Interesting story
This was an interesting storyline. There was talk about gates, reapers and other stuff that was brought up in other AML series too. This combination and story plot could make for an interesting twist down the road, if it’s handled well. Having it cross several series might work, but could also blow up in the author’s face if not handled well. I hope for the best, but crossover stories aren’t easy, and just because the Marvel movies seem to make it work, doesn’t mean everyone should do similar examples.
Adding in the Winters clan to this story was fun, though I hope that this crossover line doesn’t happen all the time. Each series should be able to stand on its own, and shouldn’t need cameos in every series. That it took so long to bring up that the Mystic Caravan gang knows and has worked with Izzy and the Grimlocks recently, as has the Winters family, was too drawn out. Once Detroit was mentioned along with Reapers and that they don’t handle soul crossing in the Savannah area, I would have expected both groups to mention they were familiar with he Grimlock Reapers and compare notes. That it didn’t really occur until the video chat with Paris and Izzy, when the story was almost complete wasn’t believable.
Since they both weren’t even certain that Reapers still work in the area, one of the first things either should have said, I need to contact some Reaper friends and find out what is the truth about such a rumor. Also it’s unlikely there aren’t Reapers in the area, because if there wasn’t, that would mean all people’s deaths would result in a ghost and that would quickly overwhelm the area in just a few generations of deaths.
The villains for this go around weren’t great. The cult concept was easy to accept, but that the good Christian valued members were willing to resort to murder wasn’t. There are always going to be people, religious or not that are willing to kill, but that so many in the cult were able to look the other way when it involved killing very young women, basically still girls by using violent blood-magic rites, that I had a hard time accepting. I think it would have been better if the Leviathans had modified these cultists to no longer see reality as it was or they were blanking their minds would have been a better premise for the killing aspect. Killing is hard enough, violent ritualistic blood rites would not be something anyone could just do, you’d need truly evil beings or sociopaths for that.
I also found it a tad unrealistic that Kade would have a stronger healing ability then Max. Max has had many years more skill and practice, yet Kade was more powerful in this respect, and never even had an inkling before the Winters women showed that it was possible for a Mage to have this power.
Overall it wasn’t a bad story, it had fun moments but there were some unrealistic twists and turns that detracted from it too.