UC - Chains Of Ice: The Chosen Ones (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Setting: cave revealed by melting iceberg in Andes, Chile; wilds/village/mystic crossroads of Raputye, Russia; 2 houses, 1 hospital of New York;Theme: good vs evil; sacrifice/paying for past mistakes; guilt; prophecy; love to unite; faith; duty; leadership; Characters:John Powell: Chosen, last group; kinetic power; questioning Gary’s gangbuster/glory finding ways; good man, willing to sacrifice self to save the others; Kim Sun Hee: Chosen, last group; she resists Gary’s charms and chooses John – but after a year of marriage, succumbed to Gary’s seduction;Gary White: Chosen, last 3 groups; glory hound; the dangerous the better; leader; compelled to seduce the women; was in a coma for 3 years, though mind still aware he couldn’t communicate with anyone (just the drip drip drip of the IV); Osgood offers to free him and for him to do his bidding;Amina Berhane/Max Novak/Sophie Moore/Bataar Lohar – part of the last group of the Chosen;Genesis ‘Genny’ Valente: father an employee of the Gypsy Travel Agency in the past; he embezeled artifacts, was caught and fired; wife left him; he manipulated daughter, trying to get her to be in a business position to take advantage of and put him in the high class – all how she could benefit him; Genny agreed to most, wanting to please her dad, and maybe earn his love; she signed a contract with what she thought was the Gypsy agency to pay her schooling for one favor –though she crossed out favor and wrote in a monetary figure; graduated from business school and willing to take job her father got her even though knew she would be unhappy; never dated, no time – and men seem a bit silly to her; was excited by a lecture by Koslov describing her work studying a small group of thought extinct Ural lynx; father sent her to join Koslov for her summer exploration – with the contingency that she try to locate John Powell and convince him to return; somewhere along the way she develops a philosophy of saving the planet one animal at a time;Lubochka Koslov: studying the Ural lynx for which students and interested parties pay to join her;Misha Sokolov/Reggie Caverlock/etc: others studying the lynxes.Brandon Lam: rich, bored guy on his 3rd trip to the lynxes; not because of a passion for it, but because sees it as an easy way to satisfy his parents and keep his trust fund going; immature; ‘loves’ Genny, but like a little boy torments her – especially with stories of the yeti (John Powell); succumbs to Anyi, of the Others, to her drugging/sabotaging of his thinking;Isabelle Mason/Samuel : of the current Chosen; great sexual tension between them, but nothing yet.; Isabelle elegant, Samuel of the streets; Charisma Fangorn/Aleksandr Wilder: of the current Chosen; goth girl / computer geek & studentVidar Davidov: bartender, that brings John Powell to the rest;Aaron Eagle/Rosamund: of the current Chosen and his mate/ the librarian.Jacqueline Vargha D’Angelo / Caleb D’Angelo: seer; he of the current Chosen and his mate.McKenna and Martha / Dina: M & M servants/family of Irving; Martha and Dina sisters – but Dina of the Others; Irving left Dina – a story untold; Dina daily comes outside his home, sending messages telepathically through the Chosen; she goes to his deathbed, and is keeping him alive, communicating with him.Irving Shea: realizes that his poor judgment in trying to prosper the agency and exploiting artifacts has led to the disarray of the Chosen, and he is willing to sacrifice himself to try and balance the books.Osgood: leader of the Others, fallen angel, has been biding his time; merciless with failure (put Gary back into his drip, drip, drip coma); expects to winAvni Patel: of the Others; part of Sokolov’s group – 2nd year; also wants John – but can’t get to him, so uses Brandon (and keeps using him 2-1/2 years later);Summary:After spending 8 months looking for Genna, he returns to the Gypsy Agency, remembering her telling him that he should use his gifts. Gary had stepped in to lead the team, but they did not like the risks he was forcing them into, or his objectives (goods, risk, glory)… and are happy to turn things over to John – they work together for 2 years, making some headway, consolidating as a team; And Irving makes the sacrifice – setting it up for John to push him down the stairs – he is in the hospital, getting operated on and Genna shows up at Irving’s house… and Isabelle and Charisma welcome her, recognize her as John’s true love, and keep her there. Genna gives them the bag of bones she pulled out of the lake… they add it to the ones they have… it