My Soul to Take

Tannanarive Due has created an incredibly detailed alternate reality with her 'Immortals' series, starting with 'My Soul to Keep', where we meet Dawit 'David' Wolde, an 'Immortal' who is living with a mortal wife Jessica and their daughter Kira in Florida. Dawit and Jessica's world is turned upside down when a Searcher, Mahmoud, arrives with others to bring him back to his home with other Immortals. Due's second book in the series, 'The Living Blood', a 2002 American Book award winner, is an absolute pleasure to read...and read again. I will not rehash details given in plenty of other reviews. What I will say is that 'My Soul To Take' brings the story to a point where this could be the last book of the series or the start of a new storyline. Due even incorporates characters from another book she authored, 'Joplin's Ghost' into this latest book's storyline. At this point in the series, the author has an incredible feel for articulating the abilities of the characters, such as Michel's 'thoughtstreams' or a superhuman sword duel between two immortals. What also sets this book apart is its pacing- you will find yourself glued to the page because she sets up confrontations in a manner that is cinematic. You feel like you are watching this on a screen while you are reading it. 'My Soul To Take' provides an interesting take on Homeland Security in this book as well. I expect this to be another home run for Due, and at this point, while I would like to see her delve more into the series, perhaps with a prequel that features the story of Khaldun, I would like to see this book's success result in a movie (Blair Underwood has been working on a film based on 'My Soul To Keep' for years). Five stars, buy it today; in fact, buy and/or read the whole series.

If My Soul to Keep, published in 1997, is a story about realizing you have fallen in love, married, and birthed a child of a monster, then My Soul to Take - (the 4th installment in Tananarive Due's fantastic African-Immortals series) is a story about willingly falling in love with a monster. The series, which began as a tale of Jessica Jacobs-Wolde finding out that her husband David (Dawit) is an African-Immortal with "Living Blood"; has now come full circle as their "bloodborn" daughter, Fana, must fight her idealistic vision to use the healing blood of she and her life-brethren to cure the world's worst maladies, while her betrothed, Michel (introduced in Blood Colony) besets the world with the plague - part of the prophesied "cleansing" where the majority of the world's population will be sacrificed. My Soul to Keep was primarily David (Dawits story), The Living Blood (my favorite in the series) was Jessica's tale, and Blood Colony and My Soul to Take are primarily Fana's to own. Fana is a complex protagonist mostly due to the fact that she fights to keep her humanity even as her immortal instincts and abilities draw her away from those she loves. That said, I really enjoyed this book. It's been a tricky journey for Mrs. Due as her universe which began as a tale of a small family has now expanded to characters in the low 50's. The scale has so vastly increased, it's a breathtaking achievement. I could not have imagined, when I began this series that it would take me to so many far flung places, challenge my notions about healing vs. hurting, and still keep me wanting more with each and every installment. I strongly recommend this book, but I do think to get the most out of it you should start from the beginning and work your way forward into the amazing world and mind of Tananarive Due. Then go buy everything else she's written!

