antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
One kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. But when his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias's hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile deeper, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean--or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
149 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 6, 2012
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January 31, 2017
Smart.
That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of this book. The writing style is both emotive and evocative qualities that I found very satisfying. Sanders puts sentences together in clever and beautiful ways that put you in this world immediately.
Tobias tells this story from his perspective. He's an aberrant (think X-Men) and he's lonely. The loneliness he feels is pervasive and visceral. His father is a despotic megalomaniac who has taken over Thailand and turned it into his headquarters, Xinth, and filled it with aberrants to do his bidding. His father believes all humans are the enemy and are meant to be ruled by intimidation and fear. And violence.
He's trained Tobias to be his executioner.
Tobias feels trapped in a life not of his choosing, one foisted on him by his father's and society's expectations, but somehow the embers of the person he wants to be haven't flamed out. Sean is the spark that ignites those embers and forces him to consider the possibility of his ideal self.
It comes down to choice for Tobias. Will he choose to break free of his father? Will he fan the flames of fear that humans have towards aberrants by becoming what they fear most? The idea of choosing to stray from everything he's ever known and accepted as truth about himself doesn't come easily to him. More often than not he thinks himself incapable of making the adjustment even when faced with an alternate reality.
Tobias is something of an anti-hero. He has a bloody past as his father's enforcer and he talks often of enjoying the pain and suffering of others but not much of his sociopathy translated to the page which I found disappointing.
The vast majority of the book centers around Tobias and Sean's burgeoning relationship which is very erotic in an ethereal way. I wouldn't label this erotica nor would I say it's explicit. What it is, first and foremost, is romantic. I bought into them and their coupletry lock, stock and barrel.
I liked the dark ones, what can I say? I was pleasantly surprised to see Tobias has a touch of the masochist in him a.k.a. my achilles' heel.
It seems their relationship is doomed from the start which makes the tone somewhat melancholic but doesn't tip over the line into bleak. What helped temper it was that I could see what Tobias was too close to which fueled my optimism for Tobias and Sean.
I couldn't help but like Tobias. He pulls on the heartstrings. Sean is still a big on an enigma and I can't shake the feeling that he's withholding something.
There is great exposition with regard to scientific aspects of this book much of which went over my head, but I still found interesting nonetheless. Ir you're worried that it negatively affects the pacing, don't; it remains steady throughout with the last quarter or so being action packed.
From the Ashes is definitely a first book in this series. It doesn't end on a cliff, though. There is an HEA/HFN but there are loose ends.
Why not 5 Hearts then?
Primarily, there is a loose end regarding Langdon that had plenty of time to get resolved and never did. The other thing is as much as revelled in the writing style as the narrative evolved there were times when I thought it became repetitive. Lastly, I find the worldbuilding lacking.
I'm looking forward to where this series is going and I would recommend it to MM romance, sci-fi and superhero fans.
~RTJ
A review copy was provided.
That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of this book. The writing style is both emotive and evocative qualities that I found very satisfying. Sanders puts sentences together in clever and beautiful ways that put you in this world immediately.
I give him pieces of myself, as if only his hands can arrange the puzzle of them into something human.
Tobias tells this story from his perspective. He's an aberrant (think X-Men) and he's lonely. The loneliness he feels is pervasive and visceral. His father is a despotic megalomaniac who has taken over Thailand and turned it into his headquarters, Xinth, and filled it with aberrants to do his bidding. His father believes all humans are the enemy and are meant to be ruled by intimidation and fear. And violence.
He's trained Tobias to be his executioner.
Tobias feels trapped in a life not of his choosing, one foisted on him by his father's and society's expectations, but somehow the embers of the person he wants to be haven't flamed out. Sean is the spark that ignites those embers and forces him to consider the possibility of his ideal self.
It comes down to choice for Tobias. Will he choose to break free of his father? Will he fan the flames of fear that humans have towards aberrants by becoming what they fear most? The idea of choosing to stray from everything he's ever known and accepted as truth about himself doesn't come easily to him. More often than not he thinks himself incapable of making the adjustment even when faced with an alternate reality.
Tobias is something of an anti-hero. He has a bloody past as his father's enforcer and he talks often of enjoying the pain and suffering of others but not much of his sociopathy translated to the page which I found disappointing.
The vast majority of the book centers around Tobias and Sean's burgeoning relationship which is very erotic in an ethereal way. I wouldn't label this erotica nor would I say it's explicit. What it is, first and foremost, is romantic. I bought into them and their coupletry lock, stock and barrel.
I want him to see me-really see me, the monster, the aberrant. I want him to know how beautiful he is...and how much more beautiful he would be if I could leave marks of pain and blood all over his body, see the strain and torment rippling through him. I want to possess him. I want to destroy him.
I liked the dark ones, what can I say? I was pleasantly surprised to see Tobias has a touch of the masochist in him a.k.a. my achilles' heel.
It seems their relationship is doomed from the start which makes the tone somewhat melancholic but doesn't tip over the line into bleak. What helped temper it was that I could see what Tobias was too close to which fueled my optimism for Tobias and Sean.
I couldn't help but like Tobias. He pulls on the heartstrings. Sean is still a big on an enigma and I can't shake the feeling that he's withholding something.
There is great exposition with regard to scientific aspects of this book much of which went over my head, but I still found interesting nonetheless. Ir you're worried that it negatively affects the pacing, don't; it remains steady throughout with the last quarter or so being action packed.
From the Ashes is definitely a first book in this series. It doesn't end on a cliff, though. There is an HEA/HFN but there are loose ends.
Why not 5 Hearts then?
Primarily, there is a loose end regarding Langdon that had plenty of time to get resolved and never did. The other thing is as much as revelled in the writing style as the narrative evolved there were times when I thought it became repetitive. Lastly, I find the worldbuilding lacking.
I'm looking forward to where this series is going and I would recommend it to MM romance, sci-fi and superhero fans.
I may be an aberrant- but he makes me human, and that's something I never want to lose.
"You defeat the devil when you hold on to hope."
~RTJ
A review copy was provided.
March 26, 2018
4.5
A man that feels nothing and one that feels too much…
Tobias Rutherford just seems like a normal graduate researcher. He’s unassuming, antisocial and draws no attention. Which works in his favour, because who he is really would scare the ever living hell out of those that surround him. He is “Spark” the destroyer, monster, a man with no humanity, a man without love and hope. He is on mission to stop research that would cause the destruction of his kind, research that would erase all that he is all that is family is.
Tobias is an aberrant what you might called an evolved human. The aberrants have super powers and are feared by humans because all they wield is destruction. Spark knows nothing else but murder and pain being the son of the most feared aberrant and dictator. With his father he’s brought nations to their knees and watched them burn. Tobias knows he’s a monster and he knows he has to protect his people from the humans because humans change and destroy what they cannot understand or they find a way to use them. He’s got a job to do and he's had to kill a few people along the way but the long game was always the protection of his people and believing in his cause until there was Sean Archer. Sean came and rearranged the very molecules of Tobias’s existence and challenged everything he thought he was. There is fine line between thinking you’re a monster and then finally realizing that you are.
From the Ashes is a smart action packed read and quite different from anything I’ve read. It’s fiction with a purpose and I found myself taking pause to think about all that I was reading. It was just so brutal with its honest writing and I found myself connecting to some of Tobias thoughts. He’s wrong but mostly sometimes he’s also right, he’s the perfect anti hero and I really like him. What I got mostly from reading, is society’s demanding need to change what they don’t understand. As a mother with boys who have Autism I spend a lot of my time and their time changing them to be exactly what society demands (the world won’t change for them I have to change them for the world) my entire goal is to make them resemble what they call neuro-typical. If you don’t fit whether it be with race or disability we try to change or we get rid of it. So when I say connected to Tobias I really did man. His anger made him flawed but some of his reasoning's was sound.
