*My Thoughts*
In the second installment of the Age of X series, Internal Security Investigator Dr. Justin March, teams up with Praetorian super soldier Mae Koskinen, who has been assigned to watch over March, as they travel from the Bahamas where March and Mae get a warning about a pending war between the GOD elects, to a mission to Arcadia where Mae has her own personal agenda, back to Vancouver where things get even more interesting and leaves us with a nerve wracking ending.
A large portion of The Immortal Crown's story takes place in Arcadia (what is currently known as the Southeastern USA, notably, Birmingham, Alabama.) I would compare the Arcadian way of life to a mixture of Sharia-ism, and Southern Baptism in that the women are supposed to stay home, cook the food, sit at different tables from the men, happily produce numerous babies without the choice of birth control which is illegal, and be subservient to the males who horde women like they were a commodity, rather than human beings.
The men are polygamists, misogynistic scum bags & pigs, who believe that they can basically do whatever they want, and yes, they do get away with it since their so called GOD apparently has brain washed them all into believing whatever comes out the Grand Disciple's mouth. As you can imagine, I totally hated the Arcadian's, and wanted Mae to go all Kamikaze on their asses. The very fact that women are forced to CLOISTER themselves if they are too pretty, or accidentally show a leg in front of a superior man, just makes me nauseous.
Except for the addition of Arcadia to the mix, there's really not a whole lot of world building this time around. Mead put it all on the table in Gameboard of the Gods, and just barely hints on the Decline, the Mephistopheles virus, the subsequent cure, and rebirth of new nations like the Republic of United North America (RUNA) which left Arcadia behind to its own devices because they refused to cross breed with other races in order to survive.
As with Gameboard of the Gods, Mead once again offers 3 main POV's in Justin, Mae, and Tessa who has become a part of Justin's family, and is slowly coming to grips with the new country she now calls home, while discovering that not everything is as it seems with various special humans marked by Gods (elects) trying to gain even more power.
With Justin trying to avoid fully committing himself to Odin by not sleeping with Mae or claiming her, and Mae once again being pushed and pulled by other Gods who give her gifts along the way to help her on a very specific mission, their relationship is severely strained and tested.
The Immortal Crown is very plot driven, and the main action comes from Mae's personal mission, while leaving Justin stumbling along in the dark, and in the end, in a bad situation. The ending leaves so many different questions, that I had to take a few aspirin to get rid of the headache it left me with. Hopefully, the third book shall answer all my questions, and wrap up the series in an action packed way.
Author - Richelle Mead
Title - The Immortal Crown (Age of X # 2)
Published by Dutton Adult
Releases: May 29, 2014
Genre: Dystopian, Adult
Format: E-Book 432 pages
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