Vincent is the son of Argus, the Grand Elder of the Satori, an organization of enlightened beings who have achieved control of their inner energy, gaining powers other humans only dream of. At one point he was its most powerful member, even its savior. However, Vincent went rogue a number of years ago, leaving Satori and hiding from its members. Now, he’s resurfaced, and made the organization’s existence known to the world, resulting in mob violence and imprisonment of Satori members. Vincent, furious, decides to control or destroy all of humanity, and wins over many of the Satori leaders to his side. However, Argus’s advisor Quinn, a promising young student named Danny, and Ian, a human once considered but rejected for Satori membership, have united to try and stop Vincent. Can they defeat a man who can singlehandedly destroy armies?
This is an action-filled story, with politics, superpowers, and dramatic, destructive battles. The characters are given substantial personalities, with perspectives and motivations shaped by their histories. Even Vincent has his sympathetic moments. The plot is intricate, and contains a number of intriguing possibilities that will hopefully be explored in a sequel.
However, the book really needs editing. The author frequently misuses or misspells words, such as “rigger” for “rigor,” “conscience” for “conscious” or “affect” for “effect”, and sometimes changes tense mid-sentence. His sentences are often awkwardly structured, for example: “not very many people were able use the technique, only excelled users of the energy.” The climactic battle is fierce, deadly, and hard-fought- until it suddenly fizzles out in an unsatisfying non-resolution. The human characters, except for those directly involved with Ian, are pretty one-dimensional, all uniformly hateful – it seems unlikely that there wouldn’t be at least a minor but vocal segment of humanity such as comic book fans, who would view the Satori as potential superheroes rather than threats.
THE PALADIN offers an interesting plot, and might be the start of an exciting series, but it needs more attention to the basic details of writing in order to fulfill its promise.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader