Endgame: The Calling

By James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton

The New York Times bestseller and international multimedia phenomenon!

In each generation, for thousands of years, twelve Players have been ready. But they never thought Endgame would happen. Until now.

Omaha, Nebraska. Sarah Alopay stands at her graduation ceremony—class valedictorian, star athlete, a full life on the horizon. But when a meteor strikes the school, she survives. Because she is the Cahokian Player. Endgame has begun.

Juliaca, Peru. At the same moment, thousands of miles away, another meteor strikes. But Jago Tlaloc is safe. He has a secret, and his secret makes him brave. Strong. Certain. He is the Olmec Player. He's ready. Ready for Endgame.

Across the globe, twelve meteors slam into Earth. Cities burn. But Sarah and Jago and the ten others Players know the truth. The meteors carry a message. The Players have been summoned to The Calling. And now they must fight one another in order to survive. All but one will fail. But that one will save the world. This is Endgame.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9780062332608

James Frey

James Frey is originally from Cleveland. All four of his books, A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning, and The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, were international bestsellers.

Book preview

MARCUS LOXIAS MEGALOS

Haf i dotless z Alipa s with cedilla a Sk, Aziz Mahmut Hüdayi Mh, Istanbul, Turkey

Marcus Loxias Megalos is bored. He cannot remember a time before the boredom. School is boring. Girls are boring. Football is boring. Especially when his team, his favorite team, Fenerbahçe, is losing, as they are now, to Manisaspor.

Marcus sneers at the TV in his small, undecorated room. He is slouched in a plush black leather chair that sticks to his skin whenever he sits up. It is night, but Marcus keeps the lights in his room off. The window is open. Heat passes through it like an oppressive ghost as the sounds of the Bosporus—the long, low calls of ships, the bells of buoys—groan and tinkle over Istanbul.

Marcus wears baggy black gym shorts and is shirtless. His 24 ribs show through his tanned skin. His arms are sinewy and hard. His breathing is easy. His stomach is taut and his hair is close-cropped and black and his eyes are green. A bead of sweat rolls down the tip of his nose. All of Istanbul simmers on this night, and Marcus is no different.

A book lies open in his lap, ancient and leather-bound. The words on its pages are Greek. Marcus has handwritten something in English on a scrap of paper that lies across the open page: From broad Crete I declare that I am come by lineage, the son of a wealthy man. He has read the old book over and over. It’s a tale of war, exploration, betrayal, love, and death. It always makes him smile.

What Marcus wouldn’t give to take a journey of his own, to escape the oppressive heat of this dull city. He imagines an endless sea spread out before him, the wind cool against his skin, adventures and enemies arrayed on the horizon.

Marcus sighs and touches the scrap of paper. In his other hand he holds a 9,000-year-old knife, made of a single piece of bronze forged in the fires of Knossos. He brings the blade across his body and lets its edge rest against his right forearm. He pushes it into the skin, but not all the way. He knows the limits of this blade. He has trained with it since he could hold it. He has slept with it under his pillow since he was six. He has killed chickens, rats, dogs, cats, pigs, horses, hawks, and lambs with it. He has killed 11 people with it.

He is 16, in his prime for Playing. If he turns 20, he will be ineligible. He wants to Play. He would rather die than be ineligible.

The odds are almost nil that he will get his chance, though, and he knows it. Unlike Odysseus, war will never find Marcus. There will be no grand journey.

His line has been waiting for 9,000 years. Since the day the knife was forged. For all Marcus knows, his line will wait for another 9,000 years, long after Marcus is gone and the pages of his book have disintegrated.

So Marcus is bored.

The crowd on the TV cheers, and Marcus looks up from the knife. The Fenerbahçe goalie has cleared a rainbow up the right sideline, the ball finding the head of a burly midfielder. The ball bounces forward, over a line of defenders, near the last two men before the Manisaspor keeper. The players rush for the ball, and the forward comes away with it, 20 meters from the goal, free and clear of the defender. The keeper gets ready.

Marcus leans forward. Match time is 83:34. Fenerbahçe has yet to score, and doing so in such a dramatic way would save some face. The old book slides to the floor. The scrap of paper drifts free of the page and slips through the air like a falling leaf. The crowd begins to rise. The sky suddenly brightens, as if the gods, the Gods of the Sky themselves, are coming down to offer help. The keeper backpedals. The forward collects himself and takes the shot, and the ball blasts off.

As it punches the back of the net, the stadium lights up and the crowd screams, first in exaltation for the goal, but immediately afterward in terror and confusion—deep, true, and profound terror and confusion. A massive fireball, a giant burning meteor, explodes above the crowd and tears across the field, obliterating the Fenerbahçe defense and blasting a hole through the end of the stadium grandstand.

Marcus’s eyes widen. He is looking at total carnage. It is butchery on the scale of those American disaster movies. Half the stadium, tens of thousands of people dead, burning, lit up, on fire.

It is the most beautiful thing Marcus has ever seen.

He breathes hard. Sweat pours off his brow. People outside are yelling, screaming. A woman wails from the café below. Sirens ring out across the ancient city on the Bosporus, between the Marmara and the Black.

On TV, the stadium is awash in flames. Players, police, spectators, coaches run around, burning like crazed matchsticks. The commentators cry for help, for God, because they don’t understand. Those not dead or on their way to being dead trample one another as they try to escape. There’s another explosion and the screen goes black.

Marcus’s heart wants out of his chest. Marcus’s brain is as hot as the football pitch. Marcus’s stomach is full of rocks and acid. His palms feel hot and sticky. He looks down and sees that he has dug the ancient blade into his forearm, and a rivulet of blood is trickling off his hand, onto the chair, onto his book. The book is ruined, but it doesn’t matter; he won’t need it anymore. Because now, Marcus will have his Odyssey.

Marcus looks back to the darkened TV. He knows there’s something waiting for him there amidst the wreckage. He must find it.

A single piece.

For himself, for his line.

He smiles. Marcus has trained all of his life for this moment. When he wasn’t training, he was dreaming of the Calling. All the visions of destruction that his teenage mind concocted could not touch what Marcus has witnessed tonight. A meteor destroying a football stadium and killing 38,676 people. The legends said it would be a grand announcement. For once, the legends have become a beautiful reality.

Marcus has wanted, waited, and prepared for Endgame his entire life. He is no longer bored, and he won’t be again until he either wins or dies.

This is it.

He knows it.

This is it.

CHIYOKO TAKEDA

22B Hateshinai T o with macron ri, Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Three chimes of a small pewter bell awake Chiyoko Takeda. Her head lolls to the side. The time on her digital clock: 5:24. She makes a note of it. These are heavy numbers now. Significant. She imagines it is the same for those who ascribe meaning to numbers like 11:03 or 9:11 or 7:07. For the rest of her life she will see these numbers, 5:24, and for the rest of her life they will carry weight, meaning, significance.

Chiyoko turns from the clock on her side table and stares into the darkness. She lies naked on top of the sheets. She licks her full lips. She scrutinizes the shadows on her ceiling as if some message will appear there.

The bell should not have rung. Not for her.

All her life she has been told of Endgame and her peculiar and fantastical ancestry. Before the bell rang, she was 17 years old, a homeschooled outcast, a master sailor and navigator, an able gardener, a limber climber. Skilled at symbols, languages, and words. An interpreter of signs. An assassin able to wield the wakizashi, the hojo, and the shuriken. Now that the bell has rung, she feels 100. She feels 1,000. She feels 10,000, and getting older by the second. The heavy burden of the centuries presses down upon her.