still doesn’t reveal the prophecy to Isabelle – bones are missing… Genna remembers her dad had a bag of bones he’d stolen… she goes to his house… to find Gary, Brandon, and Avni there… John shows up there 2 hours later (as soon as he heard that she was there) to rescue her… together they kill the 3 of them, find the last bag of bones, and then join together with the 7, their mates, M & M, Dina in Irving’s room. It appears Irving is not going to recover… the bones are put together…Isabelle gets her prophecy. Irving seems to rally a bit (does he survive? Next book)And John takes Genna to his home… and makes love to her… ahhhhMemorable scenes:John using his powers to creates a bubble of energy to stave off the melting iceberg to save his team… and then against the volcano, but the volcano too much, and he lost his team when he passed out – felt guilty, and was thought to be guilty as he had caught Gary and his wife together the day before… but when with Genny, she makes him confront what happened, to question why Gary would still be alive, and to see the truth that Gary took him where they should not be, and that he did his best.John taking Genny to see the momma lynx and her 2 kittens – playing with them… and then taking her to meet the male who is nearby keeping them safe;John’s sad childhood story – his mother (raised/abused by the Others) giving birth to him at the crossroads, and places him on an iceflow, telling him if he survives he will have her gift and his own – and then she drowns herself; fished out by fishermen who thought he was dead, one sailor takes him home to Raputye where he lives in the winter, but they sell him to a freak circus during the summer – where he is starved, poked, and pushed to use his telekinesis to bring food to himself until old enough to make the stick he is poking him with beat the man; then he escapes, and eventually makes his way to America and to the Chosen.After John feels betrayed when he learned the truth of Genny’s other reason to be there (to contact him), and she warns him the villagers are after him, he takes her to the Raputye to hide… she runs from him, and ends up at a lake/waterfall (where she finds an old bag that includes some finger bones – that he tells her are a gift from the Raputye to her) – he angrily joins her in the water, overwhelms her with lust (adding in his electrical impulses to entice her), has passionate sex with her… and then he feels a bit of remorse, she is lying in the healing mud, she pulls him to her, makes love to him… telling him words of truth – that he should use his gifts for good, that he did everything he could to save his friends, that she loves him… but after they have sex again, and he still has lingering doubts about her, she leaves him (when he is fighting with Brandon), steps out into a snow storm… and survives, travels, fights in a revolution, successfully uses her business skills to orchestrate a wildlife rescue organization… A sweet scene with John and Irving… John goes to visit Irving, who doesn’t leave his home (too weak) and he makes John tea – who drinks it, though he doesn’t like tea, and feels awkward with the china cups; they have their heart to heart (saying their looking for the rest of the finger bones – important to Isabelle), John tells him of the bones Genny found, and Irving helps him see that Genny doesn’t deserve for him to feel betrayed, it wasn’t so bad what she did (at the behest of her father) and that he was looking to be betrayed. And then after John leaves, Irving laughs – knowing that John doesn’t like tea, but does so out of kindness and respect – he likes pulling one over on him. It has only been the last couple years that I've gotten onto the paranormal track, so this is my first non-historical Christina Dodd novel. The overall premise isn't unique, but I do like Dodd's attention to details. The segments regarding the lynx were fantastic and very engaging. The dynamics between the hero and heroine were well done. There was some speedy organizational details info dump in the last quarter of the book that I suppose it less extraneous sounding if you've read other books in the series, which I haven't. My one gripe...the too fluid resolution between the protagonists. They parted with serious differences, and time does heal, but this was too easy for them--at least in my opinion. Loved the storytelling and interplay between the major characters, and looking forward to another tale.
What do You think about UC - Chains Of Ice: The Chosen Ones (2010)?
Book 3 of The Chosen Ones SeriesJohn and Genesis' story
—kwdance
This book drew me in with the forest and the lynxs.
—jatts
