Hey'a, everyone! A couple years ago, I reviewed Bryan Davis's Heaven Came Down, the first in the Oculus Gate series of post-apocalyptic fantasy novels. Recently, Mr. Davis was kind enough to pass along an ARC of the latest book in the series, My Soul to Take, which releases today on Amazon. Mr. Davis has said he considers this the best book in the series, and while I'm not sure if I prefer this or Invading Hell, it is pretty great.

Thoughts on My Soul to Take

1. Worldhopping Davis books are the best Davis books. It's no secret that my favorite Davis books tend to be the ones where the characters spend a lot of time hopping world-to-world or dimension-to-dimension — books like Circles of Seven, the Time Echoes series, or the previous Oculus Gate book, Invading Hell. As in that previous book, the storyline is spread over three different worlds, with characters trying to escape one and save two others. It's pretty great.
2. The family element is awesome. One thing I love about Davis books in general is that he often has families — found and natural — working and fighting side-by-side, supporting each other in the direst of circumstances. This book is no exception.
3. The crossover is strong with this one. If you read Invading Hell, you know that the Oculus Gate books fit in the same storyworld as Time Echoes and Reapers. While there were a few crossover elements in that book, the crossover and references are much stronger here, and it was really fun to be able to say "Hey! I recognize that!" That said, if you haven't read the other series (or you've started them and haven't finished them), you can still enjoy this story. Anything you need to know is explained in text. (That said, you should absolutely read Time Echoes. It's great.)
4. You definitely want to reread the previous Oculus Gate books before picking up this one. There are some series where it's easy to just pick up the latest book and fall naturally back into the narrative. Oculus Gate is not one of them, or at least it wasn't for me. While I wasn't outright bewildered at any point, there was more than one instance when I found myself trying to remember who or what something or someone was or whether or not a particular comment was a reference to a past Oculus Gate book or to something that happened in one of the other connected series. A caveat here: I read about 50% of this book after 11 PM (and I finished the book at 3 AM-ish after waking up in the middle of the night because allergies), so my brain was not exactly functioning at top capacity. That said, I do think it has a lot to do with the fact that Heaven Came Down is a rather different story than the other two books in the series — same characters, yes, but very different problems.
5. That ending, though. Obviously, I can't say a ton without giving away spoilers. But I will say that I got to the end of the book and I couldn't believe there weren't more pages — I literally tapped the next page function on my Kindle several times trying to figure out where the rest of the book was because I needed to know what happened next. And that's not a reaction I have terribly often.

On a related note, y'all might want to know that in May, Bryan Davis is having a contest to celebrate twenty years of writing — which, look, y'all. That's super impressive. Anyway, you can earn points by sharing about the books on various social media, and the prizes for those who earn the most points are pretty shiny. Click here for all the details if you want to check it out.

Have you read the Oculus Gate series? If so, which book is your favorite? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah

Hey'a, everyone! For anyone wondering where my the mid-year book recap posts have got to: those will be up next week, no worries. But I have one last book to give thoughts on first: Heaven Came Down, Bryan Davis's latest release and the first book in the Oculus Gate series. You've probably seen my posts about this book on social media of late (because launch team, yay), and if you have, you may also know that I was waaaaaaaaay behind on reading my ARC of this. But I did read it, and now I have thoughts, so let's get to it!

Thoughts on Heaven Came Down

1. Conceptually, the book is super cool. The idea of false "angels" appearing and taking over by promising world peace (and the existence of a rising resistance faction) seems like something that could happen while still being a unique idea. Plus, the angel situation and a lot of the questions raised by it and the book's events were relevant to today's culture and climate without being so on-the-nose that it became unpleasant. (There's a reason I'm not reading contemporary lit, y'all.)
2. It's not a super-techy post-apocalypse/dystopia. Or, at least, it didn't feel as techy as some. I feel like a lot of post-apocalypse/dystopian settings are either SUPER SCI-FI TECHY or else all tech is gone, but this book occupies a very nice middle ground. It feels like what you'd end up with if a few major disasters had occurred between right now and when the book takes place, preventing tech from advancing too much, but not pushing it unrealistically far back.
3. The plot is very twisty. There were new revelations pretty much every few chapters, so that's cool. The last several chapters were basically a constant stream of "OH STORMS. WHAT THE PUMPERNICKEL JUST HAPPENED. WHAT IS GOING ON. OH STARS." But, y'know, in a good way. (Also, I saw next to nothing coming! Also in a good way! So that's great!)
4. I had mixed feelings on the characters. While everyone is reasonably distinct, very few people actually sound distinct, and I had a harder time getting a read on different personalities than I would've liked. Still, I did manage to develop favorites (Jack!!! Also Iona and Leo!!!), so it's not a complete negative. Just something that I think could've been done better.
5. I also have mixed feelings about the ending. It made sense for the story, both in terms of plot and themes, and it wrapped up the book well while still leaving enough questions that you want to get the next one. But it was still like . . . wow. That just happened. And it was kind of sad, to be honest.

Overall, I'd say it was good — not my favorite Bryan Davis book by a long shot, but still good. If you like dystopian, post-apocalyptic action and suspense, I'd recommend it.

Have you read this book yet? What did you think of it? If you haven't, are you planning to? And what do you think about tech in dystopian and post-apocalyptic storeis? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)