Ascension

The third and final entry of author James Todd Lewis’s Beyond Thuria trilogy opens with a diary entry by the character Akashar, who like Vanarra goes by different names such as Ashalam, and has the nicknames Ash and Shar, with several more first-person entries throughout the text. The rest of the introduction sees Van and her friends discussing time travel, although the literary element doesn’t seem to play much part in the storyline. The main chapters open with Selena being proposed to become a Grand Matriarch, with Van’s mother Shenaria continuing to work in a hospital giftshop, and noticing Loyal Elite Kallain to be acting strangely.

Meanwhile, Shar has therapy sessions with the hospital’s psychologist, Emmeniama de Kestrick, or Emma for short, and is dissuaded from having emotional attachments. Nonetheless, he forms a relationship with Van that continues throughout the remainder of the plot, and gives the illusion that he is suicidal by sitting on the edge of the rooftop of a tall building. The athlete Fireclaw returns in the third entry, as well, although she doesn’t play much of a role, though she does tell Van her former identity.

Shar and Van build themselves a cabin to live and marry, with occasional political scandals afoot stemming from a nightclub known as Scandal Paws, and several prominent politicians being investigated for impropriety. The township of Attoria plays a prominent role in the latter portion of the plotline, with iconoclasm towards the religious sect that has Van as its figurehead. Another character codenamed Shadow plays a role in the storyline, with ending events focusing on the infiltration of nuclear laboratories, the plot concluding with new lives for the characters.

Overall, this reviewer definitely enjoyed this concluding story of Thuria, although it inherits many of the flaws that its predecessors bear, such as the lack of analogies to Earth animals concerning the various races that populate the books, not to mention the varied nomenclature for several characters such as Van and Shar. Those who haven’t read any entries in the series, furthermore, would be best obliged to start from the very beginning of the franchise’s universe, and those who enjoyed prior books will most likely enjoy the concluding entry.