The First Male
A Novel
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- €1.49
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- €1.49
Publisher Description
The author of The Bad Seed takes readers on a dark and sinister journey as a young man learns of his destiny—to destroy the world.
The first male born from the first Thibodeaux male has been prophesied to become the destroyer of worlds. Adelaide Thibodeaux, the Priestess Supreme of the Sister-Clan, has a sworn duty to protect the world—even against her own flesh and blood. Her powerful magic has kept the first male—her grandchild—hidden from everyone, including herself. A spell she cast at his birth binds his power, but as he nears his twenty-first birthday and The Ascension, her spell is on the verge of collapsing. If it breaks, nothing will prevent him from assuming his full powers. With the maturation of his strength, Adelaide fears he will usher in a new world order through fire and blood, as foretold centuries ago. In a deadly race against the forces of the Shadows, Adelaide must find and protect the first male from his own destiny.
Simon Cassel has always been different. At a very young age, he learned to hide his extraordinary abilities and to ignore the preternatural events that surrounded him. Now, as his twenty-first birthday approaches, he can no longer ignore the supernatural changes that have turned his world upside down. He knows that he is changing, becoming something else. Dreams of serpents and living shadows plague him; voices and whispers call out to him from the depths of darkness; an old woman haunts him, reaching out to him from another place. Craved by the Shadows and feared by the Light, Simon’s world will never be the same as he becomes The First Male.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Virtue does not prevent suffering, as Hayes (The Bad Seed) demonstrates in this fast-moving, if thematically stereotyped, struggle between good and evil. Simon Cassel, a short-order cook in a greasy diner, discovers, to his dismay, that he has the power to destroy humanity. In an "ageless battle between the light and the shadows," Simon's fate has been steered from his birth by Priestess Supreme Adelaide Thibodeaux, who conceals him from the lures of the Shadowman and allied sinister forces. However, her spell of protection will lapse when Simon turns 21 and his powers mature. Hayes injects further complications with the entrance of Simon's evil younger brother and aggrieved mother. As Simon's birthday nears, his by-the-numbers relationship with his aristocratic girlfriend, with whom he has shared horrific experiences, grows to include real emotional intimacy. This newfound vulnerability is used effectively as a contrast with his darker impulses, providing a conflict that leads to a surprising and eventful conclusion.