Chiyoko closes her eyes. Darkness returns. She wants to be somewhere else. A cave. Underwater. In the oldest forest on Earth. But she is here, and she must get used to it. Darkness will be everywhere soon, and everyone will know it. She must master it. Befriend it. Love it. She has prepared for 17 years and she’s ready, even if she never wanted it or expected it. The darkness. It will be like a loving silence, which for Chiyoko is easy. The silence is part of who she is.

For she can hear, but she has never spoken.

She looks out her open window, breathes. It rained during the night, and she can feel the humidity in her nose and throat and chest. The air smells good.

There is a gentle rapping on the sliding door leading to her room. Chiyoko sits in her Western-style bed, her slight back facing the door. She stamps her foot twice. Twice means Come in.

The sound of wood sliding across wood. The quiet of the screen stopping. The faint shuffle of feet.

I rang the bell, her uncle says, his head bowed low to the ground, according the young Player the highest level of respect, as is the custom, the rule. I had to, he says. They’re coming. All of them.

Chiyoko nods.

He keeps his gaze lowered. I am sorry, he says. It is time.

Chiyoko stamps five arrhythmic times with her foot. Okay. Glass of water.

Yes, of course. Her uncle backs out of the doorway and quietly moves away.

Chiyoko stands, smells the air again, and moves to the window. The faint glow from the city’s lights blankets her pale skin. She looks out over Naha. There is the park. The hospital. The harbor. There is the sea, black, broad, and calm. There is the soft breeze. The palm trees below her window whisper. The low gray clouds begin to light up, as if a spaceship is coming to visit. Old people must be awake, Chiyoko thinks. Old people get up early. They are having tea and rice and radish pickles. Eggs and fish and warm milk. Some will remember the war. The fire from the sky that destroyed and decimated everything. And allowed for a rebirth. What is about to happen will remind them of those days. But a rebirth? Their survival and their future depend entirely on Chiyoko.

A dog begins to bark frantically.

Birds trill.

A car alarm goes off.

The sky gets very bright, and the clouds break downward as a massive fireball bursts over the edge of town. It screams, burns, and crashes into the marina. A great explosion and a billow of scalding steam illuminate the early morning. Rain made of dust and rock and plastic and metal hurls upward over Naha. Trees die. Fish die. Children, dreams, and fortunes die. The lucky ones are snuffed out in their slumber. The unlucky are burned or maimed.

Initially it will be mistaken for an earthquake.

But they will see.

It is just the beginning.

The debris falls all over town. Chiyoko senses her piece coming for her. She takes a large step away from her window, and a bright ember shaped like a mackerel falls onto her floor, burning a hole in the tatami mat.

Her uncle knocks on the door again. Chiyoko stomps her foot twice. Come in. The door is still open. Her uncle keeps his gaze lowered as he stops at her side and hands her first a simple blue silk kimono, which she steps into, and, after she’s in the kimono, a glass of very cold water.

She pours the water over the ember. It sizzles, spurts, and steams, the water immediately boiling. What is left is a shiny, black, jagged rock.

She looks at her uncle. He looks back at her, sadness in his eyes. It is the sadness of many centuries, of lifetimes coming to an end. She gives him a slight bow of thanks. He tries to smile. He used to be like her, waiting for Endgame to begin, but it passed him over, like it did countless others, for thousands and thousands of years.

Not so for Chiyoko.

I am sorry, he says. For you, for all of us. What will be will be.

SARAH ALOPAY

Bryan High School, Omaha, Nebraska, United States

The principal stands, smiling, and looks out over the crowd. And so it is with great honor that I present your class valedictorian, Sarah Alopay!

The crowd cheers, applauds, whistles.

Sarah stands. She’s wearing a red cap and gown with the valedictorian’s blue sash across her chest. She smiles. She’s been smiling all day. Her face hurts, she’s been smiling so much. She’s happy. She’ll be 18 in less than a month. She’s going to spend her summer at an archeological dig in Bolivia with her boyfriend, Christopher, and in the fall it’s off to college at Princeton. As soon as she turns 20, she can start the rest of her life.

In 742.43625 days she’ll be free.

No longer eligible.

She’s in the 2nd row, behind a group of administrators, PTA board members, and football coaches. She’s a few seats from the aisle. Next to her is Reena Smithson, her best friend since 3rd grade, and four rows behind her is Christopher. She steals a look at him. Blond hair, five-o’clock shadow, green eyes. An even temper and a huge heart. The best-looking boy in her school, her town, maybe the state, and, as far as she’s concerned, the world.

Go get ’em, tiger, Christopher says, grinning.

Sarah and Christopher have been together since the 7th grade. Inseparable. Christopher’s family is one of the wealthiest in Omaha. So wealthy, in fact, that his mom and dad couldn’t be bothered to fly back from business in Europe to attend their own son’s graduation. When Christopher crosses the stage, it will be Sarah’s family cheering the loudest. Christopher could’ve gone to private school, or the boarding school where his father went, but he refused, not wanting to be apart from Sarah. It is one of the many reasons she loves him and believes they will be together for their entire lives. She wants it, and she knows he does as well. And in 742.43539 days it will be possible.

Sarah gets into the aisle. She has on the pink Ray-Ban Wayfarers her dad gave her for Christmas, a pair of glasses that obscures her brown, wide-set eyes. Her long auburn hair is pulled into a tight ponytail. Her smooth, bronze skin is luminous. Under her gown she is dressed like all the others.

Yet how many others in her graduating class will bear the weight of an artifact onto the stage with them? Sarah wears it around her neck, just as Tate had worn it when he was eligible, as it has been, passed from Player to Player, for 300 generations. Hanging from the chain is a polished black stone that has seen 6,000 years of love, sorrow, beauty, light, sadness, and death. Sarah has been wearing the necklace since the moment Tate got hurt and her line’s council decided she should be the Player. She was 14. She hasn’t taken the amulet off since, and she’s so used to it that she hardly feels it.

As she makes the trip to the stage, a chant begins in the back of the assembly. Sar-ah! Sar-ah! Sar-ah! She smiles, turns, and looks at all her friends; her classmates; Christopher; her older brother, Tate; and her parents. Her mom has her arm around her dad, and they look proud, happy. Sarah makes an I’m nervous face, and her dad smiles and gives her a thumbs-up. She steps onto the stage, and Mrs. Shoemaker, the principal, hands Sarah her diploma. I’ll miss you, Sarah.

I’m not leaving forever, Mrs. Shoe! You’ll see me again.

Mrs. Shoemaker knows better. Sarah Alopay has never gotten a grade lower than an A. She was All-State in soccer and track, and got a perfect score on her SATs. She’s funny, kind, generous, and helpful, and clearly meant for bigger things. Give ’em hell, Alopay, she says.

I always do, says Sarah.

She steps to the mic, looks west over her class, her school. Behind the last line of 319 students is a stand of tall green-leafed oaks. The sun is shining and it’s hot, but she doesn’t care. None of them do. They’re finishing one part of their lives, and another is about to begin. They’re all excited. They’re imagining the future, and the dreams they have and hope to realize. Sarah has worked hard on her speech. She’s to be the voice of her classmates and wants to give them something that will inspire them, something that will drive them forward as they embark on this new chapter. It’s a lot of pressure, but Sarah is used to that.

Sarah leans forward and clears her throat. Congratulations and welcome to the best day of our lives, or at least the best day so far!

The kids go crazy, and a few prematurely toss their caps into the air. Some laugh. More cheer, Sar-ah! Sar-ah! Sar-ah!

While I was thinking about my speech, Sarah says, her heart pounding, I decided to try to answer a question. Immediately I thought, ‘What question is most often asked of me?’ and though it’s a little embarrassing, it was easy to answer. People are always asking me if I have a secret!

