Oh so many years ago, when I was a proof reader at Apex Publications, I fell in love with a fictional man who wasn’t. Or was he?

Temple was one of the best anti-hero heroes I’d ever read. Incarnations was arguably my favorite project to work on in my brief tenure at the magazine, and to this day I cherish my copies of the print versions. Especially the signed edition! Steven Savile is an extremely talented writer, knowing just how to get into your mind and under your skin.

All that being said, Temple: Incarnations is no longer available. I’d held out hope for more, and this fall I was pleased to get my greedy, sticky, grasping claws into a copy of the new Temple novel, Immortal.

With recognizable pieces from Incarnations, Immortal brings the reader directly back into Temple’s rather bleak existance in a post-apocalytpic mess of a world. However, although some passages were little more than tips of the hat to their original ‘incarnation,’ and others are nearly if not word for word, the rest of the novel expands on Temple’s story so smoothly that I didn’t even notice… until it was pointed out to me. And here’s the kicker – I read Incarnations last winter, so it’s not that far from my memory (I originally worked on the proof in 2007, if memory serves). That is how good Savile is at finishing what left us wanting.

The story moves at a great pace, a few ups and downs, throughout. Questions have been asked and some old ones been answered, while leaving me with just enough to want more even though I think this may have been Temple’s last stand. Still, one wants to close the file or the cover knowing the mind has been set at ease, that threads have been tucked in, and lives… well, I won’t spoil it.

My only problem with reading it had been some obvious (well, to me anyway) bits and pieces that an editor or proofer should have caught. The formatting issues could be down to my reader, however. I understand from others that Kobo occasionally does have that problem.

Suffice it to say that the money I laid out on a physical e-reader so I could read Immortal in comfort, away from the desk, was well worth it. Just for Immortal, never mind the tablet/e-reader itself. I’d do it again in a heart beat.

This is one you want under your tree, in your stocking, beside your bed… wherever. Just get it.

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(Disclosure: I won the digital package that Immortal was in during a contest run by the author.)

Until next week… oh, wait. There may or may not be a post next week, I’ll have to see what comes in the mail. Er, so to speak.
<3 JL PS - I've just finished the fourth title in the Galleys Between series and it should be available in mid to late January. I’ve bundled the first three, plus a bonus, into a single file, and it is available exclusively at Etsy!

Click through – Galleys Between