Synopsis:
Isaac Frost is an assassin. Raised in the Graveyard of the cruel and mysterious Undertaker, he has mastered the deadly art of the knife and the skill of survival, together with scores of others just like him—young men taken from their families to become the most infamous killers throughout the realms of elves and humans. But Isaac is unique: a single drop of another’s blood can confer upon him the knowledge and power of friend and foe alike.
After crossing paths with the elf queen Argent, Isaac is sent to a strange magical school for wayward practitioners in the hopes that he can learn where he—and his unusual talent—fit in the world. Isaac is charmed by the school’s chaotic nature and finds himself unexpectedly drawn to Vran, a Sea Elf haunted by secret knowledge.
But Vran isn’t the only one with secrets, and Isaac’s arrival is no accident. The Undertaker has charged him with infiltrating the school for the purpose of destroying it utterly, and his future rests on completing his mission—before the Undertaker takes matters into his own hands.
Review:
Note: I wasn’t originally planning to read this book, because I didn’t realize it was related to the Adam Binder series. After chatting with the author about his latest release, Redneck Revenant, he told me some of the events in Redneck Revenant might not make sense without reading Rogue Community College, and I decided to take his advice.
While this book had a distinctly different feel than the Adam Binder novels did, I liked it all the same. It’s part magical academia, part murder-mystery, with a dash of romance, all built upon the realms featured in the Adam Binder series (but don’t worry; you don’t need to read the series to read Rogue Community College. It’s related, but works as a standalone/book 1 of a new series.)
Isaac Frost is the main character. Though he’s trained as an assassin, the book begins with him working on his first official job in that role. He works for the Undertaker, a ruthless, undead taskmaster who takes boys to his realm in order to train them. Most don’t know where they came from, but they all share something in common: their superhuman abilities. Isaac is a Phage, and he’s never met another of his kind. With a single drop of blood, he can borrow the abilities of the donor—whether they’re willing or not—for a time (he is not a vampire, as blood isn’t required to sustain him.)
Isaac is sent to infiltrate a new magical school responsible for training Guardians. The school itself is alive, and it’s his job to kill it, but doing so isn’t an easy affair. He must win the trust of fellow students and the professors alike, but none of them trust him. None but the sea elf, Vran.
Vran is a character from the Adam Binder series and has a really complicated past, between his royal father and some of the actions he took in the other series. I really liked Vran in both the series and this book, but getting to know him through Isaac’s eyes—and the super cute romance they shared—was nice. But Vran has other obligations due to his past, which makes things difficult for him and Isaac sometimes.
There are other students too. Hex, who uses math to create magic; Daffodil, whose touch can poison and kill; Ford, who is a wood troll (and one of my favorites of the bunch—I loved his upbeat demeanor, even though he has a tough time interacting with some people); Jack, the librarian made of metal and wires; and Shy, who appears mostly invisible, and who becomes harder to see when more people are around him. All of them are there to learn how to best use their unique abilities, along with the etiquette and politics involved in and between the various realms of existence. To fit in and gain the necessary information to complete his job for the Undertaker, Isaac has to attend class, even though he doesn’t enjoy the curriculum at first.
But the longer he’s at the school, and the more he falls for Vran, Isaac begins to question the validity of his mission and whether it’s worthwhile to continue along the path the Undertaker has chosen for him. He learns there are other ways to deal with conflict, that things can be resolved peacefully, and he begins to change. I loved watching Isaac’s character grow up during this book, and I hope we’ll get to see more of him at some point in the future.
There are a few other characters from the Adam Binder series that make appearances in Rogue Community College, like Argent and Silver, and even Adam himself (briefly.) But even with all the cross-over, this really does work as a standalone and an introduction into that whole world. I enjoyed my time with this book, and I’m excited to dive into Redneck Revenant next.
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