Laughter. Because it’s true. If there was ever a perfect student at the school, it was Sarah. And at least once a week, someone asked what her secret was.

After thinking long and hard, I realized it was a very simple answer. My secret is that I have no secrets.

Of course, that is a lie. Sarah has deep secrets. Profound secrets. Secrets that have been kept among her people for thousands and thousands of years. And though she’s done all the things she’s popular for, earned every A and trophy and award, she’s done so much more. Things they can’t even imagine. Like make fire with ice. Hunt and kill a wolf with her bare hands. Walk on hot coals. She has stayed awake for a week straight; she has shot deer from a mile away; she speaks nine languages, has five passports. While they think of her as Sarah Alopay, homecoming queen and all-American girl, the reality is that she is as highly trained and as deadly as any soldier on Earth.

I am as you see me. I am happy and able because I allow myself to be happy. I learned young that being active breeds more activity. That the gift of studying is knowledge. That seeing grants sight. That if you don’t feed anger, you won’t be angry. Sadness and frustration, even tragedy, are inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that happiness isn’t there for us, for all of us. My secret is that I choose to be the person that I want to be. That I don’t believe in destiny or predetermination, but in choice, and that each of us chooses to be the person we are. Whatever you want to be you can be; whatever you want to do you can do; wherever you want to go you can go. The world, and the life ahead, is ours for the taking. The future is unwritten, and you can make it whatever you want it to be.

The kids are quiet now. Everyone is quiet.

I’m looking west. Behind you, above the bleachers, is a bunch of oaks. Behind the trees are the plains, the land of my ancestors, but really the ancestral land of all humans. Past the plains are the mountains, from where the water flows. Over the mountains is the sea, the source of life. Above is the sky. Below is the earth. All around is life, and life is—

Sarah is interrupted by a sonic boom overhead. Everyone cranes their necks. A bright streak breaks over the oaks, scarring the blue sky. It doesn’t appear to be moving, just getting bigger. For a moment everyone stares in awe. A few people gasp. One person very clearly says, What is that?

Everyone stares until a solitary scream comes from the back row, and it hits the whole assembly at once. It’s like someone has flipped a switch for panic. The sounds of chairs tipping over, people screaming, total confusion. Sarah gasps. Instinctively, she reaches through her gown and grabs the stone around her neck.

It’s heavier than it has ever been. The asteroid or meteor or comet or whatever it is, is changing it. She’s frozen. Staring as the streak moves toward her. The stone on the chain changes again, feeling suddenly light. Sarah realizes that it’s lifting into the air under her robe. It works itself free of her clothing, pulls in the direction of the thing that is coming for them.

This is what it looks like.

This is what it feels like.

Endgame.

The sounds of terror fall away from her ears, replaced by stunned silence.

Though she has trained for it for almost her entire life, she never thought it would happen.

She was hoping it wouldn’t. 742.42898 days. She was supposed to be free.

The stone pulls at her neck.

SARAH! Someone yanks her arm hard. The fireball is riveting, terrible, and suddenly audible. She can literally hear it moving through the air, burning, raging.

Come on! NOW! It’s Christopher. Kind, brave, strong Christopher. His face is red with alarm and heat, his eyes watering, spit flying from his lips. She can see her parents and her brother at the bottom of the steps.

They have seconds.

Maybe less.

The morning sky darkens, turns black, and the fireball is upon them. The heat is overwhelming. The sound is paralyzing.

They are going to die.

At the last moment Christopher vaults off the stage, pulling Sarah with him. The air fills with the smells of burning hair, wood, plastic. The necklace pulls so hard in the direction of the meteor that the chain digs into the skin of Sarah’s neck.

They shut their eyes and crumple onto the grass. Sarah feels the stone pull free. It sails into the air, seeking out the meteor, and at the last minute the huge fireball changes direction, stopping a thousand feet short and skipping over them like a flat rock on a smooth lake. It happens so quickly that no one can see it, but somehow, some way, for some reason, the ancient little stone has spared them.

The meteor flies over the cement grandstand and impacts a quarter mile to the east. The school building is there. The parking lot. Some basketball courts. The tennis courts.

Not anymore.

The meteor destroys them all.

Boom.

They’re gone.

Those comforting and familiar places where Sarah has spent her life—her normal life, anyway—are gone in an instant. Everything wiped away. A new chapter has begun, just not the one Sarah hoped for.

A shock wave rushes out and over the field, carrying dust and darkness. It hits them hard, flattens them, knocks them down, blows out their eardrums.

The air is hot and choked with particles, gray and brown and black. It’s hard to see. Christopher is still with Sarah. Holding her. Shielding her. He pulls her close as they’re pelted with stones and dirt, fist-sized chunks of god-knows-what. There are others around them, some hurt. They cough. They can’t stop crying. They can’t stop shaking. It’s hard to breathe. Another shock wave passes through and pushes them farther into the ground. Sarah gets the wind knocked from her. Spears of fleeting light illuminate the dust. The ground shakes as things begin to fall around them. Hunks of cement and steel, twisted cars, furniture. They can do nothing but wait, praying that nothing lands on top of them. Christopher is holding her so hard it hurts. She is digging her nails into his back.

They have no idea how much time has elapsed when the air begins to clear and smaller sounds begin to return. People are wailing in pain. Names are being called. One of them is hers.

Her father.

Sarah. SARAH!

Here! she yells. Her voice sounds muffled and distant, even to herself. Her ears are still ringing. I’m here!

Her father emerges from the dust cloud. His face is covered in blood and ash. Against the filth on his face, she can see the whites of his eyes, brilliant and clear. He knows what she knows.

Endgame.

Sarah! Her dad stumbles toward them and falls to his knees, wrapping both of them in his arms. They cry. Their bodies heave. People scream in every direction. Sarah opens her eyes for a second and sees Reena in front of her, dazed, in shock. Her best friend’s left arm is gone above the elbow; all that remains is blood and shredded skin and jagged bone. The graduation gown has been torn from her body, but somehow her cap has stayed on. She’s covered in soot. Sarah calls, Reena! Reena! but Reena doesn’t hear. She disappears back into the dust, and Sarah knows that she’ll never see Reena again.

Where’s Mom? she whispers, her lips on her dad’s ear.

I was with her. I don’t know.

The stone, it . . . it . . .

I know.

Sarah? her mom calls out.

Here! the three say together.

Sarah’s mom crawls toward them. All the hair on the right side of her head is gone. Her face is burned but not too badly. When she sees them she looks so happy. Her look is different from the one she gave Sarah when she walked onto the stage.

I was giving a speech, Sarah thinks. I was giving a speech at graduation. People were happy. So happy.

Olowa, Simon says quietly, reaching for his wife. Tate?

Olowa shakes her head. I don’t know.

An explosion in the distance.

The air starts to clear, the carnage becoming more evident. There are bodies everywhere. The Alopays and Christopher are the lucky ones. Sarah sees a head. A leg. A torso. A cap falls to the ground near them.

Sarah, it’s on. It’s on for real.

It’s Tate, walking toward them, his arms extended. One hand is in a fist; the other holds a grapefruit-sized hunk of gold-and-green rock streaked with black veins of metal.

He is amazingly clean, as if the whole thing passed him over. He smiles. His mouth is full of blood. Tate was a Player once, but no longer. Now he looks almost excited for his sister, in spite of all that’s happened around them. All the death, all the destruction, all that they know is coming.

I found them! Tate is 10 feet away now. Another small explosion from somewhere. He opens his fist and puts the small piece of stone that was around her neck into the bigger multicolored rock. It fits perfectly.

Nukumi, Simon says reverently.

Nukumi, Sarah says, much less reverently.

What? Christopher asks.