Throw in a bit of romance with the violence and I was in heaven. Like I didn’t expect it to be so sweet but it really and truly was. Two guys from very different side of the tracks coming together so beautifully. Their thinking like night and day but their connection was real and in the long run created quite a few epic moments. Tobias as I said is the epitome of anti-hero but overall very likeable and when he sparked out (fans self) murderous angry dudes seem to be a big mood with me. He’s the product of an evil overlord father he knows no better. Sean is like a rainbow to Tobias’s dark clouds. He challenges him and makes him feel and I also enjoyed him as a character. Their sexy time was right amount of intensity mixed with sweet.
As I said this is very smart read and very plot driven the world that Xen has created; its very interesting. The showdown at the end legit had my heart in my throat and I don’t want to give anything away but let’s just say scene was intense and heart wrenching to read. Another selling point is our anti-hero is a person of colour and that alone is already a win for me plus it’s featured on the book cover (what can I say, representation is a beautiful thing).
From the Ashes was an entertaining read with a great premise and I am looking very forward to book 2 in the series. Let’s just say Tobias has a few things to deal with, he’s got hella blood on his hands and he straight up defied his father. Plus, he’s got to learn and embrace the man he’s becoming and it will be hard. After all it’s a series on redemption.
SideNote- That guy on the cover (I swoon all over the place).
I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want.
I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. I will look for you, I will find you, and I will date you.
A man that feels nothing and one that feels too much…
Tobias Rutherford just seems like a normal graduate researcher. He’s unassuming, antisocial and draws no attention. Which works in his favour, because who he is really would scare the ever living hell out of those that surround him. He is “Spark” the destroyer, monster, a man with no humanity, a man without love and hope. He is on mission to stop research that would cause the destruction of his kind, research that would erase all that he is all that is family is.
power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Tobias is an aberrant what you might called an evolved human. The aberrants have super powers and are feared by humans because all they wield is destruction. Spark knows nothing else but murder and pain being the son of the most feared aberrant and dictator. With his father he’s brought nations to their knees and watched them burn. Tobias knows he’s a monster and he knows he has to protect his people from the humans because humans change and destroy what they cannot understand or they find a way to use them. He’s got a job to do and he's had to kill a few people along the way but the long game was always the protection of his people and believing in his cause until there was Sean Archer. Sean came and rearranged the very molecules of Tobias’s existence and challenged everything he thought he was. There is fine line between thinking you’re a monster and then finally realizing that you are.
From the Ashes is a smart action packed read and quite different from anything I’ve read. It’s fiction with a purpose and I found myself taking pause to think about all that I was reading. It was just so brutal with its honest writing and I found myself connecting to some of Tobias thoughts. He’s wrong but mostly sometimes he’s also right, he’s the perfect anti hero and I really like him. What I got mostly from reading, is society’s demanding need to change what they don’t understand. As a mother with boys who have Autism I spend a lot of my time and their time changing them to be exactly what society demands (the world won’t change for them I have to change them for the world) my entire goal is to make them resemble what they call neuro-typical. If you don’t fit whether it be with race or disability we try to change or we get rid of it. So when I say connected to Tobias I really did man. His anger made him flawed but some of his reasoning's was sound.
We don’t kill the hawk for being a different bird from the sparrow, though one is stronger and preys on the other. Yet we kill aberrants for being different from humans although they, too, are men, born of a common ancestor. Such hypocrisy is intolerable and unethical in the face of the basic right to life.
Throw in a bit of romance with the violence and I was in heaven. Like I didn’t expect it to be so sweet but it really and truly was. Two guys from very different side of the tracks coming together so beautifully. Their thinking like night and day but their connection was real and in the long run created quite a few epic moments. Tobias as I said is the epitome of anti-hero but overall very likeable and when he sparked out (fans self) murderous angry dudes seem to be a big mood with me. He’s the product of an evil overlord father he knows no better. Sean is like a rainbow to Tobias’s dark clouds. He challenges him and makes him feel and I also enjoyed him as a character. Their sexy time was right amount of intensity mixed with sweet.
As I said this is very smart read and very plot driven the world that Xen has created; its very interesting. The showdown at the end legit had my heart in my throat and I don’t want to give anything away but let’s just say scene was intense and heart wrenching to read. Another selling point is our anti-hero is a person of colour and that alone is already a win for me plus it’s featured on the book cover (what can I say, representation is a beautiful thing).
From the Ashes was an entertaining read with a great premise and I am looking very forward to book 2 in the series. Let’s just say Tobias has a few things to deal with, he’s got hella blood on his hands and he straight up defied his father. Plus, he’s got to learn and embrace the man he’s becoming and it will be hard. After all it’s a series on redemption.
SideNote- That guy on the cover (I swoon all over the place).
I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want.
I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. I will look for you, I will find you, and I will date you.
January 1, 2017
I love a book that has me perched on the edge of my seat, and Xen Sanders hits the ground running with From the Ashes , bringing us a paranormal M/M story, told from the protagonists POV, with diverse characters and filled with the unpredictable, action, passion, intimacy and emotion.
Tobias Rutherford is far from your stereotypical hero or in this case, anti-hero. He's a character with many layers and such a breath of fresh air to discover; he may be a killer but he's adorable and with a real edge. Using his position as a graduate researcher to fly under the radar, Tobias is an aberrant--inhuman with superpowers--who has been the driving force behind crimes to protect his father's empire. He keeps his emotions buried, that is until the sparks fly between himself and British University professor, Sean Archer, and unfamiliar feelings deep within him are unleashed.
What I loved? These men are strong and powerful without oozing the alpha. They're not exactly on a level footing seeing as one party has superpowers, yet at the same time they very much are and Sean's not without his own arsenal. And running alongside the thrilling storyline of Tobias' quest to assassinate a US Senator, is a romantic journey of two men discovering one another. It's not an easy path for either Tobias or Sean, but it is one that balances perfectly timed humour with content which is touching and passionate.
I've never made a secret that I can't get enough of this author's writing: his descriptive style gives the reader everything they could possibly need to visualise this story, from the general atmosphere to the fight scenes, the intimate moments, the passion and the subtle but important nods at real-life. From the Ashes is absolutely one to grab.
Copy provided by the author and Entangled Publishing for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Tobias Rutherford is far from your stereotypical hero or in this case, anti-hero. He's a character with many layers and such a breath of fresh air to discover; he may be a killer but he's adorable and with a real edge. Using his position as a graduate researcher to fly under the radar, Tobias is an aberrant--inhuman with superpowers--who has been the driving force behind crimes to protect his father's empire. He keeps his emotions buried, that is until the sparks fly between himself and British University professor, Sean Archer, and unfamiliar feelings deep within him are unleashed.
What I loved? These men are strong and powerful without oozing the alpha. They're not exactly on a level footing seeing as one party has superpowers, yet at the same time they very much are and Sean's not without his own arsenal. And running alongside the thrilling storyline of Tobias' quest to assassinate a US Senator, is a romantic journey of two men discovering one another. It's not an easy path for either Tobias or Sean, but it is one that balances perfectly timed humour with content which is touching and passionate.
I've never made a secret that I can't get enough of this author's writing: his descriptive style gives the reader everything they could possibly need to visualise this story, from the general atmosphere to the fight scenes, the intimate moments, the passion and the subtle but important nods at real-life. From the Ashes is absolutely one to grab.
Copy provided by the author and Entangled Publishing for an honest and unbiased opinion.
June 14, 2020
I picture Tobias' father as Raul Julia playing Bison.
Only Thai, I guess. Or did he just conquer Thailand? Who is the Thai Raul Julia?
Anyway, Infernus Blaze is not laughable, aside from his costume and posturing speeches. But neither was Bison, actually. The audience may find him risable, but there's nothing funny about his program of conquest and murder to the people who've lost their families or homes. Which is actually an element I think the film adaptation did a good job with, but that's neither here nor there, let me get back to the book.
