Electromancer
Daco
Genre: Superhero Romance
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Date of Publication: February 1, 2016
Number of pages: 234
Word Count: 70,000
Cover Artist: Fred Machuca & Ricky Ostendi
Excerpt:With a heart as pure as platinum and electricity at her fingertips!
Soaring like a falcon at the speed of light!
She's... ELECTROMANCER!
When arch villain Momo threatens to destroy the world with The Big Zapper - a weapon of mass destruction the likes of which has never been seen before - it's up to Alexa Manchester and her new electricity-harnessing superpowers to stop him.
With a little help from her sexy chauffeur, Sigfred Sawyer, and some exciting encounters with the mysterious and handsome Blue Arrow, soon Alexa's love life is charged up, too. And to defeat the seemingly invincible Momo, it might just take the naturally super power of love to save the day.
Offering all the Kabam! Pow! Zap! of beloved comic book sagas with the beating heart of a love story, this over-the-top, genre-blending send-up is sure to delight superhero fans and romance readers alike.
Alexa started for the elevator, but Chin led her to the stairs. They descended four levels and opened the two-foot steel door to the generator room that housed The Magpie. No workers were present. Maybe they’d all gotten out without injury.Trailer:
“Wait here,” she told Chin.
“Ma’am, I—”
“You have a family, Charlie. I’m ordering you to stay here.” She paused. “This is my responsibility.”
When he reluctantly nodded, she entered the cavernous generator room. The normally ultra-bright lights inside the generator room had dimmed. A long row of generators with turbines that usually hummed and spun had gone silent. As she neared the control room, she heard only the echo of her high-heeled shoes tapping against the concrete floor. Alexa hurried along to The Magpie.
The generator was the size of a small house and resembled a child’s toy top sitting on a gigantic snare drum. To her surprise, the outer casing was glowing white hot.
The Magpie unexpectedly shook.
She listened for the sound of a spinning turbine. When she heard nothing, she reached out a hand to feel for anything different—a vibration, a change in temperature. The device was radiating heat. Impossible—her father had always said that the energy would never escape the insulated ceramic casing.
A second later, she was cast into the air as though she were bait at the end of a fishing rod. But instead of crashing to the floor, she remained suspended in midair above the top of the generator. Some sort of magnetic force had gripped her in a vise. Her ears filled with a high-pitched sound that was piercing but strangely pleasant. Her body went numb, melted, and she fell into a paralytic state. Paradoxically, she felt nothing and everything all at once. But there was no pain, only tranquility, as if she were in the midst of an improbable, yet wonderful dream. She could no longer see or hear or touch, because she no longer existed in human form. Still, she had a complete awareness of what her body had been. She was indefinable and yet remained conscious.
Suspended above the generator, she sensed something urging her to let go. She resisted, finding herself in a battle of wills to the death with The Magpie.
But machines didn’t have wills, so how could this be?
A memory of days past came to Alexa. She thought of the many times she’d followed her father along the tributaries of the Kensington. Gentle waves lapped against the smooth silt lining of the placid river. Often, she’d remove her shoes to let the sandy mud squish between her toes. Barefoot, she would walk along the shallows and collect unopened shells that she’d gather from just below the surface, hoping to find a freshwater pearl. Now, she flashed on how she’d never found that perfect pearl, which was an odd thought to have at this final moment. So, this was how her life would end.
She was no longer afraid. Morphing into a plasmatic state, she was pulled through The Magpie’s casing, as though she were subatomic particles able to penetrate anything. The deeper inside she traveled, the more at peace she felt. Once inside the inner core of the turbine, her life force was instantly absorbed into a pure-white spinning ball, which sparkled with beams of silver light. She’d finally found her pearl, and if this was heaven, she was home.
She was at peace.
“Electromancer,” a man whispered.
“What did you say?”
“You must leave here at once.”
“Father?”
I am always up for a good superhero story. It calls to the geek in me I guess. I don't even mind if they are a bit overly cheesy or corny, as long as we are getting the wink, wink, nudge, nudge from the author/director. After all most superheroes are over the top, bigger than life, caricatures of archetypes. Shouldn't we expect their stories to be the same? When I saw this book, I just knew I had to give it a shot before even reading the blurb.
The book is mostly set in Britannia, but also reference two cities called The Big Apple and The City of Angels. Needless to say, I think we can all figure out where the cities are in this parallel universe. Due to the inclusion of Britannia, we gain that wonderful dry sense of humor that can showcase such emotional self-restraint. When that stiff upper lip is juxtaposed against powers that are affected via strong emotions, you can feel and see the struggle the characters are going through.
There were a few surprises and twists in the book. Obviously certain characters were more than they seemed, but some characters I thought would be bad guys, turned out to be good guys after all. The action read pretty well, and though there were POVs from several characters, never too many that you couldn't keep track of who's head you were in. This being a superhero story, meant that suspension of believe started with page 1. But the author never went too far out, and stayed true to the feel of the book. I had a good time with this, and in the end I finished with a smile. 3 Stars.
Thanks to Bewitching Book Tours and Daco for the opportunity to read and review the book.
Her short story The Pisces Affair was a 2015 Global Ebook Awards double gold medalist (Best Thriller Fiction and Best Science Fiction), a 2015 Shelf Unbound Notable 100, a 2015 Royal Palm Literary Award winner, and a Publishers Weekly “PW Pick”.” In its review of The Pisces Affair, Publishers Weekly wrote, “Jakes is a lively and witty narrator with the wits and skills of James Bond, and readers will savor her fresh perspective on being a woman in the male-dominated spy world.”
Her story The Virgo Affair is part of Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded (Diversion Press, October 2015), an anthology, including numerous best-selling authors.
Electromancer (F+W Media, Inc./Crimson Romance, February 2016), is her first superhero novel, featuring Electromancer and Blue Arrow.
Upcoming works include The Scorpio Affair, a Jordan Jakes novel, and The Ophiuchus Affair, another Jordan Jakes short story.
Daco holds a B.A. and M.A.S. from The University of Alabama in Huntsville and a J.D. from the Cumberland School of Law. She is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Authors Guild, Alabama Writers Forum, Florida Writers, and Alabama State Bar.
To connect with the author online:
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Electromancer sounds like a good read ♡ Thank you
ReplyDeleteHi Linda!
DeleteThanks for your lovely comment. I'm excited to hear your thoughts about the book. When my publisher first asked me to write a superhero romance story, she said to take it in any direction. I wanted to write something different from anything out there, but also to pay homage to the old Superman and Batman stories. With the emergence of so many dark, intense superheroes, I thought it'd be fun to write something zany and fun. I hope I've accomplished blending the old with the new.
Happy Reading!!
All the best,
Daco
Thank you, Judith, for having Electromancer on your show today! I'm super excited that you enjoyed the book. I loved your review and in my book that counts as a 10. So far the reaction of readers has been stellar, and I can't wait to hear more from your followers.
ReplyDeleteWishing you all the best,
Daco