Sarah says, Nothing—

But she is cut short as an explosion sends shards of metal flying through the air. A six-foot-long piece of steel embeds itself into the middle of Tate’s chest. He is dead. Gone. Killed in an instant. He falls backward, Sarah’s stone pendant and the piece of green-veined rock still in his hand. Her mother screams; her father yells, No!

Sarah cannot speak. Christopher stares in shock. Blood oozes out of Tate’s chest. His eyes are open and staring, lifeless, to the sky. His feet twitch, the last bits of life leaving him. But the stone and the pendant, they are safe.

This is not accidental.

The stones have meaning.

Carry a message.

This is Endgame.

JAGO TLALOC

Tlaloc Residence, 12 Santa Elisa, Juliaca, Puno, Peru

Jago Tlaloc’s sneakers crunch across broken glass. It is night and the streetlights are out. Sirens wail in the distance, but otherwise Juliaca is quiet. It was chaos before, when Jago first headed for the crater in the city center to claim what had been sent for him. In the madness, survivors poured into the streets, shattering shop windows, taking whatever they wanted.

The looting will not sit well with Jago’s father, who runs protection for many of the local businesses. But Jago does not blame his people. Let them enjoy some comforts now, while there is still time. Jago has a treasure of his own: the stone, still warm, wrapped in his satchel and tossed over his shoulder.

A hot wind rushes through the buildings, carrying ash and the smell of fire. They call Juliaca the Windy City of Peru for good reason. Unlike many of his people, Jago has traveled well beyond the city limits. He has killed at least twice on every continent, and still he finds it strange to visit a place where the wind is missing.

Jago is the Player of the 21st line. Born to Guitarrero and Hayu Marca just over 19 years ago. Once Players themselves, several years apart, his parents now run this part of the city. From the legitimate businesses to the illicit materials that flow through the neighborhood’s back alleys, his parents take a cut of everything. They are also philanthropists, in a way, turning around their often ill-gotten money to open schools and maintain hospitals. The law does not touch them, refuses to come near them; the Tlaloc family is too much of a resource. In just a few more months, Jago would have become ineligible and joined his parents in the family business. Yet all empires must crumble.

A trio of shadows peels from the mouth of a nearby alley. The figures block the sidewalk in front of Jago, looking wolfish and dangerous.

What you got there, my friend? hisses one of the shadows, nodding at Jago’s satchel.

In response, Jago flashes his teeth, which are perfectly straight and white. His maxillary lateral incisors are each capped with gold, and each inset with a small diamond. These gems glint in the moonlight.

The three scavengers shrink back. Sorry, Feo, says the leader, we didn’t recognize you.

They should be scared, but not of Jago or the power of his family, though Jago is strong and merciless, and his family more so. They should be scared of what is to come. They don’t know it, but Jago is the only hope these people have. Once, the power of his family was enough to keep this neighborhood and its people alive and happy. Now that responsibility falls to Jago.

He passes by the thugs without a word. He is lost in thoughts of the 11 other Players, scattered around the world, each with a meteor of their own. He wonders what they will be like, what lines they come from. For the lines do not know the other lines. They cannot know. Not until the Calling.

And the Calling is coming.

Will some be stronger than him? Smarter? Will one even be uglier?

Perhaps, but it is no matter.

Because Jago knows that he can, and will, kill them all.

Not the first not the last. vii

BAITSAKHAN

Gobi Desert, 222 km South of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Baitsakhan wants it, and he’s going to get it.

He rides hard south into the Gobi Desert with his twin cousins, Bat and Bold, both 12.5, and his brother, Jalair, 24.55.

Baitsakhan has been 13 for 7.23456 days and is just eligible for Endgame.

He is happy about this.

Very happy.

The meteor fell in the middle of the night two days ago in the vast central nothingness of the Mongolian steppe. A small group of old yak herders saw it, and they called it in to Baitsakhan’s grandfather Suhkbataar, who told them to leave it alone or they would be sorry. The herders listened. Everyone in the steppe knows to listen to Suhkbataar in strange matters like these.

Because of this, Baitsakhan knows that the space rock will be there, waiting, alone. But when they are about a half mile from the impact zone they see a small group of people, and a worn Toyota Hilux, sitting in the distance.

Baitsakhan reins his horse and slows it to a walk. The other riders pull alongside him. Jalair draws a brass telescope from a saddlebag and looks across the plain. He makes a low sound.

Who are they? Baitsakhan asks.

"Don’t know. One wears an ushanka. Another has a rifle. The truck has three external gas cans. One of the men is leaning on a long pry bar. Two are bending to the ground. The one with the rifle is going toward the Hilux."

Bat rests a longbow across his lap. Bold absently checks his smartphone. No signal, of course, not this far out. He opens Temple Run and starts a new game.

Do they have the rock? Baitsakhan asks.

"Hard to tell . . . wait. Yes. Two are carrying something small

Reviews for Endgame

[jessika.c · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book tries too hard.With the gore and action of Battle Royale and the grooming of 12 bloodlines for the fight of their lives *coughPanemdistrictscough* like The Hunger Games we are told that 12 fighters come to defend their bloodline to the death. Some may not even make it out of the first place they're gathered together for the first place. I hated a lot of the tributes...sorry CHAMPIONS. Sarah Alopay was just the worst and Jago just went downhill when he started beating up her poor normal clueless devoted lab puppy boyfriend Christopher. I loved Chiyoko Takeda and all her parts with An Liu and anyone in general really were so intense and amazing I think this would have been a really good book if it had just focused on her story rather than the 15 POVs. Aisling Kopp was also a very fascinating character hopefully she does get more time in the next book since she's one of the survivors of the first book and I do think An was a good villain but other than that, with the focus so much on Sarah and Jago it made for a horrible time for me...like I said I hated Sarah.

[lilya05 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

"Endgame" ist die größte Enttäuschung seit Jahren und eines der schlechtesten Bücher, die ich jemals gelesen habe. Gekauft habe ich es, weil das Grundkonzept, das dem der "Hunger Games" ähnelt, mich interessierte, aber auch die Idee im Buch Rätsel zu knacken, die dann auf einen bestimmten Punkt in unserer realen Welt weisen fand ich spannend (wenngelich mir klar war, dass ich - 2 Jahre nach Erscheinen des Buches - keine Chance haben würde, die $500.000 zu gewinnen, da das Rätsel sicherlich bereits gelöst sei - was auch tatsächlich wahr ist).Tatsächlich haben die im Buch enthaltenen Rätsel aber eigenen so eigenen Charakter, dass ich nicht einmal weiß, worin diese Rätsel bestehen sollen. Die tausend Links habe ich dabei nicht geöffnet, da ich schon nach kurzer Zeit so von dem Buch abgeschreckt war, dass ich es nur noch möglichst schnell weglegen und meine Gedanken nicht auch noch an etwaige Rätsel, die mit dem Buch in Verbindung stehen, verschwenden wollte. Der Schreibstil ist unterirdisch - eine Aneinanderreihung von tausenden kurzer Hauptsätze, häufig sogar nur von Teilsätzen. Dazu die Versessenheit, jede Zahl mit häufig bis zu 5 Nachkommastellen anzugeben - es stört den (zugegeben ohnehin nicht aufkommenden) Lesefluss enorm, wenn dort Sachen stehen wie "der Flug sollte 216,3794 Minuten dauern" oder "Er war 14,59826 Jahre alt". Die Geschichte bietet keine spannenden Wendungen, da es Frey nicht gelingt, die Charaktere anders zusammenzuführen um seinen völlig überzogenen Gewaltdarstellungen einen Boden zu bieten, wählt er einfach telepatisch von den Aliens übertragene Hinweise als Mittel, die Spieler zusammenzuführen. Diese 12 Spieler unterscheiden sich zwar in ihrer Lebensweise voneinander, sind aber jeder für sich extrem flach und stereotyp, auch die Hauptcharaktere gewinnen auf den knapp 600 Seiten nicht an Tiefe. Das "große Finale" des Buches ließ mich absolut kalt, worüber ich sehr froh bin - so kann ich dieser Buchreihe getrost den Rücken kehren, ohne auf einen Cliffhanger zu verharren oder mich auch nur dafür zu interessieren, welcher der 12 Charaktere schließlich das Endgame gewinnen wird.

