Review: Forged in Ember

Forged in Ember by Trish McCallan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this is kind of a Marmite series, you either love it or hate it. On paper I should hate it, and yet its weirdness works for me.

The series follows a team of Navy SEALs (Team seven) who have got accidentally involved in a secret cartel's deadly agenda to rid the earth of 90% of its population - the cartel call themselves the NRO or New Ruling Order. Made up of a group of eight super-wealthy men and one woman the NRO have subverted high ranking individuals in the FBI and law-enforcement and have framed SEAL Team seven.

As I said in my review of book three, this series merges the paranormal (think woo-woo rather than vampires) with spec ops. If visions of future events, psychic healing and telepathy aren't your thing, walk away now. After the events of the last three books SEAL Team seven are holed up in Alaska, near Denali National Park in Shadow Mountain with an elite group of Native American warriors known as the Shadow Mountain warriors, the three girlfriends of the SEALs from the previous books and Amy Chastain and her two young sons who were injected with an isotrope which enables the NRO to track them anywhere (except Shadow Mountain). If you are still reading then this could be the series for you.

As this is ostensibly the last in the series I don't recommend starting with this book, even with the handy cast of characters and 'Sitrep' at the start of the book it took me a while to get back into the story.

In some ways this reminds me of a Robert Heinlein book (Lost Legacy, I think) in which humans with psychic abilities battle the evil group who want total world domination. There's genius scientists who create amazing machines, which are then subverted by the NRO for their own nefarious purposes. There's a grumpy SEAL Commander who has a secret longing for Amy Chastain, despite his typical (fictional) SEAL belief that he doesn't trust women, doesn't need a woman, and nothing can ever come of it. There's secret training facilities, experimental helicopters, superyachts and more psychic abilities than you can throw a stick at.

It was absolutely barking mad and I loved every second of it!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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