By: Corey Lack
Age of Voodoo was a book in James Lovegrove’s Pantheon series. The series was more of an anthology series with each book being their own story rather than them being connected in any way. Each of the series is connected to a specific religion and this one is obviously connected to voodoo. This story is about a retired black ops soldier who is rehired to join a one-time mission to escort a US Seal team to an island where the US military was working on combining aspects of voodoo with modern science in the hopes of creating super soldiers before it went dark.
There is one thing that each of the books in this series show and that is Lovegrove’s extensive research in each of the religions that each of the books focuses on. The story has one point where it not only explains some of the particulars of the religion’s practices, but its history as well. This part is done in a way that avoids being an info dump and still manages to move the plot along. It also doesn’t give away everything that’s going to happen by explaining only the aspects that come into play later. This comes partially with the introduction of the female lead who is a practitioner of the voodoo religion. She teaches the main character, Lex, and, as a result, the reader the ins-and-outs of her religion. Lovegrove’s research skills goes beyond that as well as he also manages to input real world historical events into the narrative to explain certain aspects of his story.
The story’s main enemy is the antagonist’s zombie army, or zuvembies, as they are referred in the book. Lovegrove uses a monster that many people nowadays are likely familiar with along with their usual characteristics, like slow moving and seemingly mindless, and making them even more terrifying by having them nearly indestructible. So much so, that even the trained soldiers fighting them were panicking.
The plot itself is very good and very well-written. The action is fast-paced and descriptive enough that the reader can follow it. The humor manages to break up the serious parts enough that the reader can take a break from the fear and suspense. Finally, the story manages to have twists that take the plot in ways that the reader can’t expect. I highly recommend this story and give it ten Bondye bombs out of ten.
