We are at war. The interdimensional invasion brought us unimaginable suffering, but it also awoke talents slumbering deep within us, a means to repel and destroy our enemy. Every day new gates open, leading to breaches filled with monsters and valuable resources. If you are a Talent, your country needs you. The world needs you. Be the hero you were born to be.

Adaline is a Talent. Ten years ago, she had a happy marriage and a job she loved. The invasion shattered both. Now she works for the government, searching the breaches for magic metals and medicine to help Earth repel an interdimensional enemy. Two kids, one cat, bills, benefits, mortgage and school tuition…Risking her life became routine.

She had gone into the dimensional gates hundreds of times. She was always well protected. This time everything goes wrong. Now Ada is trapped in the labyrinth of alien caves unlike any other. Her only companion is a scared German Shepherd named Bear. Together they must uncover the breach’s secrets and escape, because Ada promised her children that she will come home.

The future of humanity depends on it.

IN A NUTSHELL
Ilona Andrews has done it again! ‘The Inheritance‘ is a fun mix of Fantasy and Science Fiction that opens up a a whole univers of possiblities. It was a light, fast read with a lot of action, a relatable main character and a survival against the odds plot. I hope it becomes a series.

‘‘The Inheritance’ was a fast, tense, exciting read, packed with intriguing puzzles that hooked my curiosity and peppered with vivid action scenes. 

I loved that Adeline, the main character, is a single mom who took a job risking her life going into pandimensional ‘Gates’ that can let hordes of deadly creatures through to our world, not because she’s a hero, but because she wanted the security of good medical benefits and a top school for her kids. Even when she’s about to enter a Gate about which she has a bad feeling, her main priority is taking a call from her daughter’s school, who claim to be concerned about her daughter’s attitude to death. Adeline is a non-combatant, there to supervise a team of paramilitary contractors whose job is to raid the Gate for resources and then shut it down. She’s not the person you’d expect to end up fighting her way through caves and tunnels filled with monstrous predators with only a dog for company.

I’m in awe at Ilona Andrews’ ability to have a whole new universe in their imagination – with a history of major events, a new magic system, a set of rules around portals and details of multiple alien races, including their conflicts and cultures – and yet the focus remained on the struggle of one woman and her dog to survive. 

The combat scenes in the tunnels are vivid and exciting. But it’s Adeline’s personal journey from shocked, betrayed noncombatant to fiersome fighter, newly_gifted with skills and memories that are not her own and determined to cut her way through anything that stands in the way of her getting back to her kids, that powers the story. 

The ending caught me by surprise. It was deeply satisfying and brought the story to a conclusion that had me applauding Adeline, but it went beyong survival and sowed the seeds for a much bigger plot.

I’m hoping that Ilona Andrews continues with this series soon. I want to see what Adeline does next.