Soul of the Forgotten is easily Angela Verdenius’ best work to date. The emotions are powerful and the action unrelenting as we barrel through the galaxy on Liane’s adventure and subsequent rebirth.

Left alone and abandoned in a distant prison sits Liane, the forgotten warrior…

Captured and sold as a slave at a tender age, Liane has not known happiness in longer than she can remember. Her kind, the Reeka, were long ago freed from their condemned past but Liane was all alone. When she is found years later, her sister warriors eagerly have her freedom granted, and her care given to the Daamen traders until she returns home. But Liane has not known anything but her prison for too many years.

From the moment her freedom is granted, one of the Daamens, Borga, has been unable to get her out of his mind. He is the only one she trusts but even that is very shakily given. Yet he is unwilling to give up on her and will do everything in his power to teach her to live again.

As Liane comes out of her isolation and adjusts to her freedom, she slowly changes from haunted soul to contented woman, until her past catches up with her. Someone wants her dead and will go to any lengths to reach the necessary conclusion. How will Liane ever be truly free and safe? And what of the tender feelings for Borga she is reluctantly discovering? And what is the meaning of that complex tattoo she wears emblazoned across her back?

What a story! Angela Verdenius has outdone herself once again. Adventure unfolds as we travel with the Daamens to the distant planet where Liane is imprisoned, spend weeks in the spaceship traveling home, and back to the planet where Liane’s young life was spent in relative peace until the events unfolded her leading to her years of imprisonment. The story is complex, with Angela’s usual flashes between the main storyline and the supporting ones. I love that you never really know what is happening in those scenes revealing the sub-plots until all is brought together in an explosive climactic scene. When secrets are uncovered and discoveries made, excitement is sure to build.

Readers will love the big brawny Daamens, especially Borga and his commander, Simon. (By the way, I know of at least one reader who is clamoring for Simon to get his own story!) Borga is so hard and gruff most of the time that when we see his tender side exposed to Liane, we can’t help but love this more compassionate Borga. When Borga feels Liane is threatened, he is like a growling bear protecting his family.

It is impossible not to be moved by Liane’s plight in Soul of the Forgotten. When she is suffering in her cell, I cried out in terror along with her. When Liane sees her first flower after many years, which is nothing more than a weed really, I felt her wonder at the beauty of it. I felt real anger with her when Liane thought she had been forgotten for so many years. I cried real tears as she experienced the rain showering her and when she finally understands she really IS free at last. Her reunion with her sister Reeka warriors, when she learns the whole story of what happened is very touching. Watching Liane blossom from terrified and beaten down girl to passionate lover and warrior is very powerful and readers would have to have a heart of stone in order to not be moved by the transformation.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, September 2006. All rights reserved.