Mortal Coils-Eric Nylund

Mortal Coils
Eric Nylund
Tor, Feb 2009, $14.95
ISBN 9780765317971

In Del Sombra, California, Audrey abetted by her mother is a martinet dominating her increasingly angry teen twin grandchildren Eliot and Fiona Post. The two matriarchs rule with iron fists inside velvet gloves. In fact Audrey hides the real reason why she has them living a boring life under her thumb with home schooling, working at a pizza parlor, and increasing the rules now at 106 she expects them to obey. Audrey fears for their safety and much more; the pair are the offspring of the eldest Immortal Fate Atropos and the Infernal Lucifer. Their existence threatens the treaty between the two groups.

However, on their fifteenth birthday, the siblings learn the truth of what they are and who their parents are. The Immortals and the Infernals also learn of their existence and each side wants the hybrid loyal to their group. The gods devise three tests of heroism that sends the pair into the most dangerous realms of mythology while the Infernals counter with three trials of temptations to separate the twins from each other. To survive the tribulations and treachery fostered on them from both sides, Eliot and Fiona must remain united covering each other’s back.

The story line purposely opens with a boring suburban lifestyle that even when the impossible occurs the twins write it off as just a bit of weirdness, refusing to accept their DNA is not purebred Homo sapiens. As the trials begin, the action picks up dramatically with the teens getting increasingly aware that this no longer normal California. Loosely mindful of Paul Park's "Princess of Roumania" saga, fans will enjoy the trials and tribulations of two formerly red blooded American teens caught in immortal coils.

Harriet Klausner