Cambion by Aethereal Stories | Book Review

Something came for Christine Knight the night her son was born. By morning, a hospital had been levelled. Six hundred people were dead. The records had been erased and the building replaced with a retirement home, its lawn trimmed and unremarkable.

Her son survived.

His name is Robert. He is eight years old when the story begins, and he has spent every year since watching two men build a wall of silence around him and calling it love. He has noticed the locks checked twice, the curtains drawn before dusk, the way adults stop talking when he enters a room. He has noticed the clocks.

He has started to take notes.

Set across seven years in the rain-soaked hills of Derbyshire, Cambion is a supernatural thriller about family, deception, and the long cost of protection — about what two men will burn to keep one boy breathing, and what he will find when he looks at the ash.

The first volume in the Book of Thoth Saga, part of the Aethereal Stories universe.

The truth has been waiting for him since before he was born.

It has been very patient.

From the first page, I knew this story was going to be different.

Now, ‘different’ is a spectrum, and Aethereal Stories has dropped Cambion far from absurdity and its jarring, disruption of suspension of belief. Instead, this unique urban fantasy lives in my favorite place: pulls me in and keeps me there.

The central character, Robert Knight, literally entered my experience on a tense note. His only friend, Daniel, finds he’s once again caught the attention of bullies doing what they do best. And despite Daniel’s best efforts to pull Robert out of the situation, the unrelenting bullying ends in an epic punch to the jaw of one of the other boys, which, of course, is the only thing the adult at the primary school sees.

This introduction to the protective circle around the young boy manifest, from Daniel’s insistence that he’d had a direct hand in the fight, to the actions of Robert’s uncles, Toby and Ben. While their outward reactions drastically differ to Robert admitting to blacking out when he punched the kid--Toby’s gentleness and Ben’s gruff seriousness--they share deep concern over this overt sign of his emerging powers and the danger it invites from multiple secret organizations, despite all their attempts to keep him hidden and off their radar.

Why? Because Robert Knight is a cambion, the progeny of a demon and a human, and depending on which organization you ask--ha! like you’d just knock on their door--he’s a threat to be put down, a possible asset to be trained, or a power to be exploited. What a burden to bear for one kid!

I’m not a fan of spoiling the good parts. But I promise it’s worth it.

Aethereal Stories builds this world and its story with layers. My only qualm is the author’s clear preference of integrating multiple POVs in not only one chapter, but bouncing back and forth in an interaction. I had to reread passages more than once to ensure I understood not so much who said what, but more which actions, specifically body language and facial expressions--which the Aethereal does beautifully--belong to whom. Because these little things are made a huge difference in how a scene plays out.

I’m so happy this is the first of a series, and I’m ready for more.

Bravo.

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