Un dos por la trilogia en su totalidad .

En cuanto a este final , a todo este libro , hubo muchas decepciones y situaciones medio ridiculas ; la mayoria , cosas que uno las puede dejar pasar por tratarse de una novela de fantasia PEEEEERO que si pasasen en un contexto mas o menos realista serian inadmisibles .

Fue , en conclusion , un MEHH con escenas bastante entretenidas y otras algo anticlimaticas . ( )

The Descent, which is book three of The Taker series by Alma Katsu completes the tale of Lanore McIlvare, the young beautiful farm girl bestowed with the gift of immortality. In this final chapter Lanore is in mourning from burying her mortal lover Luke when she is tortured with dreams of her first love Jonathan, whom she turned into an immortal herself and then killed to release him. Jonathan is trapped in the underworld, a kind of purgatory, where he is being beaten and brutalized. Lanore knows she must save him and the only person who can help her do so is her maker, Adair.

The relationship between Lanore and Adair has always been a turbulent one. From his dominance and keeping of her to her sealing him in a brick tomb for decades. But only Adair possesses the ability to send Lanore into the Underworld to help Jonathan and then have the power to bring her back.

What Katsu does so well in these novels, and is so powerful here in the third book, is probe the relationship her immortal characters have not with one another, but with themselves. With their own immortality.

"...It seemed the immortality-rather than make me more sensitive to the pain of losing a loved one-had robbed me of the ability to feel real emotion in the face of death. When my lovers and friends died, my feelings were always muted and distant. I'm not sure why this was. It might have been to protect me from being swamped by grief, so I wouldn't relive the sadness I'd felt for each of the people I'd lost over the course of my life. Or maybe it was because I knew from experience that, soon enough, another person would come along and-if not take Luke's place, not exactly-at least distract me form missing him. Because I had no choice but to live on and on..."

Lanore finds Adair on his hidden island but Adair is different. Subdued. No longer the arrogant and powerful being who had given her an eternal life but someone else. More man than monster now. The attraction between them is great and at first Adair is reluctant to help Lanore out, but after extracting her promise to return, he relents.
In the Underworld Lanore finds more than she was prepared for. Past friends and companions each serving a sentence of pain and regret to the Queen of the Underworld.

"...Sophia, is that your baby?" I asked carefully, my stomach tightening.
"Yes, a girl," she said but offered no name.
"May I hold her?"
She shot me a contemptuous look but, tentatively, she held the child out to me. She was still in my arms and too heavy for her size, like a sodden bundle of wash. With trepidation, I lifted the corner of blanket covering the baby's face, steeled for something horrific. There was a neatly swaddled infant inside, but whether she was alive or dead was impossible to tell. The baby didn't seem to breathe and yet here was a whisper of animation to her, a pulse behind the eyelids, a slight tremor at the corner of her mouth. Her skin was the strangest color, a pale gray-blue as though she had stopped breathing-or because she had never breathed.
Poor Sophia. This had been her punishment for taking her life while her unborn child was still inside her: to carry the baby with her for eternity and never to see it wake up. She could not put her down, she couldn't bury her and be done with it. She was doomed to be forever hopeful that the baby might open her eyes and look at her, but to know in her heart that she never would..."

In the Underworld she learns the secrets behind Adair and the lie that Jonathan is. She learns that the one love left in her is for the immortal she feared and hated most at one time. And the one she loved as well.
Adair and Lanore, are they able to become as Hades and Persephone before them?
The Descent moves smoothly, but unlike the two prior books in the Taker series, the Descent is much more of a love story and it is the love story that is realized between Adair and Lanore that is center to the novel. ( )

The first two books were 5 star. I couldn't wait for the final installment in the series. I flew threw the first 100 pages and then I put it down. It just didn't enthrall me like the first two books. This started out as a fantasy series and then turned into Greek mythology. Adair was just a shadow of his bad boy self here. It's like he turned into a marshmallow. The passion and historical fiction of the past two books was turned into ruminations on the meaning of life in this one. Although I was glad Lanny ended up with who she did I missed the complex weaving of the story that enthralled me in the earlier books. By all means read the swan song to the series but The Taker will always be my favorite. ( )

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy, allthingsuf.com

THE DESCENT is the is the final capstone on a series that explores humanity, immortality, morality, and the nature of love. Not for readers in search of a happily-ever-after, the entire Taker Trilogy is a wolf in urban fantasy clothing, teasing readers with an epic romance only to explore the depraved depths and banal heights which humanity achieves.

Despite the misleading, bubble-gum, almost YA cover on THE DESCENT, I lost any illusions I had about this series somewhere in THE RECKONING. At the close of THE TAKER, I imagined Luke and Lanny riding off into the sunset. THE RECKONING showed the futility of outrunning the centuries of baggage Lanny trails behind her. As Luke fades into more and more of a cypher, it is clear that Lanny only feels alive when in the presence of other immortals… monstrous though they may be. THE DESCENT proves this hypothesis, but in a wholly unexpected way. Though I never emotionally forgave Adair for his atrocities in THE RECKONING, both he and Lanny seem almost brainwashed as they embark on the final chapter of their story, clearly in pursuit of a human existence unlike anything they’ve achieved before. And as surprise after surprise unfolds, explaining the inhuman strength of Adair’s passions, it is also clear where the prize for immortal lies… in the banal, everyday, human marriage that Lanny acts out with Luke.

THE DESCENT reminds me more of Paradise Lost or The Wolf of Wall Street than your typical urban fantasy. Less a romance or a fantastical escape, it takes readers inside the mind of depraved and twisted characters and reveals their insecurities and longings, though without any attempt to gloss over their more selfish and monstrous side. THE DESCENT explores the inhumane urges of power and the seemingly seductive lure of normalcy, forcing readers to confront the consequences of their own fascinations and desires. While I never emotionally reconnected with these characters, I know I’ll be puzzling over their fate for years to come.

Sexual Content: Allusions to sex, rape. ( )

Lanore Mcllvrae’s feelings for Adair have changed throughout the tumultuous centuries she’s known him. She’s feared him, loved him, been in awe of him, betrayed him and felt his powerful wrath. Now after 4 years apart she’s counting on him to help her rescue her first love and his adversary Jonathan who is trapped and being tortured in the Underworld. She’s rightfully wary of his reaction even though she’s promised to return to him, even though the last time they were together Adair professed his love for her and his promise to redeem himself in her eyes.
Adair’s long existence has come with many costs but it wasn’t until he fell in love with Lanny that he felt them all, felt the immoral and self-indulgence of his unworthy life and against all odds he will prove his merit. Now here she stands in front of him after 4 years absence and is begging him to aid her in helping his rival for her heart Jonathan. He really has no choice but to assist her to prove that he is a changed man.
Can love persevere the powerful unseen forces set against them?

Alma Katu’s epic, imaginative, dark adult fantasy love story is as calamitous at its end as it was in the beginning. Her visual and detailed narrative beautifully beckons of a formal time gone by and exquisitely tells the final chapters of her unmatched tale. Her characters continue to rule the pages with their debased and moral antics and its not just her stars that are unequaled, Adair for his immense presence and Lanny, for her power over him but also her co-stars who complete the story. The love scenes are more tender but no less intense and no less sensual. The novel relates enough past information to make it stand well on it’s own but to get full enjoyment and especially full understanding read the novels in order.
Alma thank you for this legendary journey I’m a better person for experiencing it and I can’t wait to see where you lead me to next time.
See our interview here
http://thereadingfrenzy.blogspot.com/2014/01/tourwide-giveaway-author-interview-... ( )