Holly Lisle still seems to prefer Lauren over Molly, as she did in the first book, but this time she abandons the sentinels on Earth where they belong to concentrate on Lauren's relationship with her sister and with Molly's resurrection. Molly is alive, but her soul now resides in heaven--gone to its eternal rest and reward. The reserected Molly believes her life is empty of meaning now that she has died and come back without her soul, but worse that this, she believes she is now kin to the dark gods. The dark gods are evil and they get worse and worse the more times they are killed and resurrected. Molly fears for the future.

And she is right to fear, for one of the dragon-like "Rhon" has a plan to make Molly into a dark god in his image. He will kill Molly over and over bringing her back each time to suffer death anew, until there is nothing of the old Molly Mcoll remaining.

I gave this four stars because I enjoyed reading it. It was fast paced and an easy read, but it suffered from using Lauren's point of view too much. I wanted, and still do want, more about Molly. The sentinels might as well not have been in this book. Pete is given a fairly interesting set of scenes to play, yet they seem to have no relation to the first book and feel redundant to me.

Buy the book, but be aware that this is book 2 of a series. Go into this one expecting loose ends to remain flapping in the breeze.

Mark E. Cooper
Warrior Within (ISBN: 0-9545122-0-0)

As seen in Memory of Fire, Molly McColl dies while saving the life of Lauren Dane's son Jake. Because Molly holds the position of Vodi on Oria, she wears a necklace that magically refuses to allow her to die. Unfortunately, her rebirth brought back a soulless Molly McColl.

The two sisters-Lauren and Molly-begin questing for knowledge on what happened to former Vodi. While they work, dark forces begin working toward the destruction of the two women. Jake, who has never gotten over the death of his father, somehow manages to transport himself to the afterlife in search of his father. Lauren is forced to follow her son in an effort to try to save four souls: her husband's, Jake's, Molly's, and her own.

Meanwhile Pete Stark definitely proves to be more than a mere deputy, the Cat Creek Sentinels begin wondering about Lauren, and dragons surface as book two winds toward a satisfactory finale. Characters, plot, setting, and all the other elements of great fantasy work well in The Wreck of Heaven.

In this novel, Jake refuses to go near the big mirror in their hallway and is even unhappy entering the kitchen. He has begun to talk again, but he is much too passive. She has just returned from the store and Pete has dropped by, so Lauren asks him to sit on the stairs with Jake as she puts up the groceries. Pete teases Jake about a story that he had once liked, but now scares him. Pete insists the scary pumpkin is saying that he has a cookie in his tummy and Jake knows that it is really saying "Boo, Boo". They both get the giggles and Jake even lets Pete carry him into the kitchen without protest.

Then Lauren discovers a messenger from Oria in her kitchen and quickly maneuvers Pete out of the house. The messenger states that Molly has returned from the dead through the powers of the Vodi necklace. Lauren quickly makes arrangements to be gone for a while and takes Jake with her to Oria. She finds Molly at Copper House and they start preparing for their roles as planned by their parents. However, Jake is more precocious than expected and manages to open a link leading to his deceased father in the afterlife.

Pete finds a note from Lauren on his kitchen table and decides that she probably used a small gate to deliver it. Although she writes that she is taking Jake to visit his grandparents, Pete notices that she has left her primary keyring with him and, after visiting the house, finds that the car is parked in a shed and that nothing much is missing. He reckons that foul play is unlikely, given the evidence, and that Lauren probably has been called back to Oria. To cover for her, he passes on the note to the other Sentinels and adds a few embellishments.

This novel extends the storyline to explain the difference between the old gods and the dark gods as well as the nature of the disasters that have destroyed worldline after worldline. We also learn something more about the rron and their motivation.

The romance between Molly and Seolar develops and even continues after her death and resurrection, but not without some hard moments. Seolar knows that his duty to the Veyar is primary in his life, but now he begins to realize that, without Molly, his life will not have any joy or satisfaction.

This novel is full of action and excitement. Dangers arise and are handled somehow. Once again, the story focuses on the interpersonal relationships between Molly and Seolar as well as between Lauren and Pete, but not as much so as the previous novel.

One interesting scene is the confrontation between Lauren and the Administrator in the Afterlife. Maybe a bit of catharsis for the author after a bad encounter with bureaucracy. Probably a good thing that she didn't write about Hell.

Recommended for Lisle fans and anyone who else enjoys a new approach to the salvation of the universe plot.