Review: The Maker’s Song Series by Adrian Phoenix
Reviewed by Zelda Gillian
Rating: 
(3 Books)
“A Unique Series That May Be Running Out of Fuel”
The Maker’s Song series centers around heroine Heather Wallace, who is a Special Agent with the FBI tasked with chasing down a countrywide serial killer. Along the way she finds herself drawn to the mysterious and troubled young vampire, Dante, whom she soon finds is at the center of both her investigation and a much more complex and harrowing government cover-up. The world of vampires and angels soon sucks Heather in and she finds that her life will never quite be the same again.
This series is interesting in that it creates a world of angels and demons that is unlike any in the series I’ve read so far, complete with its own language, creatures and complex plotlines. Heather is a strong heroine with her own emotional demons, but she quickly finds that the scarred psyche of Dante is much more fragile than anything she could have ever imagined. She learns that Dante is the victim of a horrific, ongoing experiment of the Shadow Branch of the U.S. government called “Project Bad Seed,” created to explore the limitations of the physical and emotional character of a vampire. But that is only the beginning. It soon becomes clear that Dante is truly like no other — a rare combination of “True Blood” (born of a vampire mother) and Fallen angel (from his father, Lucien). He also has the rare talent of being a “creawdr” or Creator, one of which has not existed for centuries (the last being “Yahweh”).
Biblical references abound in this book, which alludes to the fact that Dante is the next “God” of the world. This, on top of the activities of the government’s nefarious Shadow Branch, creates a story that is a bit heavy-handed on many fronts. While I appreciated the burgeoning and tender relationship that develops between Heather and Dante, the creole-filled setting of New Orleans, and the ongoing story of the Fallen Angels and their deteriorating kingdom, Gehenna, I quickly tired of the big-bad-government-always-out-to-use-us-and-then-kill-us storyline. It seems that, as soon as one evil government agent is done away with in one book, there is always another, similarly-evil government agent there to replace them in the next. Heather and Dante are always running from those trying to kill them and it doesn’t ever seem to end or change.
The next installment in this series comes out December 2010, so it will be interesting to see if the story can find its way away from the evil government storyline and focus on the intricacies of Heather and Dante’s new connection and the continual progression of Dante out of and away from his horrific childhood. I won’t say I’ve given up on this one completely… it’s much too unique to give up on this series after only three books, but I will be anxious to see if Adrian Phoenix can keep this series alive beyond the fourth installment.
Zelda Gillian is a wife, a mother and a lover, likes strong espresso, stiff corsets and never strays far from her Kindle.
