An explosive sequel with just as gripping a storyline as the first, Gaia’s Oath blends reality and the supernatural in a believable and tantalising way.
Picking up where Karma’s Return left off, Gaia’s Oath now focusses on another of the ancient souls: Mother Earth herself, Gaia. Sent to help four souls who have lost their way, the authors cleverly integrate ancient wisdom into the teenage world, perfectly capturing the attitudes of today’s modern teen. What was also quite a strong move on the writers’ part I felt, was the way they have interwoven real-day issues that teens and young adults will most likely resonate with. Written in first person, and with a distinctive teenage voice, Gaia’s Oath is extremely readable. I do feel that some of the themes are quite adult in nature with the novel therefore lending itself to readers aged 16 and over.
The book also delves a little more into the spirit world, which I found particularly fascinating, especially as both this book and its predecessor heavily feature this realm, and it’s nice to have answers and explanations to this topic in a way that relates to human existence.
Gaia herself, a feisty and powerful individual, is quite clearly driven by her heart rather than her head, leaving the reader often guessing how she will respond to any given event. Clearly struggling with ‘acting as a human’, her sometimes-rash decisions and bold choices reflect the very nature of what she truly is, warranting her powers very much necessary, and bringing comfort to the reader that even those who have lived a thousand life times make mistakes. Although the writers have a real strength for portraying their main protagonists, I feel some of the strong supporting characters aren’t as deep, and I also felt we lost sight of the real Karma we got to know in the first novel – or maybe her experience there had forced her to mature a little?
I am very pleased that I have been able to follow the ancient souls series thus far, and, as a now very-invested reader, definitely intend to finish the series. An excellent read, The Book Dragon awards this novel 4 stars.
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