Grave Cold; Shannon Knight

This dystopian, post-apocalyptic version of Portland takes an interesting look at the soul and necromancers. In this world, the United States has split into individual city districts, each with their own governing body and with none really seeming to get along. How we got here isn’t really explained, but it’s hinted that it was a nuclear disaster of some sort as the world is plagued by mutants lurking outside of the city’s protective walls. With so much death so readily available, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to harness the soul’s energy before the raven’s (think of them as reapers) have a chance to move that soul and their energy into the afterlife. Enter Nyle: a raven drawn to Portland’s dead problem. An overabundance of fate, or coincidence, brings Nyle immediately to Cait, a necromancer who doesn’t know what she is—she’s not a mutant or genetically modified and yet is plagued by the dead—but she is exactly the person Nyle needs to free the dead from Portland. Much like the trapped souls in Portland, an overabundance of luck plagues “Grave Cold”.

---

I did really like the concept of this book: using the power of the dead and their trapped souls to power machines and security, not only trapping the living in a city controlled by the military, but trapping the dead as well. It’s dark in a way that I found really atmospheric and interesting! The twist on reapers with Nyle and the other ravens was really cool, too. But his quest always felt a bit too easy. He’s able to persuade Cait to do incredibly perilous things that could get her killed with very little convincing. Not to mention that, even though Nyle is new to Portland, the people he needs to help him get to the dead and infiltrate the city immediately recognize him for who and what he is. In a way, I understand. This book is long and cutting down on the world building in this way keeps the pacing up. But I think that could have been better addressed by removing the GM police part of the story because that part of the authoritarian regime didn’t do much. You never really see any of the genetically modified people, and the GM police don’t really pose much of a problem to Cait, beyond ferrying her to where she needs to go at the right time for plot purposes.

I won’t harp on that point too much, but I do want to mention that it affected the big bad confrontation. The two biggest obstacles seemed to be removed with far too much ease given the peril Nyle and Cait were meant to be in, which is a shame because who the big bads were was really interesting and I’d have loved to see even more of them! I loved the idea of power and immortality corrupting an entity that was meant to be helpful, and I liked the little twinge you get when you realize the other bad guy is the way they are because of nurture, rather than nature. I just wish we got more of those two in order to dive deeper into who they were as they served as a great foil for Cait and Nyle otherwise.

The last thing I’ll mention is a bit of TW for animal death. I know that can be very sensitive for some readers and I want those readers who find the concept of the soul powering machines interesting to be prepared when starting this novel. Still, I enjoyed the twist on the idea of the dead being abused/trapped in this way as I found it a really unique way to discuss topical political machinations. I just wish the execution of certain plot and character elements had been better executed, hence the 4 stars, but the author clearly did her research when it came to ancient necromancy practices and I always appreciate when an author does that! If you’re looking for a unique urban fantasy with a twist centered on dystopian societies, give “Grave Cold” a try! And thanks to the author for giving me an ecopy of the book.