Supernatural War of the Sons book non-review
Supernatural Novel War of the Sons
By Rebecca Dessertine & David Reed
This takes place after Lucifer has been released from the Cage and the boys already know they are to be Lucifer’s and Michael’s vessels.
Spoiler Alert: This non-review was more difficult than most to separate the plot and go with vague reactions, so I just gave up and pretty much reveal the entire plot. So if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want to be spoiled, you might want to skip this non-review.
Prolouge-A kid’s dad (Don) shows up at his camp and is acting weird. The camp lake gets a sudden infestation of frogs.
Chapter 1-Dean & Sam investigate the camp as the sudden frog outcropping is a sign of the Apocalypse. Get a lead on the dad Don. This chapter is mostly set-up, explaining what has been happening with Lucifer’s jailbreak and Sam and Dean trying to avoid their end-game roles.
Chapter 2-Walking through town they hear a scream. The town swimming pool spontaneously started boiling. They track Don down in a bar and are surprised that he knows exactly who they are.
Chapter 3-Don is the angel Abaddon, gatekeeper of Satan’s Cage, a job he was sick of. But as the guard, he heard a lot of things and he learned another way to defeat Luficer without Dean and Sam having to go to the prize fight. Abaddon’s cavalier personality is a lot like Balthazar’s. Basically there is an ancient text that was part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but was lost in 1954. Said text has the secret to ending Satan once and for all. Before they know what is happening, Abaddon sends them back to 1954.
Chapter 4-It’s kinda cute seeing the boys get used to 1950s New York without computers, working cell phones, or current money. They do have Ruby’s knife on them. They find a cheap apartment to stay in and Sam sleeps in the bathtub because there isn’t a bed.
Chapter 5-6-The ancient text is going up for auction at the Waldrop Astoria so they go to get jobs at the hotel. Sam isn’t hired because his hair is too long for that day and age. Hee. Dean jokes about that until he finds out he has to wear one of those bell hop outfits with the little monkey cap. Double Hee. While carrying bags, Dean can’t help flirting with an attractive woman. Dean’s got a love interest! Who technically is 30 years older than him, but hey.
Meanwhile doing research, Sam meets a Hebrew scholar named Walter who knows quite a bit about the text.
Second meanwhile, a security guard at the hotel, accidently unseals one of the ancient jars accompanying the text and is possessed by black smoke. It is not an ordinary demon, more like a guard dog demon, as in he now has the attributes of a dog. He kills another of the guards.
Third meanwhile, Sam goes back to the apartment and notices a pretty woman walking down the hallway. Once inside, he realizes the place has been ransacked and Ruby’s knife and their useless phones are gone. But hey, he found the bed, one of those fold out from the wall units.
Chapter 7- Dean gets drunk with the guard James to get access to the text. Uh-oh, when Dean lifts one of the jar lids and see a Devil’s Trap inscribed, James-dog goes on the alert and charges Dean.
Chapter 8-Dean loses that fight and comes to with the hotel clerk standing over him and two cops approaching. He’s fired and taken to jail. Sam comes to get him out and finds Dean has been making friends and playing poker with the cops. Now they have some money.
Dean and Sam buy 1950s suits and Sam gets 4 inches cut off his hair. 4 inches? Seriously? He slicks it back so hopefully it’s still long enough. Ugh. Really don’t want writers messing with the boy’s hair. He pretends to be a representative for a made-up buyer so he can get into the private auction for the texts.
Dean goes to the Waldrop. He runs into James who doesn’t recognize him as the demon-dog lays low when it’s not in proximity with the text. Dean sees the pretty girl from earlier so goes to flirt with her. Her name is Julia. She flirts back, though more in a teasing hard-to-get way.
Chapter 9-Sam finds a goodfella and purchases some weapons. Kind of a fun scene. Julia follows the boys without them seeing her.
Chapter 10-Sam and Dean put two and two together that Julia is tailing them and was the one who stole Ruby’s knife. They buy salt to make salt rounds as they prepare to get the text.
Chapter 11-Plans are made to rob the auction. Dean goes into big brother mode because he doesn’t like that Sam has to go in alone. Dr. Sexy is mentioned. Grinning.
Chapter 12-Staking out the hotel before the heist, Dean spies Julia pick-pocketing another guy’s wallet. He confronts her, but the hotel clerk comes after him so he has to let her go.
Chapter 13-Sam goes to the auction & is surprised to find scholar Walter there as well. Guard dog demon James is on his way to the auction suite. Pretending to be a window washer, Dean harnesses up to repel off the roof.
Chapter 14-Aution is interrupted by gunshots-not Sam’s, someone beat him to it. Julia enters, intent on stealing the text. Walter is in on it with her. James comes, starts killing guards, jars are broken, Walter grabs some of the parchment. Chaos. More shots fired. James claws Walter. Heroically, Dean breaks through the window, firing salt rounds. Security comes in firing at Sam. Julia Jumps onto Dean and they fall out the window.
Chapter 15-Intent on the briefcase Julia holds with the text, doggieJames launches out the window, latching onto the rope. Dean screams for Julia to drop it. She reluctantly does and doggie goes after it, falling to his death. Dean gets the rope and harness under control. Unnoticed, one of the other guys at the auction, Eli, picks up the briefcase. During the chaos in the suite, Sam slips out and helps the wounded Walter to the roof to help Dean and Julia, Walter’s daughter. Walter and Julia ditch them. Dean misses the Impala.