[filialibri-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Diese und weitere Rezensionen findet ihr auf meinem Blog Anima Libri - Buchseele

Um James Freys „Endgame: Die Auserwählten“ wurde ja ein riesiger Hype gemacht. 500.000 US-Dollar gab es in einem multimedialen Kryptographie-Rätsel-Dings zu gewinnen (hat die eigentlich irgendwer gewonnen? Ach, keine Ahnung, ist ja auch egal) und – wie bei solchen Werbemaßnahmen nicht anders zu erwarten – der Wirbel um die Story war groß.

Und so konnte ich natürlich auch nicht widerstehen, musste aber schnell feststellen, dass „Endgame: Die Auserwählten“ im Grunde genommen nicht viel mehr als heiße Luft ist. Die ganze, riesige Werbeaktion ist letztendlich, in meinen Augen, nur viel Lärm um nichts gewesen, denn das Buch war wirklich denkbar langweilig.

Bei James Frey gibt es nicht nur einen langweilig perfekten Protagonisten, nein, es gibt direkt zwölf dieser Alleskönner. Sie entstammen uralten Geschlechtern der Menschheit, ihre Familien sind reich und sie sind von Geburt an nur für eins trainiert: Das Endspiel, denn nur wer dort gewinnt, kann das Überleben seines Stammbaums sichern. Der Rest der Menschheit wird von den Aliens ausgelöst – die brauchen ja auch mal ein bisschen Unterhaltung.

Ähm ja… Noch besser wird es aber, wenn man sich die Rollenverteilung dieser Auserwählten ansieht: Wer sind die Guten, wer sind die Bösen und wer die völlig uninteressanten, überflüssigen Nebencharaktere? Yay, genau! Die Amis sind die hübschen, guten, intelligenten, mitfühlenden Herrschaften, die Asiaten die skrupellosen, hinterhältigen und unansehnlichen Mistkerle. Europäer und Co. sind im Grunde völlig wurscht und nur schmückendes Beiwerk.

Hätte man hier nicht wenigstens ein bissen mischen können?! Es ist so langweilig! So absolut langweilig und uninteressant. Die Charaktere sind nichts weiter als nichtssagende, blasse Stereotypen, die mir alle völlig egal waren, meinetwegen hätten die Aliens sie auch direkt alle umbringen können.

Zu den schrecklich langweilig perfekten und stereotypischen Charakteren kommen total überzogene und in meinen Augen reichlich geschmacklose Gewaltszenen und – und das ist richtig nervtötend – völlig absurde Logikfehler in den Beschreibungen des Autors, der einerseits ständig die Perfektion seiner Figuren betont, andererseits passieren denen ständig Dinge, die ihnen bei ihren Fähigkeiten eigentlich nicht passieren dürften.

Alles in allem ist „Endgame: Die Auserwählten“ von James Frey ein total überflüssiges Buch, 500.000 US-Dollar Gewinn hin oder her – der ist für die meisten eh völlig unerreichbar. In meinen Augen ist die Geschichte denkbar simpel, Neues wird hier nicht geboten, dafür eine gute Portion nicht ganz so sinniger Handlungen. Ich kann von der Geschichte nur abraten.

[hellen0-4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sigue hacia abajo para encontrar la reseña en español.

I got this review copy from NetGalley.

This is not a bad book and I liked it much more than I thought while I was reading it after I finished it, but it’s a bit weird and slow at first, because a lot of the things that the characters know are not explained. This is the first book of a trilogy, so I hope that the other two will move faster, as everything that the characters know is revealed by the end of this book. I suppose that the secrets of Endgame, the "game" that the characters are playing, will be revealed in the next two books. The Calling is just the search for the first key and there are three keys in the game, so there’s still room for many surprises.

It’s not that the first half of the book is boring, but nothing happens and there are many characters, who are more or less main characters. Each chapter is the point of view of one (or more than one) of them, so some of the chapters are sometimes things that happen at the same time, but in different places, which can make this first part a bit tiresome.

Endgame gets much better at the end, when we finally know what’s going on, or rather almost everything, because there are clues that suggest that everything is not as all those who trained for Endgame think. Before I started this book I had read a few reviews that compared it to The Hunger Games. Even though I can see why, I don’t think that they’re that similar. It’s true that there are twelve people and that they’re taking part in a deadly game where there can only be one winner, but everything else is very different. Even the circumstances that lead to this game (and the game itself) have nothing to do with The Hunger Games. If I had to compare this series with another, it would be 39 Clues, as it’s a race to find something (in the case of Endgame this something are three keys), but much more brutal and with bigger consequences for humanity.

Something that I found interesting is that there isn’t a clear main character until after half the book is over. You can guess who they’re going to be, because of the number of chapters about them, but it’s something that can change at any moment until you reach the end of the book.

The only thing that disappointed me a bit is that I had worked out where the first key was going to be a while before the characters did. Seeing as there had been so many clues that lead to other clues, I had been hoping for a sudden plot twist, but this didn’t happen. There is one at the very end of the book that left me looking forward to reading the next book of this series though.

3,5 stars

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Este libro no está mal y al final me gustó más de lo que esperaba según iba leyendo, pero es un poco raro y lento al principio, porque no se explican muchas cosas que los protagonistas sí conocen. Es el primer libro de una trilogía, así que espero que los otros dos avancen un poco más rápido, ya que al final del primer libro se ha revelado lo que saben los personajes. Supongo que en los dos siguientes se irán revelando todos los demás secretos de Endgame, el "juego" en el que participan los personajes de esta novela. La Llamada es sólo la búsqueda de la primera llave y hay tres llaves en el juego, así que todavía queda espacio para muchas sorpresas.

La primera mitad del libro no es que sea aburrida, pero no pasa mucho y hay muchos personajes más o menos principales. Cada capítulo es el punto de vista de uno (o más de uno) de ellos, así que a veces varios capítulos son cosas que suceden al mismo tiempo, pero en sitios distintos, lo que puede llegar a hacer esta primera parte un poco pesada.

Endgame mejora mucho al final, cuando por fin se sabe de qué va todo o más bien casi todo, porque hay pistas que sugieren que las cosas no son como han creído todos los que se han entrenado para Endgame. Antes de empezar a leer el libro había leído algunas reseñas que lo comparaban con Los Juegos del Hambre. Aunque veo el porqué de la comparación, no creo que se parezca tanto. Es cierto que hay doce chicos y que están metidos en un juego mortal del que sólo uno puede resultar vencedor, pero todo lo demás es muy distinto. Incluso las circunstancias que llevan a ese juego (y el juego en sí) no tienen nada que ver con Los Juegos del Hambre. Si tuviera que compararlo con otra saga sería con 39 Clues, ya que se trata de una carrera por encontrar algo (en el caso de Endgame ese algo son tres llaves), pero mucho más bestia y con consecuencias mucho mayores para la humanidad.

Algo que me pareció interesante es que hasta pasada la mitad no hay un claro personaje principal. Se puede sospechar quiénes van a ser por el número de capítulos dedicados a ellos, pero hasta que no se llega al final del libro, es algo que puede cambiar en cualquier momento.

