‘The Avengers meets Magician, The Planets series is superhero conflict on a global scale…’ – An ancient cadre of magicians – A select team of extra-ordinary warriors – An unseen foe As two ancient forces battle for control, reality as we know it is being torn apart. Caught somewhere in the middle, and tasked with ridding the world of the insidious alien intelligence are The Planets. Neptune hails from Rio, the gay daughter of strict catholic parents. Mars, from Ireland, still missing the sister he lost years ago. Uri grew up on the streets of New York, and Venus… well, no one knows and she isn’t telling. Imbued with extra-ordinary powers, these highly trained individuals take the fight across the globe. With startling and unnerving revelations at every turn, the depth of deception is only now becoming clear…
My Review
The Spirit Room is not just an average superhero story! Combining magic, mysticism, aliens, and an ancient threat to the world, the Spirit Room is an action-packed fun read with great characters who control unique powers. The Assembly guides the Planets, lone superheroes who work to stop the Unseen, an alien force bent on causing chaos. After millennia of fighting, the Unseen are making headway and The Assembly must unite the Planets into one force to diminish the threat. The story focuses on four of the super heroes: Venus, Mars, Uri, and Neptune. I liked that with three of the main characters, the reader experiences what it was like for the characters to develop their powers and the problems that arose. Michael Cairns invests time to show that superpowers can result in psychological handicaps and develops the characters instead of simply throwing actions scenes one after another – though there are plenty of great ones! Flaws in the novel are very minor. The word choice could be a little tighter and there were a few instances when I wasn’t certain of a character’s power (esp. when they are newly introduced). For example, there was a point at the Tower of London when I wasn’t sure if Eris or Pluto was flying or if both could. A brief description of known powers as a reference would help keep things straight for readers. I also noticed some changes in suit capabilities between characters that weren’t explained (like bullet deflection for one and not for another). The Spirit Room is a very fun novel that is an original take on a superhero story. It brings together individual characters to create a team who are fighting a secret worldwide threat. There is a hint of conspiracy making the reader doubt the ‘benevolent’ and ‘all knowing’ Assembly, who guide (control?) the Planets, which definitely creates concern over the characters and keeps you reading! Book links: The Spirit Room on Kobo http://bit.ly/SPMwXU The Spirit Room on Amazon.com http://amzn.to/1kZLofN The Spirit Room on Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/1c1x4zs The Spirit Room on Smashwords http://bit.ly/13jmIT3 “Childhood Dreams (A Game of War, Part One)” is available for free download from cairnswrites.com.
A bit about the author:
Chocoholic Michael Cairns is a writer and author of the superhero fantasy series, The Planets and science fiction adventure series, A Game of War. A musician, father and school teacher, when not writing he can be found behind his drum kit, tucking into his chocolate stash or trying, and usually failing, to outwit his young daughter. You can find Michael at: His website: At http://cairnswrites.com you can download a free copy of novella Childhood Dreams (A Game of War, Part one), find podcasts, free short stories, info about me, and of course, links to where you can buy my books. Twitter: www.twitter.com/cairnswrites Facebook: Feel free to ‘like’ www.facebook.com/cairnswrites (he talks about chocolate mostly, and a bit on writing as well) Pinterest: Enjoy some of the comic art and inspiring images he repins on www.pinterest.com/michaelcairns GoodReads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7035089.Michael_Cairns Wattpad: http://wattpad.com/MichaelCairns