Relics

Responding to an excited message from her father Armand, Celene Dupres leaves Montreal, Canada to join him in the Ukraine—he has found the mother load of treasure—a crashed Anaz-voohri space ship with some of the aliens’ coveted relics. She quickly departs and as life would have it encounters a few unexpected delays and incidents enroute to meet her father including her having to approach the crash site from a detoured route. On her way up the mountain, she discovers a new skill—she can render herself invisible. But before she can reach her father a group of commandos descends on the crash site killing all but a long time family friend, Emilie Blanchard. Vowing revenge Celene manages to procure one of the relics and safely leave the site.

Mythos operative and assassin Kin Raidon has his newest assignment: Celene Dupres. Celene is one of the seven sisters of the Pleiades. The “sisters” were all kidnapped by the Anaz-Voorhi as little girls and unbeknownst to them, transformed with alien DNA to make each a different form of killing machine. At a time to be determined by the Anaz-Voorhi each of the sisters will launch their own brand of disaster on the human population of Earth. With Celene identified by Mythos, Kin is sent to find out all she knows of the Anaz-Voohri and then put her to death. From the society of London, to the streets of Montreal and the mountains of Arizona, Celene joins Kin in a race against the clock to decode the relics and save the human race. Yet when she learns of Kin’s other mission her world begins to crumble anew.

RELICS is Book Two of the Operation Pleiades series. Each book is a fabulous stand-alone story and can be read in any order. This unique project, the brainchild of Triskelion Publishing brings together an collection of outstanding authors to tell the sisters’ stories. Ms. Schartz depiction of Celene introduces her readers to a wonderfully drawn kick-butt, independent yet caring and warm woman. Both Celene and Kin are three dimensional, totally believable characters. Even with Kin’s enhanced abilities and mission, he has a warmth that reaches through the pages of the story to enthrall the reader. One thing about Kin that appealed strongly to this reviewer is that Kin is the all too rare Asian hero. Huge kudos to Ms. Schartz for creating a character from an ethnicity so few are drawn from. Even without his enhanced skills, Kin is a dream man come to life.

Several characters appear in each of the books including ORION’s Jason Carrick and Anaz-voohri leader Kavak. To each author’s credit, the characterizations hold true from book to book. It is this reviewer’s opinion that to be able to have such continuity each author must have great communication skills and talent. Ms. Schartz has it in spades.

What drew this reviewer even more into RELICS were the scenes speaking to the mysterious Anasazi along with the speculation of what became of them. Ms. Schartz not only creates a viable explanation of what happened to an entire race, but includes some speculation of what became of the Incas and Mayans as well.

The action in RELICS is non-stop. Even when Kin and Celene share a private interlude, there is a palpable anticipation of what is to come next. While a book to enjoy over a several day read, the ending still comes too quickly, not because of loose ends, but because Ms. Schartz leaves you wanting to read more.

RELICS is a do not miss. The entire series will keep you captivated from beginning to end.

December 2006