Rating: 4.25 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Indigo Black, a Palet and defender of the innocent, has been told the war is over, but when his mentor, Dante, is savagely murdered, he realizes the Covenant with Hell is now broken. Determined to ensure that his friend did not die in vain, Indigo decides to find the nephilim Dante was tracking prior to his death. Indigo finds the boy, Neko, held captive by a powerful demon that would use his unique bloodline to unleash an army of Hell. Desperate, Indigo turns to his Guardian, Ariel, an angel he loved and left broken, for help. He knows that to do so will awaken the bond they share, a bond that Indigo has both struggled to reject and desperately craved.
Neko has always known he was different. Hallucinations plagued his childhood and he grew up the ward of a man who seemed more sinister than nurturing. Now he manages the psychosis with medications and works as a dancer in his ward’s sex club. When he is rescued by Indigo, he is plunged into a hellish reality, where his nightmares are real and enemies surround him on all sides. To the Church, he is an abomination to be destroyed. To Hell, he is a vessel with amazing potential. And to Indigo and Ariel, he is a man to be safeguarded at all costs.
With Heaven and Hell working against them, Indigo and Ariel must risk everything to protect the nephilim. As they struggle to keep him alive, Neko has to decide if he will walk in darkness or embrace the light.
To call The God Code: Nephilim Prophecy ambitious would be an understatement. The novel tackles Heaven, Hell, angels, demons, and the nature of free will. The end result is a well-written and occasionally chaotic narrative. Upon starting The God Code, I felt as though I was dropped into the middle of a novel already in progress. The author clearly expected me to hit the ground running, and though everything is eventually explained, it took some work to keep up with the plot while trying to untangle the complexities of this new world. Doing so was worth the effort though and the storyline moved quickly, never lagging as it built to a menacing finale. The characters are engaging and I found myself drawn to each of them for different reasons. The relationship between Ariel and Indigo is beautiful, and the tangled mess of guilt, desperation, and absolute love they share feels authentic. Indigo is an angry, driven man who feels betrayed by God and Wilder has done a good job fully realizing the inner conflict Indigo is forever battling. Ariel is the epitome of grace and his devotion to Indigo, in spite of all that he has endured, quickly made him my favorite character of the book.
Neko is a little more of a mystery, but this seems to be an intentional decision on the part of the author. He is a being that should not exist and that realization is something Neko struggles to comprehend. As he is given answers, so too are we as readers, and this shared unveiling gave me a unique connection to Neko. The secondary characters, including the demons, are satisfyingly dimensional and add a real layer to both the action and emotion of the novel. The one exception to this is Cornelius who serves as priest to the Church. Though his actions and motives are clear enough, I never really felt he really fit very well into the wider conflict. He seemed a superfluous addition rather than a necessary character.
Overall, The God Code: Nephilim Prophecy is an enjoyable book and while the plot is occasionally confusing, the characters are strong, the action intense, and the narrative carries an emotional punch. It does end on something of a cliffhanger, but thankfully there is a sequel in the works. I would definitely recommend this first installment.