Aberrants are mutants. Think X-Men, except in this world there are very few superheroes because the humans are doing a pretty good job of crushing them, and those who survive either hide or flock to Xinth, the aberrant kingdom that used to be Thailand.
Our main character, Tobias, is the son the ruler of Xinth. He has been raised to believe that Aberrants are inherently sociopathic and violent and not human (even though they have human parents) so they should have no qualms about killing humans. And he doesn't. His father has used him to kill large numbers of people, sometimes like a bomb and sometimes as an assassin. When the book opens he is at UC Berkeley, monitoring a scientist who is researching Aberrant genetics. Ostensibly he's there doing his father's work, but along the way he's become kind of invested in this graduate degree he's getting and also he has a cat, can't the assassination wait until after finals, dad?
Tobias' program requires an ethics course. That's pointless, ethics are for humans. Tobias doesn't want to think about ethics. He doesn't want to argue about ethics with his professor. He doesn't want to like his professor. They can just have really, really great sex* without developing feelings, as long as he just keeps reminding himself that he's incapable of love it'll be true. Anyway, he's leaving soon, he has to fly to DC for that pesky assassination. He can totally give Sean up...
Definitely planning to read more by this author.
* I found the author's approach to writing graphic sex really interesting and poetic. It is reaction and emotion focused rather than biological, and often almost poetic. I don't mean in an early-Harlequin euphemistic way; more that it focused on how the Tobias feels about the sex rather than how orgasmic it is. Although it's obviously that as well.
Only Thai, I guess. Or did he just conquer Thailand? Who is the Thai Raul Julia?
Anyway, Infernus Blaze is not laughable, aside from his costume and posturing speeches. But neither was Bison, actually. The audience may find him risable, but there's nothing funny about his program of conquest and murder to the people who've lost their families or homes. Which is actually an element I think the film adaptation did a good job with, but that's neither here nor there, let me get back to the book.
Aberrants are mutants. Think X-Men, except in this world there are very few superheroes because the humans are doing a pretty good job of crushing them, and those who survive either hide or flock to Xinth, the aberrant kingdom that used to be Thailand.
Our main character, Tobias, is the son the ruler of Xinth. He has been raised to believe that Aberrants are inherently sociopathic and violent and not human (even though they have human parents) so they should have no qualms about killing humans. And he doesn't. His father has used him to kill large numbers of people, sometimes like a bomb and sometimes as an assassin. When the book opens he is at UC Berkeley, monitoring a scientist who is researching Aberrant genetics. Ostensibly he's there doing his father's work, but along the way he's become kind of invested in this graduate degree he's getting and also he has a cat, can't the assassination wait until after finals, dad?
Tobias' program requires an ethics course. That's pointless, ethics are for humans. Tobias doesn't want to think about ethics. He doesn't want to argue about ethics with his professor. He doesn't want to like his professor. They can just have really, really great sex* without developing feelings, as long as he just keeps reminding himself that he's incapable of love it'll be true. Anyway, he's leaving soon, he has to fly to DC for that pesky assassination. He can totally give Sean up...
Definitely planning to read more by this author.
* I found the author's approach to writing graphic sex really interesting and poetic. It is reaction and emotion focused rather than biological, and often almost poetic. I don't mean in an early-Harlequin euphemistic way; more that it focused on how the Tobias feels about the sex rather than how orgasmic it is. Although it's obviously that as well.
September 18, 2012
Great m/m urban fantasy with a slight super-hero bent. Ever since the advent of genetic modification of human foetuses, some babies have been born with the aberrant gene. This strips them of emotion at the same time as it gives them dangerous powers. The battle between Aberrants and humans is coming to a head. Spark (Tobias) is the son of the Aberrant leader, his right hand man, and his assassin. He is working undercover at a U.S. university, secretly sabotaging a professor who is working on a cure for the aberrant gene. But another professor at the university (Sean) is getting close to Tobias, making him question his upbringing, his actions, and his newly awakened heart.
Plenty of action and conflict in this little gem of a story. Tobias and Sean have good chemistry. I liked Tobias despite the bad things he'd done and was affected by his struggle with feeling emotions for the first time. I was also intrigued by the use of genetics as the cause of these superpowers. Just last night I was watching with horror a report on TV about genetics being able to screen foetuses for different emotions so the topicality of the world-building really drew me in.
Only downside for me was that it was too short (novella sized) and felt a bit rushed. I wish I could find more m/m authors who had the inclination to do a full length urban fantasy series like you see in mainstream writing. Nevertheless I'll definitely pick up the sequel to From The Ashes. Highly recommended to fans of Urban Fantasy and Superhero m/m romance.
Plenty of action and conflict in this little gem of a story. Tobias and Sean have good chemistry. I liked Tobias despite the bad things he'd done and was affected by his struggle with feeling emotions for the first time. I was also intrigued by the use of genetics as the cause of these superpowers. Just last night I was watching with horror a report on TV about genetics being able to screen foetuses for different emotions so the topicality of the world-building really drew me in.
Only downside for me was that it was too short (novella sized) and felt a bit rushed. I wish I could find more m/m authors who had the inclination to do a full length urban fantasy series like you see in mainstream writing. Nevertheless I'll definitely pick up the sequel to From The Ashes. Highly recommended to fans of Urban Fantasy and Superhero m/m romance.
October 3, 2012
4.5 stars
An excellent urban fantasy, it surprised me a lot and what a page turner. Tobias is a fascinating, complex character and even when this cold blooded killer is talking death I felt for him. I loved his voice, compelling and believable it's the struggle and soul searching he goes through that makes the story work so well. Sean and Tobias had great chemistry together, I like these two and cant wait to see where the author will take us in the next installment.
An excellent urban fantasy, it surprised me a lot and what a page turner. Tobias is a fascinating, complex character and even when this cold blooded killer is talking death I felt for him. I loved his voice, compelling and believable it's the struggle and soul searching he goes through that makes the story work so well. Sean and Tobias had great chemistry together, I like these two and cant wait to see where the author will take us in the next installment.
September 29, 2012
The blurb is good enough for a "recap" and can help me to remember things; so I am just going straight to my opinion ...
I would never know about this story, if not for MandyM posting her review and it appeared on my timeline. At first, I wonder whether I could feel sympathy for a serial killer. In the first chapter, Tobias says that he is his father's (Lord High General Infernus Blaze) shadow. That as Spark, he conquered Laos (and killed million of people). But quickly, Tobias's voice reeled me in.
It is always interesting to read about not-so-perfect characters and how they have some-sort of journey throughout the story. Tobias is an aberrant, and nearly in 90% occurence, an abberrant will turn into a criminal. But can one just succumb to genetic's statistic then? Because when Tobias gets close to Sean Archer, one of his professors, he starts questioning his choices. Can he choose to do something different or whether it is a life path he cannot escape from because of some bad genes in his body?
The story has some sort of 'comic morality' to it, like X-Men the movie, when it is mutants vs. humans issue -- and humans think mutants are all bad and need to be eradicated, and mutants retaliate by killing humans.
I really, REALLY like Tobias. I think Sean and him have a good chemistry -- and I have moments where my heart squeezed tight reading their interactions. Since this is a novella-length, my complain will be that everything is resolved too fast (and a little too predictably easy). But it's not enough to reduce my liking the story. I would definitely check out the sequel, if it's being released.
I would never know about this story, if not for MandyM posting her review and it appeared on my timeline. At first, I wonder whether I could feel sympathy for a serial killer. In the first chapter, Tobias says that he is his father's (Lord High General Infernus Blaze) shadow. That as Spark, he conquered Laos (and killed million of people). But quickly, Tobias's voice reeled me in.
