Last Light Falling (Book 1) : The Covenant by J. E. Plemons

“I guess the only freedom we have left is whether or not we blindly accept it.”

— J. E. Plemons, Last Light Falling (Book 1) : The Covenant

     Set in the future, 2053 to be precise, a disastrous event is about to unfold. America will never be normal again. People will meet Death and succumb to his demands. Nothing is promised and there’s only one person that change everything. Arena Power. This 15 year old girl finds out that the faith of humanity is within the palms of her little hands and is confronted with one ultimate decision: To follow her destiny as the Chosen One and save the world or steer away from a future filled with a burden to unleash God’s wrath on the Evil that walks among them. Surrounded by her twin brother, her uncle—also trainer of various arts—family and friends, Arena Power is put upon a path that is blurred with death, blood and destruction. Thankfully, she holds more skills and intellect than most of humanity to help her rid the world of the nightmare that embellishes it.

“You can keep telling yourself you are older just because came out first, but I was in the womb four minutes longer, which makes me seasoned.”

— J. E. Plemons, Last Light Falling (Book 1) : The Covenant

         Disappointment is all that rose from this novel. Novels that take up the challenge to put a Chosen One storyline are rarely admired because of the difficulty that comes with building an original and captivating story with those binoculars on. The first book in the Last Light Falling series sadly didn’t succeed on that front and suffered considerably from the moment the author made readers aware of the ride they were about to go on. J. E. Plemons also poorly built his world and that did not help in conveying the Chosen One plot. The beginning of the novel constructs a teenagers life and barely introduces readers to the overall setting that clears up the reader on the dystopia that the characters live in. However, when the author attempts to clear up the air, he dumps an enormous stack of information on readers. We’re then submerged by information, forcefully fed, and quickly destroy any attempt to build a rhythm for the story. The novel is also filled with a lot of action scenes; or was it only action scenes. But do not underestimate them. They are filled with chopped heads, bullets to the temple, limb cutting and so much more. All done by a 15 year old girl. Let’s not forget to mention her unusual interest to male private areas. It’s insane. It’s as if every opportunity she gets to kill a man, she makes sure to aim for the groin. Unfortunately, all the gore in this novel didn’t serve any purpose in my reading experience, since all they did was making me want to get over the book as soon as possible. In fact, the novel focuses a lot on the bloodbath and little on the delivery of a fine-tuned story.

     There’s actually more downsides to this novel than one could imagine. This part pertains to the use of religion in the storyline. J.E. Plemons grossly use religion as the very engine that runs the Chosen One idea. The thing I despised about this isn’t because there’s a strong religious background to this story, but how it was used to propel the story forward. In this novel, God has made Arena Power and her twin brother the Chosen Ones that will kill every individual that harvests Evil. Through a priest that delivers the message to the twins, these two blindly take upon the role and go out on a killing spree that totally uncalled for. Every single action scene increases their death count exponentially and every action they take is poorly justified by a proclamation that they have been sent by God to rid the evil from Earth. Now, if you take a moment to look things through the eyes of others, you’ll most likely think that our dear protagonist is a deranged psychopath who prefers to kill people rather than solve problems humanly.

       The novel is narrated in the first person. Therefore, readers get to have Arena Powers thoughts throughout the whole novel. Wonderful! Or is it? J.E. Plemons has a rich vocabulary and it’s definitely one of the upsides to this novel. There’s no doubt that his writing clearly tells the story without any discrepancies. However, it’s when you remind yourself that you’ve got a 15 year old girl as a protagonist that you start to question yourself if the writing isn’t instead harming the character building. In fact, thoughts are conveyed with a strong poetic power and sometimes makes some descriptions quite awkward to conceive. It’s hard to imagine that the main character is thinking these things with such fluidity and precision (just like her ass-kicking). The writing, instead, made me see a more pretentious and over-zealous character who thinks a little too high and might of herself. What didn’t help any more than it should have are all the other characters who are with Arena Power. The moment she’s proclaimed the Chosen One, every other character felt benign and diminished in presence. They seemed irrelevant and their reactions felt unusual. For example, when Arena Power gets to her first kill ever (which was violent in nature), the reaction from the others felt absolutely absent and uninfluenced. In general, there was no real connection between characters and none between me and the them. I felt disconnected from the whole story and there was no attempt to hook me up with intrigue or anything. Felt like the book was a lot more concerned in dropping bodies than keeping the reader attached to the adventure.

“No human being is immune to sin, He will forgive us if we ask.”

— J. E. Plemons, Last Light Falling (Book 1) : The Covenant

      J.E. Plemons debut novel is nonetheless a bloody action-packed apocalyptic fiesta. If a large number of action scenes featuring a 15 year old girl who can dual-wield blades and guns, shoot arrows better than the best archer in the world and manipulate guns and bullets like none other, are your thing, then you’ve met your match. The story is sadly superficial and revolves entirely on the elimination of a leader that plans on ruling the world in his own crazy way. Oh, and to get to him, our Angels of Death go out of their way to kill any antagonists. Whether they’re innocent or not. The Last Light Falling also mentions a lot of horrible acts, such as rape, to affect us emotionally and to advance the plot by using such events to motivate characters. I was quite disappointed by how it felt downplayed and dull. Then again, the novel as a whole failed to distinguish itself and couldn’t raise itself back up with its finale. Hopefully it’s sequel has better plans for Arena Powers and her trusty sidekicks.

Did you read Last Light Falling (Book 1) : The Covenant? What did you think about it?

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MY OVERALL RATING: ★★☆☆☆/

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