Awakening the Essence

The Siren Chronicles, Book One

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

“This so contradicts what I have been taught,” said Rory Forsythe to her aunt, Helene, who introduces her, not only to her true heritage, but to a radically different history of the world.

“How could you know much of the truth when The Ravage forced the abandonment of the peaceful matriarchal old ways for the patriarchal warrior life? To the victor goes history,” responds Helene.

Author Kate Sexton brings myth, legend, suspense, and romance together in this compelling tale of an ancient race of women who hold the secrets of history, the men who guard them, and those who would risk everything to make sure that the hidden knowledge is never revealed.

Rory, a stunningly beautiful and successful Los Angeles entertainment executive, awakens amidst the wreckage of the car in which she and her dearest friend Vivienne have been traveling through the mountains of southern France. Devastated upon learning of her friend’s death, Rory finds that the accident has left her with powerful sensory abilities that both frighten and confuse her. Her quest to understand these abilities brings her into a world in which nothing is as it seems, and in which she finds her true family and a heritage that involves her in a power struggle many thousands of years old.

After being introduced to the works of Joseph Campbell, Sexton set off on a ten-year quest for knowledge that led her to the archeological findings of Marija Gimbutas and the genetic work of Brian Sykes, as well as numerous authors and linguists who studied the origins of Indo-European languages. Sexton has utilized what she learned from them, as well as her study of world religions, to create this first volume in a planned series that centers on the theme of the brutal suppression of women by male descendents of Indo-European peoples whose origins are shrouded in mystery, and whose desire has always been for world domination through force.

The author has skillfully mingled dreams and legends with the realities of contemporary life to create a compelling story with characters who, like Rory, appropriately demonstrate normal human emotions in the face of larger-than-life issues. While most of the characters are convincing, that of Helene is less so; presented as a powerful master of her own world when she first appears, she later is portrayed as someone whose development seems to have been arrested in her teen years, and this leads to some confusion. There are also a number of typographical errors that careful editing would easily correct.

This is a tale about the existence of a race of people whose women, the Sirens, were commissioned with being the memory-keepers of the ancient knowledge that was almost thoroughly destroyed. It is an exciting and engaging multi-layered story that just might entice readers to do their own research on the ancient ways—or at the very least, to enjoy the next volume, due to be released in 2012.

Reviewed by Kristine Morris

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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