It is always interesting to read about not-so-perfect characters and how they have some-sort of journey throughout the story. Tobias is an aberrant, and nearly in 90% occurence, an abberrant will turn into a criminal. But can one just succumb to genetic's statistic then? Because when Tobias gets close to Sean Archer, one of his professors, he starts questioning his choices. Can he choose to do something different or whether it is a life path he cannot escape from because of some bad genes in his body?
The story has some sort of 'comic morality' to it, like X-Men the movie, when it is mutants vs. humans issue -- and humans think mutants are all bad and need to be eradicated, and mutants retaliate by killing humans.
I really, REALLY like Tobias. I think Sean and him have a good chemistry -- and I have moments where my heart squeezed tight reading their interactions. Since this is a novella-length, my complain will be that everything is resolved too fast (and a little too predictably easy). But it's not enough to reduce my liking the story. I would definitely check out the sequel, if it's being released.
September 23, 2012
This was amazing. How the author managed to cram so much in such a slight novel and not leave any stone unturned is truly a feat not a lot of writers can achieve. The author endeavoured (and was successful) to write a full story in a novella that did not leave his readers feeling gypped. Oh and it had a nice twist in the end to boot!
From the Ashes tells a story of Tobias Rutherford, the son of a ruthless aberrant whose primary goal was to rule the world. At first glance, his father was every bit as manipulative as, oh I guess any other villain in a comic book. He's certainly not winning any father of the year awards with what he's turned his son into. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that perhaps he's just like Magneto; he only wanted his ward of mutants to have a place in the world. And he's just as evil; but the jury is still out on him because this is just the first book.
Tobias is pretty much a loner, not so much of a recluse but close. He tends to stay away from any human relationships because they never end well...actually, they usually end up in deaths. So when he developed that kind of connection with his professor, he was intimidated, scared, curious, and pretty much powerless. He couldn't have stopped it if he tried. Amidst the excitement of a budding, albeit forbidden relationship with his prof, Tobias' role as his father's executioner was never far from his mind. So when an order to assassinate a Congressman came through, he had to choose between pursuing the relationship and doing what he's ordered to do.
Verdict: This book is close to being flawless by my standards. The writing is so natural, the characters well fleshed-out and a plot that will have you entranced from beginning to end. I hardly blinked from the time I started it till the end. The romance is intense; sometimes sweet, quite often difficult but we've barely scratched the surface of their relationship. If you like heroes with superpowers the like of the X-Men mutants and m/m romance, then this would definitely make for a nice addition to your shelves.
From the Ashes tells a story of Tobias Rutherford, the son of a ruthless aberrant whose primary goal was to rule the world. At first glance, his father was every bit as manipulative as, oh I guess any other villain in a comic book. He's certainly not winning any father of the year awards with what he's turned his son into. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that perhaps he's just like Magneto; he only wanted his ward of mutants to have a place in the world. And he's just as evil; but the jury is still out on him because this is just the first book.
Tobias is pretty much a loner, not so much of a recluse but close. He tends to stay away from any human relationships because they never end well...actually, they usually end up in deaths. So when he developed that kind of connection with his professor, he was intimidated, scared, curious, and pretty much powerless. He couldn't have stopped it if he tried. Amidst the excitement of a budding, albeit forbidden relationship with his prof, Tobias' role as his father's executioner was never far from his mind. So when an order to assassinate a Congressman came through, he had to choose between pursuing the relationship and doing what he's ordered to do.
Verdict: This book is close to being flawless by my standards. The writing is so natural, the characters well fleshed-out and a plot that will have you entranced from beginning to end. I hardly blinked from the time I started it till the end. The romance is intense; sometimes sweet, quite often difficult but we've barely scratched the surface of their relationship. If you like heroes with superpowers the like of the X-Men mutants and m/m romance, then this would definitely make for a nice addition to your shelves.
September 17, 2012
I just put this book down and thought to myself: "That was so much fun!"
"From the Ashes" is basically X-men w/ a M/M romance in the backdrop. It's about a mutant population (aberrants) and the humans who fear them. (Sound familiar?) The prince of the aberrants, Blaze/Tobias, lives among the humans (in Berkeley, CA...my town!) and falls in love w/ a professor at his school. He's torn between his duties as an aberrant and his love for the human.
The book unravels a bit slowly in the beginning but hits a really exciting and action-packed ending...leaving itself completely open for sequels. I did find the romance aspect a bit tame (actually, it lacked any of the juicy details we perverted GR readers have come to love and crave...less so than even some YA books I've read). Still, though I typically don't like to stray too far from contemporary romance reads, the relationships between Tobias and Sean was sweet and I found myself surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.
It won't be for everyone. But, if you like action/fantasy movies like X-men or the Avengers, you might really enjoy this.
And thanks to my fellow readers on the M/M Romance Group boards for recommending this!
September 19, 2012
Where do I start. This story was amazing! The sparks that fly between Tobias and Sean reach out and steal the wind out of your lungs. The anti-hero who you root for is a hard character to write, but Adrien-Luc Sanders does it to perfection.
Too often novellas leave you wanting more. The only thing From the Ashes left me wanting is a sequel.
Too often novellas leave you wanting more. The only thing From the Ashes left me wanting is a sequel.
December 14, 2016
4.25 STARS. I received this ARC from NETGALLEY, I went into this story not knowing anything other than enjoying the Xen Sanders last book. Great addicting read, I was so caught up, wonderfully done & look forward to more.
January 1, 2019
Really liked this one, a very welcome freebie from the author [whose other work I am now stalking...😉] but a story for which I would've gladly shelled out money....had I known about it. 😊 I love all things X-Men and Superhero, and the anti-hero in this one, Tobias aka Spark, is a very complex character indeed. 4.5 stars.
Beautifully written, the story focuses on Tobias's struggles...both with himself and his father [whom I didn't like one little bit]. Tobias is an aberrant, a dangerous human genetic freak...if you believe the Humans who want aberrants stopped before they take over the planet. He is undercover at an American university, where he is trying to derail [without raising any flags of course] the genetic research being done into aberrants. He starts a little fling with one of his professors, an Englishman from Devon named Sean and discovers that they both have secrets...but then he is ordered by his father to kill a senator. I'll leave this one here....
I have to admit to thinking this story maybe has an analogy with the whole hetero/gay thing too...or perhaps that's just me.
Beautifully written, the story focuses on Tobias's struggles...both with himself and his father [whom I didn't like one little bit]. Tobias is an aberrant, a dangerous human genetic freak...if you believe the Humans who want aberrants stopped before they take over the planet. He is undercover at an American university, where he is trying to derail [without raising any flags of course] the genetic research being done into aberrants. He starts a little fling with one of his professors, an Englishman from Devon named Sean and discovers that they both have secrets...but then he is ordered by his father to kill a senator. I'll leave this one here....
I have to admit to thinking this story maybe has an analogy with the whole hetero/gay thing too...or perhaps that's just me.
January 9, 2017
First of all, I really liked this book. Before I get into it though, let me say it is a rerelease from a book titled, From the Ashes by Adrien-Luc Sanders released in 2012.
The blurb completely drew me into this one:
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant.
Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called this and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father's inhuman empire. Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford--antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
But one kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. When his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias's hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile higher, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean--or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
And Spark or his regular name, Tobias lives up to the blurb. This is a world where there are humans and humans who also have a gene that sets them apart from regular humans. Called aberranst, they have different abilities - Tobias has the power of electricity. Others can control water, or wind etc.. In general, they use their power for evil, all under the control of the big bad guy, and Tobias's father, General Infernus Blaze:
My name is Tobias Rutherford, and I am the instrument of mankind's destruction.
To the human world, to my father, I have only one name: Spark. I suppose it's a fitting name for the son and second-in-command of the world's most feard villain: The Lord High General Infernus Blaze.