Chapters 16-19-While checking out Walter’s ransacked office, Sam runs into Walter. The guy knows a lot more about Lucifer and Michael and demons than he’d let on. Sam convinces him to work together. They track Eli& the texts to a train station. Sam, Dean, Walter & Julia get on the same train. Unfortunately so do several demons.
Chapter 20-21-Sam starts drawing Devil Traps under the carpets by all the train-car doors. They find Eli. Demons find them. There’s a new player. Eisbeth, fallen angel, one of Lucifer’s wives, stuck in one of the jars for centuries to guard the text. She’s a little unbalanced from being trapped so long. She’s nasty, totally In love with Satan and is thrilled that her husband’s new vessel, Sam, is a stud-muffin. I approve. She’s the best villain any of these Supernatural books has offered so far. Crazy is always much more frightening. And she wants those texts.
Chapter 22-While Dean holds off the demons in their car, Sam is full-on running across the top of the train cars, dropping down and unhooking cars so the other passengers will be safe. Dude, he’s like James Bond. Sam shows back up, gives the signal, and they all jump across to the forward car before the other car detaches, leaving Eisbeth in the dust.
Chapters 23-24-A few more run-ins with Eisbeth. Julia now knows that Sam is Lucifer’s vessel. Dean and Julia do the bedside tango.
WARNING: Don’t read the next chapter summary if you don’t want the entire plot-line boiled down. Skip to Chapter 27.
Chapters 25-26-Turns out Julia and Walter are Hunters, within a network of several hundred Hunters. Walter starts translating the text. Turns out it doesn’t detail a way to kill Lucifer. It’s a list of all the angels and their vessels. Including the Winchesters. Abaddon tricked them into getting the text so that the demons could kill all the vessels bloodlines and the angels wouldn’t have any vessels.
Chapter 27-Apparently the network of Hunters of the 1950s are pretty ruthless, ready to do whatever it takes to do their jobs and stop the future Apocalypse. Julia argues with Dean about how he should kill Lucifer’s vessel for the greater good. Walter & Julia ditch them, taking the text.
Chapters 28-29-The boys stop another Hunter Julia sent to kill a little boy who will be the granddad of one of the vessels. Dean is really sad because he liked Julia. They track the Hunter to an old abandoned railroad warehouse where the network of Hunters are meeting, getting assignments to go kill innocent people with the bloodlines of future vessels. Of course, Eisbeth and a ton of demons crash the party.
Chapter 30-Eisbeth orders her demons to kill everyone, but Sam. Sam is stuck between her, and a bunch of Hunters who just leveled their guns at his back. Eisbeth goes off on a bad guy monologue, explaining how it was Abaddon who tricked her into going into the jar. She also says she’ll spare everyone if Sam goes with her. Walter’s the first one killed. Since he was ready to kill Sam, I’m not too broken up about that.
Chapter 31-Chaos as demons fight Hunters. Dean grabs the text off Walter and he, Sam and Julia make a run for it, finding a bunch of explosives in the basement. Of course they did. Leading a fuse line, they crawl through a sewage tunnel to get out, but in the rear, Sam gets pulled by a demon, breaking the fuse. Sam has to go back to the warehouse to light it. Eisbeth is there. She starts kissin and stuff on Sam, but he manages to light the fuse and blow up the demons and Hunters upstairs. But when he goes to stab Eisbeth with Ruby’s knife, she loses it and throws Sam into an old train, knocking him out, even though she didn’t want to hurt him.
Chapter 32-Outside, Dean is freaked by the explosion and no little brother showing up. He freaks out even more when Eisbeth appears, dragging an unconscious Sam across the ground. Thinking fast, Dean makes a proposition that will get crazy demon chick reunited with her devil hubby right now instead of waiting 30 years. Oh, Dean, you are so clever when you have to think fast on your feet.
Eisbeth voluntarily vacates her vessel. Back at a hotel, Dean says goodbye to Julia, though she wants him to stay. Sam finally wakes up, but is a little out of it. Dean burns what’s left of the text.
Chapter 33-Abaddon zaps them back to 2010. As soon as Sam sees him he is enraged. Abaddon realizes too late that it’s not Sam, but Eisbeth possessing him and the two angels start beating the crap out of each other while Dean yells things like “hey, careful with my brother.” Seeing that Sam is taking on angel-size punishment not meant for a human, Dean grabs a phone to call Castiel. Castiel shows, quickly does an incantation so other angels can find Abaddon. Within seconds, angels are stabbing Donny and Cas transports Sam and Dean away before the angels turn on Sam. Poor Sam, he’s already beat to hell. Castiel asks why there is a demon in Sam, but Dean tells Cas to let her go per their deal.
Epilogue-Dean visits the nursing home where Julia spent the last years of her life. Going through her things he finds the transcribed list of angels and their vessels, except by Lucifer and Michael, the names of their vessels have been cut off.
What I liked about this book is that the Winchester angel/demon saga is closely tied into the plot. In fact, I think it’s the first Supernatural book I’ve read where the boys being vessels is the main plot, instead of some other mystery they solve.
I liked it. It stayed true to the characters, had enough excitement, clue-gathering, brotherly angst and hurt to satisfy. Plus the way the conclusion played out was interesting and clever. I always love a good villain too, and Eisbeth was well rounded in her insanity to be pretty frightening.
I can definitely recommend War of the Sons.
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