Customer Reviews

Wings to the Kingdom: An Eden Moore Story

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Priests second novel, a follow-up to her bestselling debut Four & Twenty Blackbirds, will be more accessible to many casual readers without alienating her fans, or horror buffs.

Where the first novel was about the lead character, Eden Moore, and her journey to find the spooky, Florida swamp voodoo, origins of her ancestors, this book is much more about a place - a civil war battlefield - and Eden's quest to find out just what will explain the spooky goings on there.

Characters lead the day, and they are as real as the people you know. No stupid decisions here, they bring up exactly the questions you would have in their situation. They aren't glib wisecracking Buffy clones either.. they are just honest. Characters, combined with Priests writing style, are the strength of this novel.

Priest writes with a clear, flowing, friendly style that leads the reader along like your best buddy taking you around their favorite place. Priest is having fun doing this, and you have fun on the ride she takes you on.

This isn't as complex a story as 4&20, and is a little slower, but it is a fun read, and stands up on its own without much help from the first novel. Some small characters from that first book have larger parts in this, and the large cast helps the novel move rather than slowing it down.

While it would have benefited from another subplot to add extra complexity to the book I would still recommend it as a top notch ghost story that doesn't need to resort to gore and horror to make its point. This is after all about a mystery, and its a great one - especially as it has ghosts, monsters, and realistic characters.

Priests third Eden Moore novel is due in late 2007, with a couple of other works planned in between. This reviewer can't wait for more.

My husband gave me this as a gift recently, which earned both him--and the author--bonus points!

This book continues the Eden Grey storyline that Priest introduced us to in Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Eden is a young woman in her twenties now in this new book, and her ability to see and talk with ghosts is once again a key factor in this well-written page-turner. The ghosts in question are the fallen soldiers at the Chickamauga battlefield who, in 2006, have suddenly supplanted local cryptozoological interest Old Green Eyes as the main paranormal attraction. Though reluctant to get involved at first, Eden is drawn into the mystery surrounding these apparations, and the result is yet another wonderful tale.

Again, this isn't one of your bloody, gory, slasher horror stories. Instead, Priest regales us with a detailed tale, punctuated by believable dialogue and a colorful array of characters. Rather than selling us short with cardboard cutouts and a tired, predictable story, she offers one of the toughest books to put down.

I can hardly wait for the next one in the series!

After her debut novel, "Four & Twenty Blackbirds", Cherie Priest kicked her writing up another notch:
Her ability to describe changing environments with a smug and uncanny familiarity is almost on par with Charles De Lint. The book switches back and forth between horror, thriller, and mystery without loosing beat. The plot is unforgivably fun.
I highly recommend you read this wonderful story.

Last year, I picked up a book by a new (to me) writer named Cherie Priest, titled FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS, and found myself reading every spare moment until I finished it. Reviews characterized the book as a sort of hip Southern Gothic horror page-turner. Yes. All of that. I had encountered the book by way of its author's online Live Journal.

Now Ms. Priest has followed her first book with a second, carrying on with many of the same characters, foremost of whom is Eden Moore. Eden is a biracial young woman who uses her paranormal abilities to solve otherworldly mysteries. In the first book, Eden discovered answers about her mysterious childhood and parentage, with a rousing finale in which she routs a fiendish sorcerer who intends mischief on a horrific scale. In WINGS TO THE KINGDOM, the second book, Eden sorts out another sort of eerie tangle.

Just south of Chattanooga, TN in North Georgia there is the Chickamuaga Battlefield Park, where the bloodiest two-day battle of the Civil War took place in 1863. Through a series of seemingly unrelated events, Eden is drawn into a deepening mystery of why the ghosts of fallen soldiers are suddenly appearing in the park, drawing newscasters, reporters and paranormal investigators.

Formerly the battlefield could claim as supernatural atmosphere only a shadowy figure with glimmering lights known as Old Green Eyes. Now the air is thick with restless spirits. In a tightly plotted story, Priest unfolds the search for explanations upon which Eden reluctantly embarks. Answers to some questions raise others, and mortal danger from an unghostly stranger complicates Eden's quest.

I found WINGS TO THE KINGDOM thoroughly satisfying, compelling to read, and to a Chattanooga oldster like myself, full of recognizable landmarks, businesses and topography. I recommend this book to anybody who at all enjoys tales of the supernatural, or simply responds to a well-written story with an engaging central character.

Ever since I turned the last page of "Four and Twenty Blackbirds," (4&20BB) I've been awaiting the return of reluctant psychic Eden Moore with mixed excitement and dread.

Why dread? Because "Wings to the Kingdom" (WTTK) is only Cherie Priest's second book, and there was no telling if she'd manage to keep up the suspense and entertainment of 4&20BB in her second book.

Now, having finished WTTK, I can say that not only has Priest met my expectations, she has exceeded them. WTTK is the kind of ghost story that I crave and so rarely find - smart, thrilling, and genuinely creepy in parts, without resorting to hack and slash tactics.