That all sounds very dramatic, and in a way it is but the story isn't all big theatrics and over the top evil. There are some very quiet, dark, introspective scenes in this book that left an impact with me. But this evil General is no joke - using Tobias's powers and others, Blaze literally wiped out Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. He created a new land called Xinth, where you either bow to his rule, or you die. Tobias grew up knowing he was an aberrant, and knowing he had no choice but to commit these awful acts. He doesn't feel and lives a very lonely life, doing the bidding of his father. Humans are terrified of Aberrants, and while the government is busy trying to pass legislation to somehow control them, Blaze sets up Tobias to undermine them at every turn. Currently, Tobias is studying for his doctorate and working at a lab, carefully ruining any research his lab employer, Dr. Langdon, is doing that gets him close to anything to do with aberrant DNA.
Tobias starts to become conflicted though - he develops feelings for a human professor, Sean Archer - a mysterious and quiet man who develops a relationship with Tobias. They both have secrets, and they both have lustful, passionate thoughts about the other. Tobias knows getting involved with a human is very dangerous, as he is pretending to be human himself.
I can't afford to let anyone too close. One casual slip, and it's over. My first year in the States, a lab assistant caught me using my abilities to interface with the campus intranet and access Dr. Langdon's personnel files, class schedule, and records of his grant appilications. Hiding the corpse wasn't easy. Harder still was removing the fingerprints, and the teeth.
The face was already burned well beyond recognition. A hundred thousand volts at point-blank range will do that.
In case you were wondering, our hero Tobias crosses some moral lines. An anti-hero, a villainous hero? That would be a safe bet. Can a man who has done these horrible acts be redeemed? I think he is to an extent in this story. He does these acts because his horrible father raised him thinking his aberrant gene drives him to violence. As the story progresses, he learns about the world from other sources than his father, and things start to change.
Sean brings out a side in Tobias he craves for .
Sean Archer haunts me.
I think, if you were ever in that situation, you might change your mind.
Would I? I've always know my path. Maybe it isn't what humans consider right, but it's the only path I have. Fight. Conquer. Kill..or be exterminated. I've never had to wonder, never had to question if there was any other way. My father defined my destiny before my birth. He will created his empire - and when he passes, I will rule in his stead.
Yet as I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, I see only those pretty red lips asking a question I can never answer.
As he gets to know Sean, he starts to learn things about himself. His extreme loneliness becomes even more unbearable. The fact he can't change the way his life is - feeling that due to being an aberrant, and the son of the General, there is no way out. And besides being different because he is an aberrant, he also deals with racism for having brown skin and passing as a human:
I'm an aberrant, Sean. I'm an aberrant and I can never tell you, and I feel alien in so many fucking ways when even people who think I'm human see me as inferior just for being brown.
You can't comfort that.
You can't fix any of it.
This book is so well written - so intriguing and engaging. I do think the world outside of Tobias's immediate circle, is hazy - We are told that Blaze has done these horrible acts, but it was hard for me to see it. To see how an average human sees his or her world - is there constant fear of aberrants? Are they more in the background? Are humans still cocky around them etc? I would have liked a better glimpse into the world. But beyond that, this story is excellent. The romance between Tobias and Sean is passionate, yet held back in a way because Tobias knows he can't get too close. There is a high angst level and you can feel his hurt. The fact that he has killed so many and the question of nature vs nurture - is he designed to kill and to feel nothing? Then why does he fall in love with Sean? Does the government have the right to kill or abort or torture aberrants just because of their DNA? This is all brought up, but the author keeps the story moving and puts in action and romance so that it never gets super weighted down.
I wouldn't call this a novella, but it is a faster read. I really hope because this has been rereleased, that we are going to get a series out of it - I'd love to revisit this world.
Grade: B+
The blurb completely drew me into this one:
Sociopath. Killer. Deviant.
Monster, devoid of morals, incapable of human emotion. The villain known as Spark has been called this and more, and as a super-powered aberrant has masterminded countless crimes to build his father's inhuman empire. Yet to professor Sean Archer, this fearsome creature is only Tobias Rutherford--antisocial graduate researcher, quiet underachiever, and a fascinating puzzle Sean is determined to solve.
But one kiss leads to an entanglement that challenges everything Tobias knows about himself, aberrants, and his own capacity to love. When his father orders him to assassinate a senator, one misstep unravels a knot of political intrigue that places the fate of humans and aberrants alike in Tobias's hands. As danger mounts and bodies pile higher, will Tobias succumb to his dark nature and sacrifice Sean--or will he defy his father and rise from the ashes to become a hero in a world of villains?
And Spark or his regular name, Tobias lives up to the blurb. This is a world where there are humans and humans who also have a gene that sets them apart from regular humans. Called aberranst, they have different abilities - Tobias has the power of electricity. Others can control water, or wind etc.. In general, they use their power for evil, all under the control of the big bad guy, and Tobias's father, General Infernus Blaze:
My name is Tobias Rutherford, and I am the instrument of mankind's destruction.
To the human world, to my father, I have only one name: Spark. I suppose it's a fitting name for the son and second-in-command of the world's most feard villain: The Lord High General Infernus Blaze.
That all sounds very dramatic, and in a way it is but the story isn't all big theatrics and over the top evil. There are some very quiet, dark, introspective scenes in this book that left an impact with me. But this evil General is no joke - using Tobias's powers and others, Blaze literally wiped out Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. He created a new land called Xinth, where you either bow to his rule, or you die. Tobias grew up knowing he was an aberrant, and knowing he had no choice but to commit these awful acts. He doesn't feel and lives a very lonely life, doing the bidding of his father. Humans are terrified of Aberrants, and while the government is busy trying to pass legislation to somehow control them, Blaze sets up Tobias to undermine them at every turn. Currently, Tobias is studying for his doctorate and working at a lab, carefully ruining any research his lab employer, Dr. Langdon, is doing that gets him close to anything to do with aberrant DNA.
Tobias starts to become conflicted though - he develops feelings for a human professor, Sean Archer - a mysterious and quiet man who develops a relationship with Tobias. They both have secrets, and they both have lustful, passionate thoughts about the other. Tobias knows getting involved with a human is very dangerous, as he is pretending to be human himself.
I can't afford to let anyone too close. One casual slip, and it's over. My first year in the States, a lab assistant caught me using my abilities to interface with the campus intranet and access Dr. Langdon's personnel files, class schedule, and records of his grant appilications. Hiding the corpse wasn't easy. Harder still was removing the fingerprints, and the teeth.
The face was already burned well beyond recognition. A hundred thousand volts at point-blank range will do that.
In case you were wondering, our hero Tobias crosses some moral lines. An anti-hero, a villainous hero? That would be a safe bet. Can a man who has done these horrible acts be redeemed? I think he is to an extent in this story. He does these acts because his horrible father raised him thinking his aberrant gene drives him to violence. As the story progresses, he learns about the world from other sources than his father, and things start to change.
Sean brings out a side in Tobias he craves for .
Sean Archer haunts me.
I think, if you were ever in that situation, you might change your mind.
Would I? I've always know my path. Maybe it isn't what humans consider right, but it's the only path I have. Fight. Conquer. Kill..or be exterminated. I've never had to wonder, never had to question if there was any other way. My father defined my destiny before my birth. He will created his empire - and when he passes, I will rule in his stead.
Yet as I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, I see only those pretty red lips asking a question I can never answer.
As he gets to know Sean, he starts to learn things about himself. His extreme loneliness becomes even more unbearable. The fact he can't change the way his life is - feeling that due to being an aberrant, and the son of the General, there is no way out. And besides being different because he is an aberrant, he also deals with racism for having brown skin and passing as a human:
I'm an aberrant, Sean. I'm an aberrant and I can never tell you, and I feel alien in so many fucking ways when even people who think I'm human see me as inferior just for being brown.
You can't comfort that.
You can't fix any of it.
