THE LAST WITNESS returns in Shattered Prophecy

Last December, I talked a bit about THE LAST WITNESS.  As a big fan of THE DESTROYER, I was eager to read the spin-off series LEGACY by Warren Murphy and Gerald Welch.  While I was waiting for the next LEGACY book, Welch had mentioned to me that he had another series called THE LAST WITNESS.  I liked it so much, I ended up reading the first four books of the series over a long weekend. 

The Last Witness is an alien prince named Shiloh.  He is sent to Earth at a young age when his older brother stages a coup taking over the planet and killing their father.  Shiloh doesn’t remember his home world of Ehrets, all he knows is that he has been sickly most of his live.  The alien computer Mattis sent to monitor him ends up triggering his abilities as “The Witness.”  Unfortunately, this awakening has put Shiloh in the crosshairs of threats on both Ehrets and on Earth. 

The Last Witness Book 5: Shattered Prophecy
Paperback- $7.99
Kindle - $2.99
Published by Bookmason Publishing
126 pages

The newest book in the series is SHATTERED PROPHECY.  The demon Asbeel has decided that the best way for him to break free of his set role in the universe is that if he can prove God wrong.  He focuses on a prophecy about God standing on the Mount of Olives.  Asbeel works to manipulate events to destroy the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount with nuclear weapons to make it so that prophecy could never come true.

Welch manages to get more in these 126 pages than most much longer books I’ve read.  At the end of the last book, Shiloh’s mentor Gerah discovered that his long believed dead wife may be alive.  This has driven Gerah a little crazy, and he seems to almost have a death wish at certain points of this book.  We also follow Asbeel’s intricate plan on destroying the Mount of Olives.  And we see a disgraced government agent deciding to take matters in his own hands in how to deal with the Witness.  Shiloh is also struggling because at the end of the last book, his adopted mother collapsed with a brain aneurysm, and even with all of his powers, there doesn’t seem like Shiloh can do anything about it. 

Even though there is a lot going on here, it is all balanced very well.  I never felt like any one element was being overshadowed.  Shiloh’s part in this book was a little smaller than in the earlier books, but I thought that worked really well here, and made his appearance in the end that much more important. 

Welch, especially in his LEGACY books, has a great way of integrating social commentary in his books.  You can tell how much he was inspired by Warren Murphy in his DESTROYER book.  The commentary was a little more subtle here, but I really enjoyed seeing the various ways he played on the theme of "men who were powerful...but only in their own eyes."  We saw a President cowed by the First Lady and the African Dictator that the UN felt very comfortable laughing in his face (more on him later).  Even Asbeel's own power was no where near what he thought it was in the end.  

In this book, we are also told of one of Samson's descendants, a woman who was a badass demon slayer.  I definitely want to know more about her story!

I do have to say that after all of the buildup, it did almost feel like the final confrontation between Shiloh, Gerah, and Asbeel was a little rushed.  It did open up some really interesting questions about God, Angels, and Shiloh’s connection to them, so as part of the bigger picture, I liked it a lot.  And the last line (before the epilogue) felt like a kick in the stomach. 

THE LAST WITNESS series has been getting stronger each book, and SHATTERED PROPHECY seems to set up a lot of bigger things to come.  I thought the story with a demon trying to prove God wrong was really clever and well done, especially with the modern twists like including nuclear weapons.  You can get these books for a great price on Amazon, and I would highly reccomend them.

As a LEGACY fan, I really appreciated that this book had a clever crossover to LEGACY.  The world’s dumbest African dictator Musobote plays a major part in the book (after a hilarious prologue where he is tricked by a French fashion designer) and Welch promised more crossovers to come.  To celebrate this, Critical Blast will be posting up a contest featuring some awesome THE LAST WITNESS and LEGACY swag.  More information on that to come.

One last comment, you may notice at the top of this review, we have a little required FTC note that tells the reader that we often get free reviewer copies.  But for THE LAST WITNESS and LEGACY, I am such a fan of the series, that even when we have been offered review copies, I always decline and insist on being a customer.  In fact, I own most of them in print and digital. That is how much I love these series and want to show my support.