The Review List: Tour Stop (Guest Post): The Revenant

The Revenant by Elise Abram

Published: July 10th 2014

Genre: Paranormal, YA

Synopsis:

He wears neither cape nor cowl, but Zulu is a superhero, nevertheless.

Raised from the dead as a revenant more than a hundred years ago, Zulu possesses Spiderman’s stealth, Superman’s speed, and Batman’s keen intellect. His only companion is Morgan the Seer, an old man cursed with longevity and the ability to see the future in his dreams. Zulu has spent the last century training with Morgan in order to save the people in his nightmares from certain and violent death. Branded a vigilante by the Media, Zulu must live his life in the shadows, travelling by night or in the city’s underground unless his quest demands otherwise.

Kat is an empath, someone who sees emotions as colourful auras. Relentlessly bullied by her peers, and believing her life amounts to nothing but a huge cosmic mistake, she finds purpose in her abilities when she is recruited to help Zulu and Morgan complete their missions.

Malchus is Morgan’s long dead twin brother. A powerful necromancer, Malchus manages to find a way to return to the living, and he has a score to settle with Morgan. Believing Morgan responsible for his death and out to seek revenge, Malchus begins to raise an army of undead minions and use them to hunt Morgan down. As Malchus closes in on Morgan and his charges, the trio soon realizes the people most in need of saving are themselves.

Empaths, Necromancers and Seers I have "known" - Elise Abram

In The Revenant, the main characters include Zulu, a revenant; Kat, an empath who sees auras; Morgan, a seer of the future; and Malchus, a necromancer able to raise the dead. When I was first asked to write about seers, empaths and necromancers that inspired me to write my novel, I panicked. I had no clue what to write about. Then I started thinking, did a bit of research to jog my memory, and what I would write became crystal clear. Without further ado, here it is, my Top Ten List of Inspiring Seers, Empaths and Necromancers:

10. The Computers at the Canadian National Exhibition
My family used to go to the Canadian National Exhibition ("The Ex") every year as a child. My favourite building was the "Better Living" building, because it showcased all of the new products and appliances on the market. Beside the huge computer that would provide a lengthy printout analysis of your handwriting was a camera that took pictures of your aura. I had no clue what that meant at the time, but I remember marveling at the sample photos of people, their silhouettes illuminated with pretty colours, wanting to have my picture taken as well.

9. The Amazing Kreskin
When I was a kid, Kreskin was on every Sunday near the supper hour. He'd do mind-boggling magic tricks, and pull random people from the audience and claim to read their minds. Whenever he'd finish one of his stupefying manoeuvres, he'd exclaim, "Isn't that wild?"

8. Nostradamus
After 911, the media popularized the following Nostradamus quatrain as a prediction of the attack "Earthshaking fire from the center of the Earth will cause tremors around the New City. Two great rocks will war for a long time, then Arethusa will redden a new river." Whether or not Michel de Nostredam actually meant the falling of the Twin Towers or something else is irrelevant. The fun is in deciphering the myriad hypotheses the media posits about this and his other prophecies. I love that the CW's "Reign" uses a characterization of Nostradamus to help drive Queen Catherine and her nefarious deeds.

7. Commander Deanna Troi
Half-human, half Betazoid, Deanna Troi was the ship's counselor on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". I like the idea of assigning an empath the job of psychologist as in that role, patients would not be able to hide their true feelings.

6. Anita Blake
Blake is the main character in Laurell K. Hamilton's Vampire Hunter series (think Buffy, all grown up). In addition to hunting vampires and other supernatural creatures, she is able to raise the dead, which she does in order to question them to help her find supernatural bad guys. She is strong, both physically and emotionally and has romantic ties to both vampires and werewolves. My favourite in the series is Obsidian Butterfly, primarily because I love the interaction between Anita and fellow hunter, Edward.

5. The Resurrection Gauntlet
A Torchwood possession, the Resurrection Gauntlet is a metal glove that allows the wearer to revive the dead for a few minutes, depending on the empathic abilities of the user. This comes in handy for Torchwood agents when they have to question a recently deceased person about the circumstance of
his/her death. They eventually use it on fellow agent Owen after his death and are able to revive him permanently, as a walking, talking corpse.

4. Ned The Pie Maker
In "Pushing Daisies", young Ned learns he can bring dead things back to life, but there's a consequence to pay--something else must die to balance the universe. His ability works well for him in his pie business, touching spoiled fruit to bring them back to life in exchange for the lives of flowers and flies. For Ned, the first touch brings life. He must re-kill the person by touching him again within a minute, or someone else nearby dies. When his girlfriend dies and he brings her back to life, he must deal with the consequences of the death of the funeral director and keeping her reanimation under wraps.

3. Johnny Smith
One of my favourite Stephen King books, movies and television series, The Dead Zone tells the story of Johnny Smith's life after he wakes from a six year coma with the ability to see the future. When he awakes, he must deal with missing his mother's death and funeral and that his girlfriend is married to another man and is raising Johnny's child with him. He has a series of visions and intervenes in the lives of the people he sees in them, until he meets presidential hopeful Greg Stillson, shakes his hand and sees his future. He realizes there's only one way to stop Stillson from launching a full-out nuclear attack, and that's to assassinate him. The best iteration of The Dead Zone is by far the television series starring Anthony Michael Hall as Smith.

2. Will Graham
The Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris is on my To Read list. In the mean time, there's "Hannibal" the television series. Will Graham uses his unique pseudo empathic abilities to recreate brutal murders. He uses clues at the crime scene to get into the heads of the murderers and hopefully lead the FBI to them. The trouble is, Graham feels what the murderer feels, often re-imagining the horrific acts as if he, himself were the killer. This makes him vulnerable to Hannibal's framing him for a series of murders at the end of season one. Because the lines between experience, imagination and suggestion begin to blur, Graham finds it difficult to defend himself to his former colleagues.

1. The village of Roarton, Lancashire
Season one of "In the Flesh" was all about the inexplicable rising of the dead. Season two was about the prophecy that governed the First Rising and the foretold Second Rising and how the people of Roarton could ensure the Second Rising would happen. The key to the Second Rising is the sacrifice of the first to rise. The Undead Liberation Army is certain main character Kieren Walker was the first to rise and they convince disciple Simon to kill him so they can establish a new world order with Partially Deceased Syndrome sufferers in the lead. MP Maxine suspects Kieren's friend, Amy Dyer, was actually the first to rise. Hoping her brother will be resurrected, Maxine kills Amy. Before she is killed, Amy experiences the slow return of her vital signs. No sooner does her heart begin to beat again then Maxine stabs her in it. I believe this is what is meant by the Second Rising. The First Rising was the actual return from the grave; the Second Rising is the liberation from a zombified state to a rebirth of the senses and a return to actual life.