Lo único que realmente me decepcionó un poco es que había deducido dónde iba a estar la primera llave mucho antes de que lo hicieran los personajes. Teniendo en cuenta que había habido tantas pistas que llevaron a otras pistas, había estado esperando que hubiera algún giro súbito, pero no fue así. Sin embargo, sí que hay uno justo al final del libro que me ha dejado deseando leer el siguiente libro de esta serie.

3,5 estrellas

[mtlkch-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book!

[naturalbri-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The StoryWe follow as twelve characters, chosen over 9,000 years ago, from their bloodline. Some have been eagerly awaiting this moment, some dreading the possibility. After having waited so long, surely they will not be chosen. They only have until their 20th birthday to take part. After that, they must hand-off the burden/privilege to the next in line, and so it has gone for over 9K years. Then it happens. The first sign comes, a meteor striking the earth, to signal the beginning. In the end, each player has their own invitation, brought by meteor, a meteor which has wreaked havoc on the world, destroying people, animals and nature alike. This is only the beginning.With blood and screams all around them, the players are brought to two realisations: 1) Endgame has begun2) They must not lose, or they will destroy everything they love. Who will be first to solve the puzzle and win? At what cost?What I Think about the Story and Game:I found the story to be quite a good read. It does have a few 'flaws,' as mentioned by other reviewers. Namely being that the characters are meant to be chosen, but not anything more than human. However, they take on feats that are well beyond human ability. I took this in stride though, as one has to remember we are not in a world that is exactly like ours, so 'normal' people may be able to do slightly more. Also, when one is terrified and striving to save those they love, whilst avoiding death, it is not uncommon for humans to do things believed impossible. I like the extreme, addicting pace of this book. It really is a read that is hard to put down. The action starts from page one and doesn't cease, leaving you aching for the second book. I also liked the characters. They have enough depth to be very interesting. Plus, the characters are spread in traits, beliefs and wants. They all have different backgrounds, act differently and care about very different things. This means that some of the characters do not want to be a part of the game, but know they must, whilst others have yearned for this day, trained for it. These differences are held in the characters and ultimately decide how they act in certain situations. The overall story is brilliant! As far as a dark fantasy/sci-fi blend it is epic and really does pull in all types of readers, making them a part of so much more. The real Endgame is one of the most brilliant ideas I have seen in ages. Linking together a great read with a true puzzle is brilliant. It does mean that you have to switch your mind back and forth between the book and the world, but this is not the full aim. It is meant to really get you to absorb yourself into the world of Endgame, to be a part of it, striving to be like the players in the book...to be the first to solve the puzzle. They have even made Endgame more real, with a link between the world puzzle and the book by have events that take place all over the world.

[claireh18 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

*NOTE* Endgame: The Calling is at its core a puzzle, and any review of it must take that into account. However the review copy of the book I was provided contained a placeholder puzzle, so as not to release the actual puzzle early. Thus I won't be reviewing the puzzle portion at all, only the book itself. This is not entirely fair, so judge this review accordingly.The first thing that strikes me about this book is that the author uses really short sentences. Seriously. It's annoying. Very annoying. Unfortunately, it got on my nerves so much that I was unable to finish the book. I think the concept is good, and, no doubt, the hype surrounding the prize will help it to sell. It just wasn't for me.

[greatbookescapes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Many thanks to the Publisher via NetGalley for a Sampler of this book in return for my honest review

(I have reviewed this book as I have read it - I have not read The Hunger Games which some are saying this is similar to)

Interesting concept, I but had no idea how this was supposed to be worked out. I am guessing a full copy of the book would include instructions. I can see some people wanting to try it out, but I have always had difficulty cracking ‘codes’ and such, so not for me.

I found the style a bit difficult to read with such a lot of very short sentences, although it did get better.

It would be interesting to see if any of the characters grow enough to feel connected to them. I like the fact that what I read so far did not have complicated names or places as often used in fantasy books, this makes it easier for a younger audience.

Sadly though it left me underwhelmed, and so I will not be reading the full book.

[cherylk_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have not read the Hunger Game books but I have seen the movies. So, of course, there is going to be a lot of pressure and comparison to any author or book that comes out that has similarities to the Hunger Game books. Which it is hard not to compare this book to Hunger Games. Ok, so first off I would have liked a little more back story in regards to what the End Games were and how they were chosen. I don't know if the author did this on purpose or because he thought that readers were just automatically figure be fine with not knowing. Again this goes back to the Hunger Games. Also, there were so many people coming at me all at the same time that it was hard to keep them all straight. It was not until all of them assembled to the location to learn about the End Game and the goal of it that I was able to then start getting all of the characters straight in my head. Once I was able to figure out the goal of End Game and who was who, I was able to then start enjoying the story. Although, it did feel a little on even like the story was focused mainly on Sarah and Jago. The chapters involving them were longer then most of the other characters. However there was a lot of action and traveling all over the world. Having the ability to travel all over without any rules leaves a lot of bodies in every one's wake. The ending does leave a good lead into the next book. Even at 477 pages, this book is a quick read.

[shahnareads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Soooooooo GOOD! ahh!

I just couldn't put it down. I am so excited to start the third one. Gah! I can't wait for all the kids to meet each other.

I'm so glad I waited to have all three books before I started reading, I don't think I could have waited.

[luminescent_bookworm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Too much running away, not enough plot development. More review later.

[mrslabraden · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Calling is the second book in the Darkness Rising series. This book was much better than the first, The Gathering. Had these two books been edited down and combined into one, I think it would have made a fantastic book. In this story, Maya, and her friends have survived the helicopter crash and are on the run from two different groups who are pursuing them. As they run, each starts to find out more and more about the way they are changing and how it happened. Maya and Daniel are most affected, but hints are given as to how the others might also be changing. This book was much more satisfying than the first, and I'm ready to finish the series by reading The Rising.

[christineellei · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Starting at exactly the point The Gathering’s cliff-hanger left off we rejoin Maya and the other teens on their flight from Salmon Creek. The group finds themselves abandoned after the helicopter crash and on the run from both sides of the law. Things start to happen as far as their “altered” genetics so they must face those changes as well. The finally make it back t Salmon Creek only to find they are more alone than ever in their quest to find out what is happening to them.

Again, being a fan I enjoyed the book.

[glitzandshadows · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have come to the conclusion that Kelley Armstrong is one of my preferred YA urban fantasy writers out there right now. Her books are just really good. I still haven’t finished the Darkest Powers trilogy, but I have the third book so I’ll get to it. Admittedly, I do like that trilogy a tad more than this one (what can I say, I prefer necromancers to shapeshifters), but this one is no less good.
Taking place immediately where the last book left off, Maya and her friends are fleeing from a forest fire in a helicopter. Scared and confused from being attacked by supposed ‘rescuers,’ Maya and her friends encounter problems while in the helicopter which leads to the helicopter crashing - stranding them in the forest.
The book mainly deals with the group trying to make their way back to civilisation all while being trailed by these mysterious rescuers who very obviously do not want to rescue them. From the previous book we learned that Maya is actually a skin-walker, but in this book it’s shown that she might not be the only genetically altered teen on the island (aside from Rafe and Annie, obviously).
Not a great deal actually happened in this book to move the plot forward, which was a strange move. Yet, it worked. I felt like we got to know the characters better amidst the problem they were faced with. Maya is a great protagonist. I’m not a huuuge fan of shape shifting/shape shifter plotlines, so I wasn’t sure I would initially like this trilogy as much because of that, but I like Maya and Rafe and Daniel so much that I don’t really mind that so much.
Rafe, for reasons that I won’t say because of spoilers, wasn’t really in this book as much. Which actually was a great move because it took romance pretty much out of the picture. Which is fantastic because these kids were in a survival setting and having Maya hung up on Rafe during that would have bothered me, but thankfully that was not the case. I also really appreciate what is happening with Maya and Daniel. So many YA authors would turn this into a love triangle, but that’s obviously not what is happening here, thank the lord.
I just really like how Kelley Armstrong treats her characters and relationships. I really like her books. This was a good second book, not the best of the series (which is now looking like a continuation of the Darkest Powers trilogy), but it was good.

