Progenie

Scions of Darkness Book 1

Fiction - Fantasy - Urban
450 Pages
Reviewed on 02/15/2019
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Mack Little is world traveler. And what better way to find inspiration than visiting as many locations in her series as she can.
Born in Conyers, GA, Mack lived in Seville, Spain while a student. As a soldier, she was stationed in Wurzburg, Germany. Her studies and career have taken her all over the United States, and she has taken jaunts across the pond.
Mack is currently on the Board of Directors of the Houston Writer’s Guild. Progenie is her first novel, and she co-authored Disaster Planning: A How-to-Do-It Manual, published by Neal Schuman. She has also authored several articles for professional library journals.
Mack holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature as well as a Masters of Information Science.
She now resides in Houston, Texas with her husband and a playful papillon.

You can find more information about Mack Little at the links below:

    Book Review

Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite

Progenie is a powerful opening in the Scions of Darkness series by Mack Little, a compelling urban fantasy with an unforgettable protagonist. Zen knows nothing about what happened to her mother. From childhood, she’s been taught to defend herself. She is aware of her incredible powers and she uses them to heal, focusing on staying normal. But she suffers from visions inspired by an ancient book and they set her on the path to discover the truth of who she is. And this means getting into contact with her enemies: djinn, dhampyrs, and vampires. Now Zenobia Grant knows what attacks her family and loved ones. The only problem is that she does not know how to fight them. Is she going to stay low and suffer more loss from vicious enemies? She has to take the battle to them if she hopes to survive, but does she have enough fight for such vicious enemies?

This urban fantasy melds an ancient world with the present, creating a protagonist that is as mysterious as she is real. Mack Little leads readers into the psyche of an extraordinary character and the progression in character development is so steady and skillfully crafted that it leaves readers feeling as though they had grown up with the protagonist. The pacing is just right — neither too fast nor too slow — but what sustains the reader’s interest is the depth of character and the deft plotting. The prose is beautiful. It is punctuated with powerful streams of consciousness, exciting dialogues, and descriptions that give life to strong moments in the narrative. Progenie offers a lot of entertainment, especially to fans of urban fantasy and readers looking for supernatural narratives with intriguing twists.

Divine Zape

Progenie by Mack Little is a compelling first entry in the Scions of Darkness series, an urban fantasy with strong plot points and an elaborately developed protagonist. Zenobia Grant has always known that her life is in danger, and she’s known this from childhood. She has a special gift, one that sets her apart from humans, and while this gift allows her to heal others and to keep her fears at bay, it doesn’t help her know who or what she really is. She would have loved to know about her mother. As she grows up, her world is continually threatened by powerful enemies, including vampires and other forms of supernatural enemies. An ancient book inspires visions that help her identify who her enemies are, but she has no clue how to beat them and the danger they pose to her loved ones grows with each passing day. Follow her on a mission to unveil her potential and face enemies that are as strong as they are ruthless.

A work of great imagination, Mack Little’s Progenie features powerful characters — vampires and demons — and thrusts readers into a supernatural world that takes them to great and exciting places. There are elements of horror, fantasy, and the supernatural, all melded together to create an exciting reading experience. The internal conflict the protagonist experiences is strong and it is at the center of the well-developed streams of consciousness that punctuate the narrative. Apart from the internal conflict, the physical conflict is phenomenal and it pits the protagonist against the powers of darkness. The story is filled with action, riddled with insightful and thoughtful passages. Progenie is written in beautiful prose and I loved the focused scenes and how the author explores the psychological and emotional depth of the protagonist. A pulsating narrative with nonstop action; you never know what comes next and this sustains the driving suspense.

K.C. Finn

Progenie is a work of urban fantasy fiction penned by author Mack Little, and forms book one of the Scions of Darkness series. Written for adults due to its graphic content, this adventure follows Zenobia Grant, a woman of human appearance who holds many more secrets under the surface. Creatures from the most terrifying dark corners of the globe seek Zen out as she goes about her life, trying to help humanity and find out the truth about what happened to her family. Though she’s well versed in how to defend herself against them, defeating them all is a much bigger puzzle to figure out.

Author Mack Little writes with flair in this stylized action/adventure tale featuring a wealth of dark fantasy creatures. I enjoyed the action scenes particularly as they came to life right from the page, with Zen’s moves and her sharp thoughts narrated so as to never spoil the flow of the scene. I think Zenobia represents something different as a heroine with her combination of healing traits and quietly burning strength that she often dares not unleash around humans. The emotional connections to the tale were well crafted and told us a lot about Zen, helping us relate to her unusual problem and sense of displacement. Overall, Progenie sets up an exciting premise for a great future series with all the elements that fans of slick urban fantasy will crave: danger, darkness, epic fights, mean streets and a series of well drawn monsters that will haunt you long after the story ends.