absolom rex by K. L. Coones, ISBN 9781452380056
Coones has taken historical fiction and paranormal fiction, and combined them to put a twist on the story of Pontius Pilate’s life. Only lightly skimming the known history of biblical stories and myths, Coones plunges into the other reasons for Pontius’s actions. Taking the life of Pontius from his appointment as governor of Judea to the end of this life cycle for Pontius, Coones offers a very different picture of this historical figure.
It seems that although destiny drags Pontius through the epic drama that is the crucifixion of Jesus, there is another element that is not so clear in the Gospel accounts. Coones shows how fear can drive a man to take actions he knows will only bring misfortune.
Pontius is the main character, but his wife Claudia, Lady Agrippina as the main character, and Pontius’s captain of the guard, Actius, are integral to this story. Fully fleshed out as living, breathing people, the plot twists bring out a deeper side of these characters. While Pontius goes through life in fear, always afraid of making the wrong decision, he does well with Claudia and Actius acting as trusted advisors. The story does not go into detail about those parts already known through the biblical accounts; in fact, Coones glosses over much of that to get to the underlying and previously hidden situations.
As the governor of Judea, Pontius makes many decisions that result in life and death consequences. These decisions become the root cause for him to return to Rome and confront a near mad Caligula and answer impossible questions about some of Pontius’s poor decisions. Time and time again, Pontius chooses fear over rational thought and continues the decline in his fortune and the meaning and purpose of his life.
The paranormal element slowly reveals itself as Pontius progresses through his life. Finally, when he returns to Rome, his wife, who is mostly frail and ill during her time in Judea, finally succumbs to death. Pontius doesn’t realize it yet, though the astute reader has clues, as to what’s really going on. Through the intervention of his mentor, Titus, he is sentenced to exile above death. Now the real weirdness begins.
Coones stays consistent with his characters and plot; however, it ends up failing under the strain and the ending seems premature and simply truncates Pontius’ story. As Pontius reaches the end of this life cycle, he realizes the main difference between those who fear and are possibly evil and those who live.
“…The righteous leave this world and do not cling to it in fear…”
Most historical fiction and many paranormal readers will find this fascinating. It requires an adult mind for various situations, violence and language. Since the cliffhanger ending there will be a sequel and possibly even a third or more books in this series.
Published by the author as an ebook ($2.95 SRP/Amazon-Kindle $2.99) The reviewer received the author’s eBook via Smashwords. (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31787).
