Review of Vessel by Tominda Adkins

Book: Vessel (Book I: The Advent)
Author: Tominda Adkins
Pages: 299
To be Published: February 11, 2011
The first line: “My name is Jordan Murphy, and I’m the fastest one-armed bartender in the world.”

I had the pleasure of winning an ARC of Tominda Adkins’ Vessel (Book I: The Advent) from Goodreads a few weeks back. While not normally something I would read or buy for myself, I was delightfully surprised with how much I enjoyed this tale of hollows, gods, and the forces of nature, life, and death!

I attribute my enjoyment to Adkins’ fast paced writing, sharp knack for humor, sarcasm, and wit, and her intriguing characters, namely Jesse Cannon, the Russian-born singer turned diva extrodinare.

In a nutshell, Vessel is about five men who discover that they are “living gods” born to live out an ancient prophecy and smite the anomaly of death itself. Narrated from Jesse’s personal assistant, Jordan, readers are taken on for an unbelieveable ride, featuring pimped-out tour buses, undead stalkers, and a secret society of hunters of the dead. Each man embodies an element that can destroy death: earth, air, fire, water, and light.

The other characters include Ghi, a sweet amnesiac who may or may not be a terrorist, Jackson, a smart-mouthed, firefighting mama’s boy, Corin, a rich British philanthropist addited to his smartphone, and Khan, a 6’7” legally blind convict with a penchant for arson, nicotine, and prostitutes. Along the way, the “vessels” must survive not only one another, but flesh-eating monsters out for their blood, water gun assasins, prehistoric priestesses, undead groupies, powerful hangovers, cut-off jeans, and one very fed up celebrity assistant (from Goodreads).

You can pre-order the kindle version of Vessel (Book I: The Advent) from Amazon.