3.5 out of 5 stars My Soul to Take by Tananarive Due is the fourth, and perhaps, final installment of her African Immortals series. I have truly enjoyed this series, and as I anticipated the release of My Soul to Take I read several of her other novels. The African Immortals Series, is a mixture of Sci-Fi and the paranormal, mixed with religious undertones that mix biblical stories with immortal beings in a good vs. evil battle. The series main character is Fana, whom we were first introduced to as an infant in My Soul to Keep (the first installment). Prophecy would have it (as was revealed in Blood Colony) that she would wed Michel, heir to Sanctus Cruor. Fana represents good, in that she wants to use her blood, which has tremendous healing power, to heal the world. Michel, who represents evil, wants to cleanse the world and use mortals as a sacrificial gift. According to the written word, the two are to "become one" for the prophecy to be fulfilled. When I began My Soul to Take, the first thing that caught my eye was the year 2016. My first thought was okay, ten years have passed, but as I continued to read, this became a point of contention for me, which I will explain in a bit. The story opens up with Carlos Harris who is in Puerto Rico searching for his missing mother. I didn't remember a character named Carlos from the previous books, but that was okay. To my surprise, Ms. Due decided to introduce characters from another novel of hers titled Joplin's Ghost. A book I simply loved and highly recommend. Carlos Harris is the husband of a musical protégé by the name of Phoenix. In Joplin's Ghost, Phoenix had a supernatural encounter with the ghost of renowned Ragtime entertainer Scott Joplin. I was so excited and couldn't wait to see how Due was going to incorporate these two in the living blood storyline. I am not sure if I over-anticipated this novel, if it was the period of time between the last installment (Blood Colony, 2008), or that 2016 date that kept gnawing at me, but I was continuously distracted as I read the book. The year, the year, the year...okay, the reason the year holds so much significance for me is because it was engrained in my mind that in Blood Colony, Fana, whom I believe was seventeen at the time, asked Michel to give her ten years and then she would marry him. Blood Colony began with a year also, 2005. That's at least ten years right? Well this is where I became confused. There is a part in My Soul to Take where Fana, who is now about eighteen, speaks about a year having passed and it is time to honor her commitment to Michel. Pump the brakes! Was the engagement one year or ten years, and if only one year, how did we get to the year 2016; and if ten years, what happened in the previous nine years, and why isn't Fana twenty-seven? This takes me back to the beginning, because the story began around 1997, which would make Fana about eighteen in the year 2016, but only seven or eight during the Blood Colony era (scratching my head). Now throw Phoenix and Carlos into the mix, and I'm thinking, what was the timeframe for that story, "Oh boy!" My Soul to Take, by no means is a dud, but it didn't measure up to my expectations either. Phoenix and Carlos never felt right in the story, and didn't seem to add much to the main plot. There was a lot of focus on the cat and mouse games of Michel and Fana, and although I didn't want them to marry, I enjoyed how Due was able to soften my disdain for him. The story included many of my favorites, like Dawit and Jessica--Fana's parents; the blood brothers, Fasilidas, Teka, Mahmoud, and others, as well as Fana's friend's Johnny and Caitlin. Perhaps I secretly wanted the story to pick-up where it left off, and for Johnny to rush in and save the day. As I turned the last page there were still some unresolved matters and I wasn't quite sure what really became of Fana and Michel at the end. Is Ms. Due setting the stage for another installment, or is this really the end? But isn't that what great storytelling is all about? The story may not go in the direction we want it to go, but when we turn the last page there is still a yearning for more. I truly wish that someone like George Lucas would pick-up this series and transform it into an epic trilogy. My Soul to Take will make for some awesome book club discussions, of which I would love to participate in one. Maybe Ms. Due can put together a live on-line discussion similar to the Facebook live chats Oprah Winfrey conducted for her Lifeclass show. This would give all of Due's faithful readers a chance to have an open dialog about the series, and this installment in particular. I think it would be a huge success. My final rating for My Soul to Take is 3.5, mainly because I had to pull out my copy of Blood Colony to connect the dots. Aha! The introduction began in 2005, but chapter one was set in the year 2015. Whew! I feel so much better. Still, I need to better understand what happened to make Fana concede on her demand for a ten year engagement...was it because Michel was playing dirty and casting down plagues, or was it his threats to begin the cleansing? Maybe in a few months I will go back and reread My Soul to Take. If so, I will definitely reconsider my rating. Much Love, Tracy

I love love this book series, I listened to the 1st 3 on Audible since I drive a LOT for work, but the narrator for the 4th was so bad, I got the paperback to finish. It did get a little to ridiculous the stories were always deep and intriguing and like many sequels got a bit ridiculous the longer they went on...

'My Soul To Take' is an incredible read..Tananarive does it again! An absolute errie, suspenseful page turner as you thrist to know what is going to happen next. I found myself reading so fast, before I knew it I had finished and was left wanting more. I adore this series and I feel so attached and invested in the characters (Fana, Jessica, Dawit, Grandma Bea, Caitlin, Johnny, and Teka.) BUCKLE UP! because the indescribable journey this book takes you on is simply GENIUS. To all the faithful "blood colony" fans..u will be very satisfied, just dont make any presupmtions as to how it will all end :)

After being such a fan of the first book of this series, I was a little disappointed in this last book. I was left with the feeling of being unsatisfied. I thought that with the gifts that Fana was given, she was so much more than left with finding her ultimate mate. The two of them should have had more interaction to be believable. I still enjoyed the book. I just wanted more.

I truly loved the entire African Immortals series! Ms. Due created complex characters that span a lifetime in their present while interweaving many other lifetimes over hundreds of years. Ms. Due uses her intricate characters along with her incredible talent for fantastic yet believable scenes to capture her readers and keep us glued! Issues of race, gender, religion, good and evil, spirituality, war and colonization are all woven through with great craftsmanship. I cannot say enough about this author and this series!! Check it out!!!

It's been some time since I binge read a series. Couldn't stop!! I highly recommend these books. Thank you Ms Due!