[glennis.leblanc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The second book of her second YA series shows it is the middle book and is really just a bridge to the final book to see what will happen once she wraps it all up. I'm reading these books more to see what is going on in that universe than for just on their own merits.

[sszkutak_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For July's TBR Jar pick I finally got around to reading The Calling. I LOVED the Darkest Powers Trilogy (and I do mean LOVED!!!!!!) and The Gathering of the Darkness Rising Trilogy caught my attention as well, but the characters aren't as great (in my opinion) as in Darkest Powers. So...on to the review...This second book in the series is a great second book as far as trilogies go. Maya and her friends/ fellow test subjects are on the run -- and that is the whole book. We pick up right were book one left off and so I had to do a recap of book one since it was so long ago that I had read it, but after doing so the storyline just keeps on going in book 2. I think that the reason I have enjoyed the books so far is because of the action, they are teens on the run and the badies have guns and supernatural powers on their side.I like Maya the main character, she is strong and interesting, but I can't love her as much as I loved Chloe. I found Maya conflicted too many times for my liking - about trusting others, about her feelings, it was just bothersome. The other characters are all interesting as well but I feel needed more depth, there are the stereotypical clown guy, the strong trustworthy guy, the girly girl and the brute girl and that is really all they are so far, I hope they grow in book 3.I did enjoy this book, the action had kept this trilogy on my radar so I hope to pick up book 3 at some point.

[brandileigh2003 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to read this one because I enjoyed the first and I like Kelley's writing. It picked up right where the last one left off, and it continued with a bang. It slowed down some after but it still kept my attention. We find out more about the powers of the teens and Maya has no choice but to face what she realized about herself, That she has healing powers over animals and that she shape shifts into a cougar. She has always understood cats and had relationship with the animals, so much that she helps her dad with the hospital for wounded animals. Her friendship with Daniel was strong again in this one, and we see further proof that he is a leader, and has influence over them, Daniel is such a nice guy and I like his character. Rafe was in this one but we are in a lot of suspense with him and his sister and he's not really as big a character in the first part, We instead get a closer look at the others in the helicopter with them: Sam, Nicole and Corey. The action did start to pick up and threw in a lot of twists and surprises. There were betrayals and of course they never knew who was telling the truth and who was out to get them. Like the first, the book just kinda ended. I know that the third will pick right up, but its still hard not to get at least some closure. I mean I know why it stopped at sort of that place, but a little more or a little less would have been great. I will definitely read the last and excited to get time. Bottom Line: Good 2nd book but some of the typical middle book issues.

[lrhubble · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Contemporary, Paranormal, Young Adult, Vancouver IslandMaya is on the run with her friends after they survive first a forest fire that was deliberately set and a rescue team that is not only fake but seems to have some dark intentions where they are concerned. When their helicopter crashes in the wilderness of Vancouver Island they realize that they have a ways to go before they are safe again.Maya has a secret that just might help as she can fun faster and climb higher and see better than just about anyone else. It seems to have something to do with her mysterious paw-print birthmark and is also just part of who she really is. As Maya and her friends deal with dangers that they couldn’t have foreseen she realizes that she isn’t the only one in her group that has special abilities. They are all going to need their extraordinary abilities if they are going to have any chance at survival. This is the second book in the trilogy that picks up right after the first one left off. It is proving to be fast paced and action packed. It also has a mystery woven through the books so far that makes it interesting as the characters work to figure out just what is going on and who knows what. It is one series that is worth taking the time out to just sit and read all of the books. The story pulls the reader in emotionally and will have them turning the pages just to see how things turn out. With each tidbit that is revealed it pulls the reader in more and more and will have readers wondering just where this one will end up.

[angelina0justice · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Uh-oh, I think I better go back and read the 3rd book of the 1st series before I go any further with this series.

I really enjoyed this installment. My only complaint is that I have to wait too long for the next part.

[floratina · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

READ IN DUTCH

I hadn't really planned to continue reading the Darkness Rising Trilogy, but when I saw this book in the library I did take it home with me, because after all, I was still a bit curious about what happened next. The end of The Gathering was quite a cliffhanger...

For me, this book felt quite the same as the first part. A lot happens, but somehow, you're never scared, because you believe that they will succeed and survive everything (as they always do in books). This is a bit a shame, but nevertheless, it was again a nice read, though I thought the story was a bit weaker than the first one.

If I ever encounter the last book, I will read it, because I now want to know how it ends...

[bookloverslife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it. Starts off straight after the first book and for me it was as good as The Gathering. Cant wait to see what happens next.

[yogiboo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good sequel. Still not as good as the darkest powers trilogy. Am enjoying it nevertheless. Looking forward to the finale as it is rumoured that the darkness rising crowd meet up with the darkest power crowd.

[jadestar31 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Calling picks up where The Gathering left off. From my review of The Gathering, it’s already apparent that I’m not a fan of this series. I admit that I enjoyed this book more than the previous one, but it was still just mediocre. There’s not much to say because nothing really happens. They’re on the run, they get captured, they escape, rinse and repeat.Everything I said about Maya still stands. She’s still smart, athletic, sensible and a really great role model for younger girls. I just don’t feel any chemistry between Maya and Rafe or even Maya and Daniel. There’s no spark or charm to this series. The book is just dull. I’m hoping the last installment will have more adventure in it since it’ll also involve the characters from The Darkest Powers.I just want to finish this series and be done with it. It’s not exactly the reaction people want in the books they read, but it’s what I’m stuck with.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Note: There are necessarily spoilers for book one of this series, The Gathering.The Calling, Book Two of the “Darkness Rising” series, picks up where The Gathering left off. By page 24, though, the author has come up with a totally uncontrived way to give an excellent and complete summary of The Gathering, for those who hadn’t read the first book or had forgotten it.Maya Delaney and other teenagers in Salmon Creek (a small town built by the drug research corporation St. Cloud) have discovered that they were subjects of genetic experimentation. All of the kids had been enhanced in some way, with the new traits only coming into full flower post-puberty. Unfortunately, a few kids have also suffered from bad side effects, such as debilitating headaches or even psychosis.Maya’s enhancement is that she is a shape-shifter, in this case meaning she can turn into a cougar and back. Rafe, Maya’s sometime boyfriend, is also a shape-shifter, as is his sister Annie, who has, however, become mentally enfeebled as a result. Maya’s best friend Daniel is a “benandandi” - someone who can sense evil. Most of Maya’s friends don’t know what their enhancement is yet, although they can guess at it from what they excel at doing.The teens figure out that they have been changed as part of a lethal inter-corporate struggle between St. Cloud and a rival corporation, both of which are staffed with adult supernaturals. Creating future enhanced employees is how the companies intend to get a leg up on rivals staffed with “only” humans. Maya and her friends realize they are in danger as their skill sets develop, and they endeavor to get away.Both corporations pursue them, not intending to let any of them escape. The fugitives need food, money, and help, but they don’t know who they can trust. In addition, they struggle not to be defeated by fear, increasingly bad side effects, or internecine conflicts.Evaluation: Armstrong writes in such an appealing and persuasive way that I never find myself thinking “this is stupid” from reading her stories. Her characters seem real and for the most part are people you absolutely wish you knew. I also love the interactions among the friends, and they way they learn who to trust, and how they need to mature in order to survive. Importantly, Armstrong is expert at making her female characters strong without having them seem rebarbative. If you don’t mind paranormal, I think Armstrong is one of the best. She writes with a lot of humor, and a great ear for dialogue.