This book is so well written - so intriguing and engaging. I do think the world outside of Tobias's immediate circle, is hazy - We are told that Blaze has done these horrible acts, but it was hard for me to see it. To see how an average human sees his or her world - is there constant fear of aberrants? Are they more in the background? Are humans still cocky around them etc? I would have liked a better glimpse into the world. But beyond that, this story is excellent. The romance between Tobias and Sean is passionate, yet held back in a way because Tobias knows he can't get too close. There is a high angst level and you can feel his hurt. The fact that he has killed so many and the question of nature vs nurture - is he designed to kill and to feel nothing? Then why does he fall in love with Sean? Does the government have the right to kill or abort or torture aberrants just because of their DNA? This is all brought up, but the author keeps the story moving and puts in action and romance so that it never gets super weighted down.
I wouldn't call this a novella, but it is a faster read. I really hope because this has been rereleased, that we are going to get a series out of it - I'd love to revisit this world.
Grade: B+
April 5, 2018
Torn between "I liked it" "I really liked it", let it be the latter.
Again...i went in the book without reading the blurb, so i didn't know what was this exactly about, until i read "latex suit" and "powers" i realized this was a book about superheroes, like X-Men with the fight over races, etc. Cool, i haven't read a Marvel/DC comic in ages and it's the first time i read about superheroes and villains in a book format so this was going to be an interesting experience.
I evalued the book as a superhero story just like i would if i read a comic, and it didn't let down, it has all the elements you should find on an antihero storyline: the action, the big reveal, the angst, etc. What i didn't quite like, and this is a personal taste, is that sometimes i felt the POV was feeding me conclusions instead of letting me draw my own. It takes the joy away if i feel like the book gets too self-explanatory. However, after some consideration i realized that it's a thing many superheroes comics do too, so i can let it slide. Also, i thought the beginning dragged a bit because the development of the couple happened mostly in bed. It would have been nice to see more dating, they had a lot of chemistry at the start of their relationship. I'm giving it 4 stars bc of the action, it was well executed and fun to read.
Great start of the series.
Again...i went in the book without reading the blurb, so i didn't know what was this exactly about, until i read "latex suit" and "powers" i realized this was a book about superheroes, like X-Men with the fight over races, etc. Cool, i haven't read a Marvel/DC comic in ages and it's the first time i read about superheroes and villains in a book format so this was going to be an interesting experience.
I evalued the book as a superhero story just like i would if i read a comic, and it didn't let down, it has all the elements you should find on an antihero storyline: the action, the big reveal, the angst, etc. What i didn't quite like, and this is a personal taste, is that sometimes i felt the POV was feeding me conclusions instead of letting me draw my own. It takes the joy away if i feel like the book gets too self-explanatory. However, after some consideration i realized that it's a thing many superheroes comics do too, so i can let it slide. Also, i thought the beginning dragged a bit because the development of the couple happened mostly in bed. It would have been nice to see more dating, they had a lot of chemistry at the start of their relationship. I'm giving it 4 stars bc of the action, it was well executed and fun to read.
Great start of the series.
February 26, 2018
Loved it. Writing so beautiful it reads like poetry. Just stunning!
September 14, 2012
One of those rare books that I got so caught up in that I forgot to breathe. More than once. Loved it. Enough said.
March 4, 2019
This is a really good story. Im not big on pnr and sci fi books but this one i liked. It took me long because im busy with remodeling our new house but that wasnt the Book. I read this Book for the Reading challenge of the amazing group turning pages at midnight. It was my last one. I loved Tobias. Even spark. And especcialy Sean. To let someone see the beauty of things when they only can see hate is a powerful and beautiful thing.
February 6, 2017
This is my second Xen Sanders book and since I loved Shatterproof , I was raring to go when I saw this.
This story/book? It. Was . Intense.
It's set in a world where we have a subset of people with genes that differentiates them from plain humans. These people are called Aberrants and they have great & sometimes terrible powers. They also tend to have deviant minds, deviant pleasures, are cruel & are always hungry for violence. They have no moral code or ethics. Basically, villains.
I found them to be fascinating.
Tobias, our MC is a brilliant mind who just wants to know why they are the way they are through genetic research . He is always torn between his violent aberrant nature and other contradictory feelings . However he always gives in to the violence since that's the only way he knows how to behave . He doesn't know what to do with these contradictory feelings and when he meets Sean, he is further plunged into further confusion as Sean challenges all he previously believed to be true about humans & Aberrants.
Intertwined with Tobias' self-discovery(as I call it) is action, intrigue, political machinations and everything in between that comes together to make up this brilliantly written book. The pacing was on point, the language poignant,telling & very relevant for this day and age.
To top it all off, when these two met in the sheets? All bets were off. Damn Xen can wriiiiite some steam. To say they were intense would be an understatement. Whooo!!
If you need a different type of M/M to break you into this new year, try this one. I'm sure it'll be worth it for you as it was for me.
*** eARC Graciously Provided By Publisher In Exchange For An Honest, Fair & Unbiased Review ***
This story/book? It. Was . Intense.
It's set in a world where we have a subset of people with genes that differentiates them from plain humans. These people are called Aberrants and they have great & sometimes terrible powers. They also tend to have deviant minds, deviant pleasures, are cruel & are always hungry for violence. They have no moral code or ethics. Basically, villains.
I found them to be fascinating.
Tobias, our MC is a brilliant mind who just wants to know why they are the way they are through genetic research . He is always torn between his violent aberrant nature and other contradictory feelings . However he always gives in to the violence since that's the only way he knows how to behave . He doesn't know what to do with these contradictory feelings and when he meets Sean, he is further plunged into further confusion as Sean challenges all he previously believed to be true about humans & Aberrants.
Intertwined with Tobias' self-discovery(as I call it) is action, intrigue, political machinations and everything in between that comes together to make up this brilliantly written book. The pacing was on point, the language poignant,telling & very relevant for this day and age.
To top it all off, when these two met in the sheets? All bets were off. Damn Xen can wriiiiite some steam. To say they were intense would be an understatement. Whooo!!
If you need a different type of M/M to break you into this new year, try this one. I'm sure it'll be worth it for you as it was for me.
*** eARC Graciously Provided By Publisher In Exchange For An Honest, Fair & Unbiased Review ***
March 12, 2018
This felt pretty epic. It also touched all the feels! Omg, I mean, it was like reading an X-man movie with all the fighting and heroics. But it was also very vulnerable. Although, the author drove the point across one too many times, that as an aberrant,
Tobias felt like he couldn’t have feelings or incapable of feelings.
We get it, he’s an aberrant who apparently is like every other aberrant who are monsters. It’s just...it didn’t need to be brought up at every chapter. Sometimes several times in a chapter 🙄
Otherwise, it was pretty epic to me. Well, maybe a mini epic. Which...does that just make it pretty awesome? I can’t decide... I just know that it made me feel like when I go watch a Marvel movie or something.
Tobias felt like he couldn’t have feelings or incapable of feelings.
We get it, he’s an aberrant who apparently is like every other aberrant who are monsters. It’s just...it didn’t need to be brought up at every chapter. Sometimes several times in a chapter 🙄
Otherwise, it was pretty epic to me. Well, maybe a mini epic. Which...does that just make it pretty awesome? I can’t decide... I just know that it made me feel like when I go watch a Marvel movie or something.
January 10, 2017
Another fantastic antihero by Xen Sanders/Cole McCade. If you like superheroes, and particularly complex, broody supervillains who are struggling to find love and humanity within themselves, look no further. Tobias offers a fascinating look into the mind of a so-called monster, and Sean is the perfect foil to his destructive tendencies. The plot and twists had me on the edge of my seat, and at the same time I was weeping from Tobias' childhood memories growing up in Thailand. The Southeast Asian representation in this book was spot on, and I cannot tell you enough how important this is, even in small, subtle doses as it was in this book. Highly recommended.
