Probably for the first time, instead of speaking of the main characters, I will speak of their enemies… I have the feeling that Mychael Black changed his mind in the middle of writing this novella, or maybe, as often is, the villains were more interesting than the good people.

Jesse and Gabriel met in the prequel of this book, the story of Jason and Julian; even if it seems a contradiction in terms, Jason and Julian’s story is an “ordinary” one, an almost classic vampire story, where the cute and young man, Jason, falls in love for the fascinating ancient vampire, Julian. Jesse is Jason’s friend, and when Julian needed help, Gabriel, Julian’s sire, came to help. It was quite clear that there was something between Jesse and Gabriel, and so it was natural that the next story was their own. But already from the classification, as Spirits of Abaddon book 1, we understand that something changed, this is not a sequel of the Blood & Fire series, and this is an entirely new one. And so, we discover that Gabriel is not exactly a vampire, and that he has great enemies, and one of them, Lazarus, has even the help of Gabriel’s renegade brother, Semoriel.

Lazarus and Semoriel are the villains, but as I said, I had the feeling that Mychael Black liked them better than Jesse and Gabriel. Little by little Lazarus steals the scene to Gabriel, and even if Jesse is a good guy, Semoriel is for sure a more interesting bad guy. They are the bad guys, but the reader finds himself cheering for them, and a clear sign that the author is on the same line is that, the last scene is devoted to them.

Spirits of Abaddon shifts the series from a paranormal environment to a demons and ancient legends one, something the author well know. It’s different from what the reader was expecting, especially if he read the previous two books, but it’s probably more fascinating like that.

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