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Overview
A ruthless and carefully planned strategy—-one that not even Damali will anticipate—-has been developed. There is only one entity who can best Damali, send Carlos packing, and put the Guardian team at mortal risk. This powerful being was once banished into a forsaken land and possesses everything that would bring a Neteru to his or her knees.
This time the fight is not so clear-cut, and it is not only Damali's soul in the balance, but her body and heart as well.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780312352356 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 06/27/2006 |
| Series: | Vampire Huntress Legend Series , #7 |
| Edition description: | First Edition |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Sales rank: | 1,121,609 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.99(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Forsaken
A Vampire Huntress Legend
By Banks, L. A.
St. Martin's Griffin
Copyright © 2006
Banks, L. A.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0312352352
Chapter One
The Shift
The day after Christmas, a horrific tsunami hit Southeast Asia, creating a natural and human disaster of biblical proportions. Disease and destruction lay in the wake of the giant wave, flooding and taking lives in eleven countries to the scale of Noah's time. But the animals sensed it was coming and were mysteriously saved. Ancient tribesmen, observant of nature's force, also strangely avoided destruction. But the cities . . . the tourists, all lay in ruins.
Humanity is now studying the instinctual nature of the animal kingdom. Tribal elders were asked how they knew, but their simplistic answers baffled scientists until debunked.
People in the fishing villages feared to eat the sea's yield, even while starving . . . so many bodies were in the water, and they reasoned that the fish had feasted upon that which the waters took.
Beyond the human suffering of more than a hundred and fifty thousand known dead, thousands missing, and millions left homeless and destitute with food shortages and tainted water, the power of the event actually shifted the planet--the Earth's poles moved to the east by a full inch, and time stopped for several milliseconds. It moved to the east . . . to the east . . . the east . . . perhaps east ofEden.
We do not yet know how this will influence the Earth's position amongst its planetary brethren. What we do know, however, is that everything in the universe is a fragile balance, like that of an immaculately designed Swiss watch. Move one part and misalign one gear, and then what? Astrologers have yet to weigh in on this matter, nor has the traditional scientific community. They simply have no answers.
All this while in the United States, Southern California has been deluged by unrelenting rains and the normally arid region was also covered by a blanket of snow . . . over one hundred and fifty inches has fallen on the Sierra Mountains . . . snow has even covered the desert region--Nevada . . . Texas and the Midwest experienced driving snowstorms . . . the Ohio Valley was covered in ice and floodwaters, forcing evacuations . . . this after four back-to-back hurricanes just devastated Florida's coast and the Caribbean, then one came that virtually wiped New Orleans off the map. Still there were more hurricanes, floods, tornados . . . forces of nature, also known by insurance companies as acts of God.
And, yet the world is still at war. Not even these cataclysmic events were enough to give mankind pause. In the ongoing human conflict, no one seemed to remember that even time stood still. The planet was rocked off its axis for milliseconds, but warring factions around the globe didn't seem to give a damn. They just kept on fighting, shooting, and blowing each other up. The stern warning is not being heeded.
Copyright 2006 by Leslie Esdaile Banks
Continues...
Excerpted from The Forsaken
by Banks, L. A.
Copyright © 2006 by Banks, L. A..
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Reading Group Guide
The Chairman of the Vampire Council is dead, and Lilith, the consort of the Unnamed One, and the Unnamed One himself are out for revenge against Damali Richards, the Vampire Huntress, and her lover, Carlos Rivera. A ruthless and carefully planned strategy—-one that not even Damali will anticipate—-has been developed. There is only one entity who can best Damali, send Carlos packing, and put the Guardian team at mortal risk. This powerful being was once banished into a forsaken land and possesses everything that would bring a Neteru to his or her knees. This time the fight is not so clear-cut, and it is not only Damali's soul in the balance but her body and heart as well.
1. What do you think about Damali's struggle choosing between Carlos and Cain?
2. Ultimately in this saga, each Guardian has a personal hurdle to address or overcome for the good of the group. How necessary and realistic is it to relegate one's own deeply private issues to the background, as each member of the Neteru Guardian team does? In addition, discuss how the Neteru King and Queen Council members were forced to do this in some ways.
3. How is it possible for a person to be both honorable and dishonorable, like Cain? Discuss other real-life people who have acted both honorably and dishonorably.
4. Discuss Marlene and Carlos's battle before the team––her "purge process" of getting to Carlos's inner core and taking him to the rock. Were there other ways for her to identify with him? What has been the best way when you have had to do it?
5. What do you think about Juanita's role in all of this and her ultimate discovery?
6. What lessons did both Neterus learn this time that could be helpful in the future?
7. What effects do you think Damali's newfound powers will have in future battles?
8. What do you think the new paradigm between Carlos and Damali will do to other members of the team?
9. Which "newbie" Guardian(s) do you think will step up and begin to evolve into their powers next? (How?)
10. What new threat do you envision attacking the team? How will evil come for them next?
11. With this new twist in Damali and Carlos's relationship, what role might The Covenant play? What role do you envision for the covenant in Carlos's friendship with Yonnie, a vampire?
12. What temptations could easily befall the members of the Guardian squad in the same way both Damali and Carlos had been "tested" over the years? Who do you think is most at risk?