WTTK once again features Priest's loner heroine, Eden Moore. Where 4&20BB focused on Moore coming to terms with her own past, WTTK shows her coming to terms with her psychic powers, by being forced into a partnership with a big-name paranormal investigator featured on television shows. Although Moore is stubbornly independent by nature, to solve the mystery of why ghosts are roaming over the Chickamauga Battleground, she must learn to rely on friends to support and back her up.

I loved to see the character development in Eden Moore as a side note in the main story, and I hope that this trend continues in the third upcoming book in the Moore trilogy, and beyond. I dearly hope that Eden's story won't be told in only three books, there is still much to learn and develop with this unique character.

The story is solidly underpinned by Priest's familiarity with her setting. The restaurants, popular meeting places, and battleground geography help to ground this otherworldly tale in fact.

Priest's writing has also matured since her strong start with 4&20BB. Where the end of 4&20BB felt ever so slightly rushed, the pacing in WTTK was excellent throughout. The mystery was totally engrossing, and so vividly told that it felt like seeing a movie unfold before my eyes - which would be another wish come true for me.

In short, WTTK will be a strong contender for the best book I've bought this year. Now I just have to settle in for the long wait before the next Eden Moore story is released!

Phenomenal follow-up to debut novel Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Eden Moore is dragged into a supernatural mystery at the Chickamauga battleground, and must deal with the public reaction to her ability to speak with the dead. Incredibly written, with a fast-paced storyline that still takes time to fully develop character. Priest cements her place in the Southern Gothic canon. Highly recommended.

When you read Wings to the Kingdom, it's hard to believe Cherie Priest doesn't have a half dozen thrillers in her arsenal. Priest combines a taut prose style with a remarkable knack for creating mental images in the reader's mind of people and places in her stories, and she tells some wonderful stories.

Wings is just her second novel, though, and our second chance to tag along on an adventure with Eden, a compelling character descended from the likes of Nancy Drew but clearly not worried about skinning a knee or getting her clothes dirty. Eden also differs from that vintage girl sleuth by being attuned to the spirit world that borders ours, among other psychic gifts. She's surrounded by a cast of consistent, believable supporting characters who really flesh out the storytelling.

In this second tale, which stands quite well on its own if you haven't read Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Eden graduates from solving a deep and ancient family mystery to probing odd goings-on surrounding the Civil War battlefield at Chickamauga, Georgia. It's now a serene and pretty memorial park to the thousands of soldiers on both sides of the War Between the States who perished in that battle, but when even picnic-goers begin to see the ghosts of the dead soldiers ambling about and trying to chat, something must be up.

Once again, Priest has woven an intriguing tale that's far from the usual formulas, with just enough surprises to keep it fresh and such magical imagery in the words that I feel as though I'd visited the battlefield myself.

The ghosts are walking at Chickamauga--and they've got a message to tell. Unfortunately, nobody can seem to understand them--or get the message. So Eden Moore decides she's got to sneak into the battlefield and meet with them. Eden has a knack for talking to ghosts. Whether the knack will be enough, especially with the non-ghost, Old Green Eyes, wandering around, is anyone's guess.

Getting to the battlefield is half the fun as Eden and her buddies decide to sneak in from a party, but once there, things go very wrong. Someone has a gun and is shooting--and those aren't ghost bullets but very real metal. Whoever is messing with the battlefield is upsetting the ghosts something fierce, but the ghosts have forgotten how to speak--and even Eden's most sensitive equipment only picks up a few nearly incomprehensible words.

Disregarding the advice of her friends and the professional ghost-catchers who have come to investigate the multiple sightings, Eden pushes forward--trying to unravel multiple mysteries that seem connected by the ghosts.

Author Cherie Priest creates a very human character in Eden Moore. Her sense of place, both in Chattanooga and Chickamauga enriches the story. I think, however, that the story could have been stronger if Eden had a more compelling goal driving her forward. Her interest in the ghosts and in Old Green Eyes never quite seemed important enough for the risks that she put her friends and herself in. In the second half of the book, however, as the action and stakes escalated, Priest managed a page-turning ride.

This book is wonderful. A great follow-up tale about the amazing Eden Moore and her adventures. The ghosts were errie and spine tingling and the story was a compelling page turner.

My biggest problem with Wings to the Kingdom is that after going back to Four and Twenty Blackbirds, I have to find something worthy to read until Oct 2, when Not Flesh Nor Feathers comes out. I loved Eden. The combat boots, the Death Nugget, the whole thing. And every time Benny nearly pees in his pants from glee or horror, I have to laugh, because he reminds me of that classic dork in all of us, the one who lights up like a six year old at the thought of ghosthunting, no matter who's in the room who might argue. The characters are spelled out just like all Southern literary characters should be- colorful, lovable, and with screws popping loose all over the place.