Nicholas lived a very ordinary life in Cambridge – until the
fateful day his parents died.
After which Sam, his parents’ oldest friend, swoops in to
try and get him out of Cambridge, to go stay with a godmother he’s never heard
of in a large house in the countryside. What should be a simple trip is made
harrowing by attacks and the revelation that his parents did not die by
accident – they were killed by demons.
Which is what Sam, as a Sentinel, needs to battle and oppose. First and foremost that means getting Nicholas – who is special – to safety. But then he needs to help the besieged sentinels, including those who have been attacked and the increasing number who are dying
Unfortunately if I had to sum up this book in 2 words
they would be “vague” and “slow”.
In this world we have evil dark demons of badness who are
doing dark and nefarious things. They’re either coming to Earth or want to come
to Earth or are on Earth and we wish they weren’t and they’re going to do bad
stuff while here
What that bad stuff is, I don’t know. What these demons
are, I don’t know. What these demons can do, I don’t know. They’re demons, they’re
served by Harvesters (I don’t know what they are) and Familiars (I don’t know
what they are). And they’re evil and want to do evil things.
Then there are the good guys called the sentinels. They
fight the bad things, for reasons unknown but positively related to the bad guys
being bad. I don’t know what the sentinels are, how they started, what their
symbols are, what their resources are, what they do or how they do it. But they’re
the good guys and they fight the bad guys. They also serve something called the
Trinity – I have no idea what that is beyond the fact it probably isn’t the
Christian Trinity. Esus is also involved as well – Gaulish Celtic god (not that
the book tells me that, I just know the name. We just have Esus. He wields a
mask. He’s important somehow).
Then we have Nicholas, the 15 year old. His parents were
sentinels (tragic parent death) and he is special. How he is special I don’t
know, but he was born special. I don’t know how. He may be able to do things. I
don’t know what. But his specialness is such that the bad guys want to kill him
and the good guys would rather that didn’t happen.