[darkfaerietales_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: The second installment of the Darkness Rising trilogy moves the plot forward when Maya and her friends escape from the people trying to hunt them down, but not much additional information is added to what we already know about the characters and their situation. Opening Sentence: I don’t know who was more anxious—Daniel or Kenjii—but they weren’t making this emergency helicopter evacuation any easier. The Review: I have to start off saying I love Kelley Armstrong’s novels no matter what, The Calling included. She keeps readers hanging on until the last page hoping for more juicy secrets about the characters and the people trying to take control of them. I felt like The Calling was more of a filler novel between the two larger events taking place in Book 1 and Book 3 since action did take place, the novel did move forward, but not a lot of new information was gained overall. Being a long time reader of Armstrong’s novels, I am pretty familiar with the background information already, and wanted to know more about the characters introduced in the first book, especially since they seem to be new types of supernaturals. Not a lot is revealed in this novel, which was kind of depressing, but it makes me that much more excited to read the final installment, The Rising, next April. The novel starts at the same place The Gathering ended, in a helicopter flying away from a forest fire and the small town of Salmon Creek. Maya and her friends soon realize the people in charge of rescuing them are in fact trying to kidnap them. The teens react by saving themselves, but the helicopter crashes, leaving them stranded and the adults dead. It is up to them to make their way back to safety while also avoiding abduction by two different groups of people, a supposed rescue group including a member of Maya’s family and the St. Clouds, a corporate supernatural family in charge of genetically mutating the teens to begin with. Unable to trust anyone, not even really each other, the group of teens try their best to make it to safety without all of them being put into their pursuer’s custody. Though not a lot of new supernatural information is revealed, the characters and their relationships do evolve. Maya and Rafe still find each other irresistible, but we learn where Rafe’s true loyalties lie, though Maya does not fault him for it. Daniel and Maya talk more about Serena and her death, and how they are coping over a year after her mysterious drowning. An unexpected revelation about one of the other characters involved made me interested in rereading The Gathering to see if I could see any signs of the character’s true nature. Of course, I am not going to tell you who I am talking about; otherwise it would give away the surprise. Maya and her friends learn more about each other and become closer as they run for their lives through Canadian wilderness. Though we do not find out a lot of new information, Maya learns more about what it means to have the skinwalker gene. I love how Armstrong writes about her characters when they take other forms since it feels so true to the animal she portrays, but it is still obviously the character we know and love. Honestly, it makes me want the ability to change into an animal just to experience being me but in an entirely different body. Overall, I enjoyed the novel, and so will anyone else who has read any of Kelley’s books or enjoys a fast paced, supernatural thrill ride about the lives, futures, and freedom of characters written so well, I sometimes forget I am reading a book. Notable Scene: A loud buzzing sound made us all jump. I found a radio tucked under the counter. “Hello?” “Maya. I should have known you’d be the one to pick up.” My hand gripped the radio tighter as I recognized the voice. “Who is this?” “I think you know.” I moved to the front window. He was there. He lifted his free hand and smiled. I pulled back from the window. “My name is Calvin Antone,” he said. “But what’s important isn’t who I am, but what I am, to you.” Daniel moved closer. He could hear Antone. They all could. I thought of lifting the radio to my ear, but I knew that wouldn’t help. I walked back to the counter, taking shelter behind it. “What are you doing to my dog?” “We’re taking good care of Kenjii. We just didn’t want her to get hurt trying to protect you.” I twitched when he said her name. I didn’t want him knowing that. He had no business with her or any part of my life. “Maya?” “What?” He sighed. “All right. We’ll pretend you haven’t already guessed. You’re my daughter.”FTC Advisory: Harper Teen provided me with a copy of The Calling. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

[kayceel_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As much as I enjoy Kelley Armstrong's adult books, I've been frustrated by her teen books - specifically the need to stretch a story into a trilogy. Honestly, this and the Darkest Powers trilogy could each have been one book; each book in the series ends on an unnecessary cliffhanger and the second book (in each series) is just one long chase scene. Sigh.However, she does write interesting characters, and Maya is no different. She has recently discovered she's a shapeshifter - a cougar - and dealing with a Cabal (a magic mob, basically) trying to capture her and her friends. Exciting, yes, but I'd wait to read the series til they've all been released. To do otherwise is an exercise in frustration...

[mlsimmons-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Let me say first, I'm a huge Kelley Armstrong fan. I love the adult Otherworld series. I enjoyed the YA series Darkest Powers. This trilogy is even better. I love Maya, Rafe and Daniel. I'm also a very large fan of Kenjii. She is a cool dog. Now have I have to wait a year for the next book, that sucks.

[silentq_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a very quick read, her YA book trilogies could work as a single novel. I didn't like this quite as much as the first in the series, the big mysteries have been worked out and the supernatural teens are trying to find a safe place from the people hunting them through the woods on Vancouver Island. It's very reminiscent of the previous YA trilogy, down to relatives that you can't/won't trust, the only difference being that the powers that these teens have developed are different. The love triangle is a bit clumsy as well. I may have to go an re-read her OCD hit woman books again to restore my faith, and then hold off on reading her YA ones until I can consume the whole series at once.

[isa_lavinia-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Action, action, action, but not much happens. It wasn't bad, but I just didn't feel as connected to these characters as I did to the ones in the Darkest Powers series.

And honestly with the love triangle crap... Daniel or Rafe? Rafe or Daniel? I swear, I'm so tired of this cliché I've started rooting for Maia to end up with Sam! At least she's undeniably kick-ass and awesome!

[kmjanek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly Recommended The second book in this trilogy did not disappoint. Maya and her friends are trying to survive out in the woods as they are being chased by adults with guns and tranquilizer darts. It’s becoming apparent that there is a huge cover up happening in Salmon Creek. Maya and Daniel made it back after the forest fire and not getting caught by the bad guys. Unfortunately, it seems as though one of their friends may have turned on the rest of them. One of the people chasing Maya is her biological father, but Maya wants nothing to do with him. In the meantime, her shifter powers are coming out and she can’t stop it. However, she is able to shift, while keeping her cognitive abilities. This was a twist the adults were not expecting. The group of friends keep getting smaller as they are caught by the adults, but Maya and Daniel manage to escape capture. The story ends with them trying to make their way to Vancouver to get lost in a big city and hopefully find the one person that might be able to help them.There are a lot of twists and turns. Not only do Maya and Daniel not know whom to trust, the reader does not know whom to trust. With the conclusion to the second book, there is a connection to Buffalo, NY. This trilogy is connected to the Darkest Powers trilogy. There are definitely complex feelings between Maya/ Rafe and Maya /Daniel. The author keeps throwing details into the story that make it impossible to choose or root for a potential boyfriend. There are definitely themes of friendship, love, loyalty, honesty and responsibility woven in to the story.The setting and the characters have so much detail that it is easy to get lost in the book. I think this book and this trilogy would make a great addition to a school or public library. It is a paranormal story that I think would have a larger audience appeal. It has a great mix of realism, history, action, romance and superpowers. The characters are likeable and strong. The reader is hoping they will survive out in the wilderness to solve the mystery of who they are and where they came from. I don’t think there is anything that is objectionable for High School teens. It is a well written book that keeps the reader coming back for more. I definitely recommend it is a great teen read. It would be good for book clubs and there is a great companion website.