Cydonia: Rise of the Fallen – Seyi David

A mere thirty days… …is what ex priest, Aaron Cohen has to stop a devastating attack on earth from elusive and ruthless forces but events soon took an alarming turn for the worse. The Vatican came under attack when a demonic bloodhound under the command of Tyrus, Lucifer’s son, went on rampage. They left destruction on their trail. As events unfold with alarming speed, Aaron Cohen’s life spiralled out of control, chased by forces beyond human comprehension; he embarked on an adventure to protect the Ark of the Covenant and the stones of fire from brutal forces intent on annihilating the human race. Set against an extraordinary and enigmatic church of St Mary, Axum in Ethiopia, Aaron fought with demons, escaped assassins’ bullets and every attempt to halt impending doom seemed slimmer than ever.

Anyone pootling around these here local parts of WordPress recently will have noticed our fellow blogger Seyi and others have been bigging up her new book.  Rather belatedly I have gotten around to doing a review of Cydonia – which was released in December – and after a busy period, I have finally finished the book and am ready with my verdict, which is thus:

After offering to review this tome, I looked at the synopsis and knew that this wasn’t really my type of book, perhaps it is just a phase but the twisty-turny thriller genre just doesn’t do it for me any more.  Nevertheless once I started reading, I got an insight into why this would appeal a good number of people who already enjoy books of this nature and to others who have not yet had a pleasurable experience of the genre..

On turning over the first leaf, I found myself straight away in amongst the fast paced world of the narrative and into the thick of the action. It’s a crisp, pacy read indeed with an early deluge of characters as well as their accompanying back stories so you know who is who and what they are all about.  The various characters and their associated histories are filtered in gradually and smoothly into the narrative flow so the exposition feels more organic than forced.

Despite the length of the book (644 pages) it doesn’t take long to read, thanks to lots of action and the quick changes in location for this international escapade.  The quick and snappy scene changes feel reminiscent of scenes you would see in a thriller on the big screen which helps you relax into the cinematic feel of the story and just go with the flow..

The genre for this one is supernatural thriller, the battle of good against evil rages on, featuring all the classic historical conspiracy players synonymous with the times – the Templars, high up Vatican politicos, etc but with a more spiritual focus. Paranormal really doesn’t seem like the right word to use in this review somehow and after a long and fruitless search through dusty websites for esoteric words that didn’t quite work – like acroamatic – I though perhaps the word that best fits is perhaps occult.

Seyi has written another book as well, Feet of Darkness which can be read first but this book works equally well as a stand alone novel. If you fancy globe-trotting jaunt with lots of tightly woven and interconnected stories, that keeps the surprises coming to the end then this will be right up your aisle, a revelation you might say (geddit!).