Thirst No. 5 : The Sacred Veil By: Christopher Pike (Book Review)

(There will be spoilers)

Summary:

In her five thousand years as a vampire, Alisa or Sita, as she was originally called has experienced the equivalent of fifty lifetimes. Every moment of her immortal life is seared deep into her being. Every person she has loved, every victim she has killed their faces re forever a part of her. Yet, strangely, a handful of memories have been lost to Alisa. As she and her friends embark on a search for the location of a sacred artifact; an ancient veil that may hold the key to mankind's salvation, Alisa soon realizes that her own mind may be her greatest enemy. The memories she is blocking deal with the most horrifying period in mankind's history, a time when she was tortured by a madman responsible for the death of millions. But what information did her torture yield?

For a long time I was afraid that this was going to be the final book in the series and if it wasn't for the fact that Pike confirmed there will be two more books I would've given this review a very low rating. A lot of things came full circle, we got to experience another part of Sita's long history and the ending almost made me burn this book. I couldn't put the book down because more and exciting new things kept popping up and Pike has this incredible talent of engaging his readers. Just when you think you know what's going to happen next, something else pops up and turns everything upside down. 

In the previous book, the notion of the devil's existence was brought up and that Sita ending up interacting with him several times. He influenced many around the world and helped create the array, the cradle and the online video game. In this book, we see the extent of his influence in one of mankind's most terrorizing and horrendous massacre; the Holocaust. Throughout the entire book, we get flashbacks of Sita during WW2. Sita was a spy gathering information for the Allies to overthrow Hitler and Germany. Sita ended up saving a couple Harrah and Ralph Levine and in their possession was the Veil of Veronica. An artifact that is said to have wiped Christ's face. This artifact will help and guide Sita several times to overcome the traps that the devil has set for her. 

The last memory block that Sita had was several centuries back when she faced Lord Landulf and Dante. During that time, Sita was not only up against some wacky folks who wanted her blood but there was also a demonic entity involved that Sita never saw but she felt its energy. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that it was the devil himself who was there all those centuries ago. And there was also the spear of Longinus, another Christian artifact that pierced Christ's side when he was crucified. Ironically, this artifact was something that Hitler himself wanted to covet. Legends say that whoever possesses the spear of Longinus or the 'spear of destiny' will be able to bend destiny to their will but if the spear ever leaves their possession then they will die suddenly. I don't know if this could be foreshadowing Sita's ending but she did technically die at one point and repossessed her body. 

Sita has two more memory blocks. Her time in Auschwitz being a prisoner to demonically possessed Nazis and when she met Krishna for the first time. With the help of Seymour, Sita remembered the torture she had to withstand when she was a prisoner to Nazis. They captured her to find out what happened all those thousands of years ago when she was at the battle of Kurukshetra. They were essentially after a vimana which is advanced technology that allows the person to travel through time and to different dimensions. Her first memory block was of her in a vimana and coming across celestial beings. She chose to forget her time in the vimana because she knew if she didn't she would always try to go back where she was. That reminded me of when someone 'dies' for a few minutes and come back to life they say they saw heaven and ever since that experience they want to go back home. 

Sita comes across Mr. Grey who is someone that is pivotal to the progression of the story. He helps the scooby gang with their warrants with his computer skills and I personally thought he was an angel sent from heaven to help even the playing field but alas he wasn't. Instead he was a descendent of Mr. Grey who came back in time to possess his body and to help Sita forever change the future. His future is extremely analytical and faith is no no longer common nor practiced. He had to make sure she got into her vimana for if the demons got a hold of it they can forever change the world and burn it to the ground. 

I tip my hat to Pike to add so many different elements into this story. This series has surpassed it being just a vampire series and it containing the notion of time travel, 'aliens', advanced civilization, heaven and hell, God and the devil and incorporating different artifacts is a lot of balls to juggle but Pike does it really well! However, there always seems to be a hiccup when it comes to Sita and time travel! The first time she did it, she went back in time and killed Yaksha from ever being born thus Sita never becoming a vampire but this ended up being Seymour's ending to her story. Her second time around regarding time travel made me start screaming with rage and yelling "NO! NO! NO! HELL NO!!!". I don't know where she decides with her infinite wisdom to go back in time where Yaksha sees her again before making her a vampire. Matt possessing his father's body gives Sita the opportunity to stake him and to forever change the course of mankind's history and future. With everything that she has learned from time travel, isn't it safe to say that she has moved past making a dumb move like this? Why even bother ending the book with the uncertainty if she will stake Yaksha and be the sole individual to turn the world into shit.

Rating:

I am going to give Thirst No. 5 4.5 stars on 5. I was ready to curse Pike's name for the rest of my life till I saw a post he wrote last year stating more books will come out. Even with that being said, as soon as time travel is introduced into the plot everything goes to shit. I'm on edge to find out what happens next. Which I'm sure it is something he intended in doing but still!!! Don't put me on edge if I'll have to wait a decade for the next book to come out. Which by the rate it's going, I'll most likely be in my mid-thirties when the next book will be released. However! The story was engaging, I couldn't stop reading and evidently I want to read more. We got a lot of insight in Sita's past and the possibility of what her future holds.