September 9, 2012
I love this story. LOVE. Novellas are difficult because they are so short but I felt this one was perfect and I was never left feeling like I didn't get enough story. Tobias is such an interesting character--he's an anti-hero and an all around bad guy. He has trouble feeling emotions like normal people and his father, the biggest villain around, uses Tobias to do his bidding. Tobias, who has destroyed entire nations, just wants to be left alone. I loved his struggle to understand morals and what love is. His relationship with Sean is very well done and I enjoyed their debates about emotions and aberrants. I never felt like their relationship was rushed or insta-love. And even though the sex scenes aren't explicit, I still fanned myself a few times. Man, I wish my professors had been that hot in college. :P
And once the danger and the tension started building, I couldn't read fast enough. This story really hits on every emotion and by the end I just wanted to reread it so I could feel them all again. I want more!
And once the danger and the tension started building, I couldn't read fast enough. This story really hits on every emotion and by the end I just wanted to reread it so I could feel them all again. I want more!
September 24, 2012
This was not at all what I was expecting, it was much better. I was immediately drawn in by Tobias' voice and his story. Thanks to MandyM's for coming to the rescue with yet another wonderful review. Take a look for more details.
January 24, 2017
Wow! Paranormal mm romance with an anti-hero I couldn't love more!
This story is such an unusual read and I enjoyed it so much. It's Xen Sanders' second book, and in a way there are some similarities with Shatterproof which I also loved.
We have Tobias, a dark and broody antihero, supervillan who hides a human heart who tells the story and I found his voice was powerful and absolutely fascinating. It's not easy to make the reader fall in love with someone like him, he's killed millions, is (for most of the story) a tool for mass destruction in his father's hand, yet Xen Sanders gives us an insight into his soul (yes, he does one). His inner doubts, the small questions that keep piling up, the chance of a different life, the hope that he can be human, can love and be loved in return, all those little things add up make him more human that even he thought possible. And all this turmoil and questioning of his own self and his perception of the world comes from meeting and getting involved sexually and romantically (much to his surprise) with another person, professor Sean Archer.
The reader is led to believe for most of the story that Sean is just that, am ethics professor who falls for his student. Avoiding spoilers I will just say, there is much more to him, most of it coming out unexpectedly and it was brilliant both in terms of plot twist and romantic perspective.
From the Ashes has an action-packed plot, full of twists, a rich background to a story of finding yourself, your humanity and fighting to be a better person. It's never too late to change if you really want/believe in this new self of yours.
The story reads far too real and human for a paranormal romance. For me it reads like one big metaphor for our present day wold - power struggles, fear/hatred of anyone who is different, and the tender intimate connection be ween two human beings which makes all the hardships bearable and all the struggles worth for the potential of happiness.
I loved the tension, the dynamics between Tobias and Sean. Their relationship stands out to me with its richness and depth of feelings, never crossing into being cheesy, never opting for the easy solution of I love you and i forgive you everything.
This is yet another impeccably written story by Xen Sanders. His witting is powerful fill of poetry and drama, dark and hopeful at the same time. Definitely I recommended read for fans of paranormal romance and for anyone who like a complex story with intricate characters inhabiting the gray area between good and evil.
This story is such an unusual read and I enjoyed it so much. It's Xen Sanders' second book, and in a way there are some similarities with Shatterproof which I also loved.
We have Tobias, a dark and broody antihero, supervillan who hides a human heart who tells the story and I found his voice was powerful and absolutely fascinating. It's not easy to make the reader fall in love with someone like him, he's killed millions, is (for most of the story) a tool for mass destruction in his father's hand, yet Xen Sanders gives us an insight into his soul (yes, he does one). His inner doubts, the small questions that keep piling up, the chance of a different life, the hope that he can be human, can love and be loved in return, all those little things add up make him more human that even he thought possible. And all this turmoil and questioning of his own self and his perception of the world comes from meeting and getting involved sexually and romantically (much to his surprise) with another person, professor Sean Archer.
The reader is led to believe for most of the story that Sean is just that, am ethics professor who falls for his student. Avoiding spoilers I will just say, there is much more to him, most of it coming out unexpectedly and it was brilliant both in terms of plot twist and romantic perspective.
From the Ashes has an action-packed plot, full of twists, a rich background to a story of finding yourself, your humanity and fighting to be a better person. It's never too late to change if you really want/believe in this new self of yours.
The story reads far too real and human for a paranormal romance. For me it reads like one big metaphor for our present day wold - power struggles, fear/hatred of anyone who is different, and the tender intimate connection be ween two human beings which makes all the hardships bearable and all the struggles worth for the potential of happiness.
I loved the tension, the dynamics between Tobias and Sean. Their relationship stands out to me with its richness and depth of feelings, never crossing into being cheesy, never opting for the easy solution of I love you and i forgive you everything.
This is yet another impeccably written story by Xen Sanders. His witting is powerful fill of poetry and drama, dark and hopeful at the same time. Definitely I recommended read for fans of paranormal romance and for anyone who like a complex story with intricate characters inhabiting the gray area between good and evil.
December 24, 2016
“From the Ashes” is the second mutant/genetically enhanced individual trope that I read this year and I was very impressed with how the author delves into the gray areas rather than sticking to the black and white. This book is dark and quite intense especially when one of the MCs is actually the villain. It was action-packed, emotional, and intense with a very redeeming and powerful romance developing in the midst.
Tobias Rutherford a.k.a Spark is an aberrant, an individual with superhuman ability to generate electricity. His father is a megalomaniac who has destroyed many countries and killed millions of people on his mission to save the aberrants, genetically advanced individuals who are born that way. Spark is his right hand man and has helped him in his mad dash to suppress humans and establish his aberrant empire, Xinth. At present, Tobias is in undercover as a student in the UC Berkley, trying to foil researches about “cure for aberrant”.
Sean Archer is Tobias’s ethics professor to whom he is very much attracted to. One night a random meeting between the two starts an affair that goes far beyond the scope of “casual sex”. Tobias falls in love with Sean while his father plans to topple America. Tobias has to don his persona as Spark and do his father’s bidding because it is his duty. But he is not sure anymore if he is the “villain”, he has always considered himself as or the “victim” of his father’s brainwashing.
Tobias was a very complicated character who had a lot of demons. He was conflicted about his actions and about his humanity. He never knew anything different than what he had been always told that he is doing the right thing for a righteous cause, so when Sean confronts him about his views, Tobias flounders to accept that he has the capacity to do the right thing despite his genetics.
Tobias was a villain because he was never given a choice, never shown that there can be a different way which did not involve bloodshed. Despite him being a mass-murderer, I sympathized with him. Sean brings light into his life and I was proud of him to finally decide to be a hero rather than a villain at the end.
The twist in the plot is predictable but still managed to impress with the charged confrontation involving cool powers and going totally “X-MEN” on me. Sean and Tobias’s views were different all along but it was put in the front and center with some fantastic action and intense emotions at the end.
There is still a whole lot which was felt unresolved at the end. I cannot believe that Tobias’s father will accept his decisions so easily. So my guess would be that there is a big battle coming between humans and aberrants with Sean and Tobias trying to change the outlook of humans and aberrants alike. I will definitely look forward to the next book in this series.
*This review has been cross posted at GayBookReviews*
Tobias Rutherford a.k.a Spark is an aberrant, an individual with superhuman ability to generate electricity. His father is a megalomaniac who has destroyed many countries and killed millions of people on his mission to save the aberrants, genetically advanced individuals who are born that way. Spark is his right hand man and has helped him in his mad dash to suppress humans and establish his aberrant empire, Xinth. At present, Tobias is in undercover as a student in the UC Berkley, trying to foil researches about “cure for aberrant”.
