In the first Blade movie, the title character says, "The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping! There is another world beneath it: the real world," and I think it's quite relevant to N.P. Martinez's engrossing book, Axiom.
Detectives Katarina Matthews and Edward Daniels investigate a case wherein the victim was shot point-blank with no witnesses to the murder. There is nothing unusual there, but as the detectives add more and more victims to the case, a pattern emerges. Moreover, more questions arise than are answered. For instance, why are there often witnesses to the perp leaving the scene but no sightings of the perp either arriving or committing the crime? Why is video footage of the act always distorted? And most of all, what relevance do God and His angels have to the killings?
Stories that co-star angels, devils, demons, God, and the like are some of my favorites to read, so I was super excited to visit this world when there was no danger to my own life. I was pleasantly surprised that the supernatural entities were even more prevalent and relevant to the story than I'd thought they would be. And at times, some of the things they said moved me to tears, compelling me to pause or pray for a few minutes. The suspense, on the other hand, was exciting enough to cause me to clutch my chest in fear a few times, and the action was a good twin to the suspense. With that being said, I must advise interested parties that while the book doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, it also doesn't tie up the story, thereby leaving a lot of unanswered questions.
Insofar as the human protagonists, I saw much of myself in Matthews, so it was easy to commiserate and empathize with her, especially her overwhelming curiosity about things and desire to know more than she should. Daniels was a fine partner for her, and I liked the balance they brought to each other. Sadly, I also felt the detectives were dumbed down a bit too much, causing me to shake my head and wonder how such seasoned law people could be so dim about some things. I thought they were written that way in order to lengthen the story, but I'm sure there are other creative ways of doing so without lessening the main characters' common sense. In addition to the main duo, there was a large cast of secondary characters, all of who brought something to the table, and I never found myself overwhelmed with all the players in the tale. I was especially impressed with Matthews' new friend and one of his brothers, but I'm not at liberty to state their names here, lest I give too much away.
As wonderful as Axiom was overall, it also had a major flaw in its editing, or lack thereof. The story included many typos, errors in punctuation, and issues with verb tenses. I also noted a few missing or extra words, and while it wasn't incorrect, per se, it bothered me that God's pronouns were not capitalized. Additionally, there were a few sentences that gave me pause, as they seemed to include inconsistencies or illogical actions.
Due to the aforementioned typographical issues, I am rating Axiom 4 out of 5 stars. Despite the noted issues, I highly recommend this engaging tale to fans of supernatural stories, spirit-curious readers, and bibliophiles who enjoy multilayered mysteries. Both believers and nonbelievers in search of answers may also find some food for thought therein. I also must warn potential readers that the book contains a fair amount of profanity. As noted earlier, there are a lot of loose ends at the closing as well. I'm hopeful that the author has a sequel planned, but I could find nothing to that effect online.
- N.P. Martinez, AxiomThere are dimensions that are not meant to be seen by your eyes...
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Axiom
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