Sean Archer is Tobias’s ethics professor to whom he is very much attracted to. One night a random meeting between the two starts an affair that goes far beyond the scope of “casual sex”. Tobias falls in love with Sean while his father plans to topple America. Tobias has to don his persona as Spark and do his father’s bidding because it is his duty. But he is not sure anymore if he is the “villain”, he has always considered himself as or the “victim” of his father’s brainwashing.
Tobias was a very complicated character who had a lot of demons. He was conflicted about his actions and about his humanity. He never knew anything different than what he had been always told that he is doing the right thing for a righteous cause, so when Sean confronts him about his views, Tobias flounders to accept that he has the capacity to do the right thing despite his genetics.
Tobias was a villain because he was never given a choice, never shown that there can be a different way which did not involve bloodshed. Despite him being a mass-murderer, I sympathized with him. Sean brings light into his life and I was proud of him to finally decide to be a hero rather than a villain at the end.
The twist in the plot is predictable but still managed to impress with the charged confrontation involving cool powers and going totally “X-MEN” on me. Sean and Tobias’s views were different all along but it was put in the front and center with some fantastic action and intense emotions at the end.
There is still a whole lot which was felt unresolved at the end. I cannot believe that Tobias’s father will accept his decisions so easily. So my guess would be that there is a big battle coming between humans and aberrants with Sean and Tobias trying to change the outlook of humans and aberrants alike. I will definitely look forward to the next book in this series.
*This review has been cross posted at GayBookReviews*
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 17, 2016
3.5 stars
Well. Who would've thought from that cover, eh. I did read the blurb prior to reading; but - having never read Xen Sanders's works before - have absolutely no clue what to expect from the book. It's certainly not a black and white story, our MC being a villain of sort. This action-packed, steamy, anti-hero paranormal tale is a nice introduction to a new-to-me author.
From the Ashes is the first book of Fires of Redemption series, an AU where aberrant or people with supernatural powers lived among human. Tobias, or Spark, was such a person. He had helped his father destroyed part of the world and now donned his human persona, living and studying at UC Berkeley in San Fransisco. When in fact, he probed on a scientist's genetic experiments that could harm aberrants in general.
While most of the scientific phrases here went over my head - I'm not of science major, obviously - the writing style agree with me that I found myself devoured this story in one sitting. I even sympathized and rooted for the MC even though he cold-bloodedly killed people here.
Tobias was an angry, confused and lonely kid behind the Spark mask. He did what he did because he thought he didn't have any choice. His inner battle and confrontational arguments with Sean were heartbreaking and hinted at one starved for humanity.
The plot might be somewhat predictable and one could expect the reveal that would turn the MC's world around. Sean and Tobias's face off their differences was of course the highlight here. Their turbulence romance might feel a tad illicit - considering they were student and teacher - and rather swift; one I overlooked given they'd been dancing around on those attractions for a while off page.
The ending ended too abrupt and I'm not sure whether the next entry of the series would the continuation adventures of the characters in this book, or we'll see a new hero altogether. Whichever the case, I for one would follow this promising new series.
Advanced copy of this book is kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Well. Who would've thought from that cover, eh. I did read the blurb prior to reading; but - having never read Xen Sanders's works before - have absolutely no clue what to expect from the book. It's certainly not a black and white story, our MC being a villain of sort. This action-packed, steamy, anti-hero paranormal tale is a nice introduction to a new-to-me author.
From the Ashes is the first book of Fires of Redemption series, an AU where aberrant or people with supernatural powers lived among human. Tobias, or Spark, was such a person. He had helped his father destroyed part of the world and now donned his human persona, living and studying at UC Berkeley in San Fransisco. When in fact, he probed on a scientist's genetic experiments that could harm aberrants in general.
While most of the scientific phrases here went over my head - I'm not of science major, obviously - the writing style agree with me that I found myself devoured this story in one sitting. I even sympathized and rooted for the MC even though he cold-bloodedly killed people here.
Tobias was an angry, confused and lonely kid behind the Spark mask. He did what he did because he thought he didn't have any choice. His inner battle and confrontational arguments with Sean were heartbreaking and hinted at one starved for humanity.
The plot might be somewhat predictable and one could expect the reveal that would turn the MC's world around. Sean and Tobias's face off their differences was of course the highlight here. Their turbulence romance might feel a tad illicit - considering they were student and teacher - and rather swift; one I overlooked given they'd been dancing around on those attractions for a while off page.
The ending ended too abrupt and I'm not sure whether the next entry of the series would the continuation adventures of the characters in this book, or we'll see a new hero altogether. Whichever the case, I for one would follow this promising new series.
Advanced copy of this book is kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 9, 2017
A Joyfully Jay review.
3.25 stars
More than a decade ago, Tobias Rutherford’s sense of humanity died along with his mother. His father has filled the emotional void with the kind of cold, calculating, and consuming ambition befitting their status as “aberrants.” Genetically different from humans, aberrants have super powers and Tobias’ is control over electricity. These powers, however, have turned aberrants into more than just pariahs, they are persecuted. Tobias’ father has styled himself into an aberrant leader and with Tobias’ murderous help, usurped power in several southeast Asian countries and turned them into an aberrant home-land called Xinth.
Now, Tobias has been stationed in Berkley, California where he’s been posing as a graduate student and teaching assistant. As his father’s second in command, it’s up to Tobias to start building inroads for Xinth to take over the United States of America. When Tobias discovers his boss at his day job is dangerously close to discovering the truth about Tobias’ aberrant nature (and a cure to “fix” the aberrant problem on the genetic level), Tobias must take things into his own hands. Even as he starts plotting to fulfill his father’s plans, Tobias’ path collides with that of ethics professor, Sean Archer.
Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.
3.25 stars
More than a decade ago, Tobias Rutherford’s sense of humanity died along with his mother. His father has filled the emotional void with the kind of cold, calculating, and consuming ambition befitting their status as “aberrants.” Genetically different from humans, aberrants have super powers and Tobias’ is control over electricity. These powers, however, have turned aberrants into more than just pariahs, they are persecuted. Tobias’ father has styled himself into an aberrant leader and with Tobias’ murderous help, usurped power in several southeast Asian countries and turned them into an aberrant home-land called Xinth.
Now, Tobias has been stationed in Berkley, California where he’s been posing as a graduate student and teaching assistant. As his father’s second in command, it’s up to Tobias to start building inroads for Xinth to take over the United States of America. When Tobias discovers his boss at his day job is dangerously close to discovering the truth about Tobias’ aberrant nature (and a cure to “fix” the aberrant problem on the genetic level), Tobias must take things into his own hands. Even as he starts plotting to fulfill his father’s plans, Tobias’ path collides with that of ethics professor, Sean Archer.
Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.
January 31, 2017
Excellent new world building and something I hadn't read before. Tobias and Sean are aberrants and successfully hiding the fact from everyone including each other. Unknownst to them they are fighting on opposites sides, Sean for good and Tobias for evil although that is not a choice Tobias made for himself.
Tobias has been trained from a very young age that this is his purpose in life and his destiny to fulfil whether he likes it or not. In reality he would just like to live a normal life and not have to constantly submit to his father's political machinations.
Interesting world, I look forward to more.
*Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Tobias has been trained from a very young age that this is his purpose in life and his destiny to fulfil whether he likes it or not. In reality he would just like to live a normal life and not have to constantly submit to his father's political machinations.
Interesting world, I look forward to more.
*Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
September 20, 2012
This is a tightly and beautifully written novella. Sanders is not afraid to craft characters who are not mainstream - Tobias is a brown, gay, villanous superhero who still manages to escape fitting any sort of stereotype. As a "straight" reader, I still found the m/m love scenes moving and steamy and my heart was fully engaged with the love story. So much of what I want to say would involve spoilers, so I'll end here. I will definitely be watching for any other books from this writer.
February 13, 2017
This was an excellent read. It's nice to read a book where there is a gay hero without it having to be the focus of the story. And there are some tastefully done sex scenes as icing on the cake. :)
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