Blood Colony by Tananarive Due

Blood Colony

by Tananarive Due
Series: The African Immortals #3
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
Published on June 3rd 2008
Pages: 422
Format: Hardcover Source: Library
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Acclaimed for seven novels, ranging from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction, which have garnered her a multitude of fans and awards, Tananarive Due now imagines the story of an ancient group of immortals -- a hidden African clan that has survived for more than a thousand years -- facing one of the most challenging issues of our time: the AIDS/HIV pandemic.There's a new drug on the street: Glow. Said to heal almost any illness, it is distributed by an Underground Railroad of drug peddlers. But what gives Glow its power? Its main ingredient is blood -- the blood of immortals. A small but powerful colony of immortals is distributing the blood, slowly wiping out the AIDS epidemic and other diseases around the world. Meet Fana Wolde, seventeen years old, the only immortal born with the Living Blood. She can read minds, and her injuries heal immediately. When her best friend, a mortal, is imprisoned by Fana's family, Fana helps her escape -- and together they run away from Fana's protected home in Washington State to join the Underground Railroad. But Fana has more than her parents to worry about: Glow peddlers are being murdered by a violent, hundred-year-old sect with ties to the Vatican. Now, when Fana is most vulnerable, she is being hunted to fulfill an ancient blood prophecy that could lead to countless deaths.While her people search for Fana and race to unravel the unknown sect's mysterious origins, Fana must learn to confront the deadly forces -- or she and everyone she loves will die.

Fana was last seen as an all-powerful toddler prone to killing people with her mind in The Living Blood. Now she is 17 and has chosen to live in virtual isolation.  She is a powerful psychic and being exposed to large numbers of people is too much for her.  Through the years she has met a few kids her age.  They are usually the children of the people helping her family to distribute their blood.

A pint of an immortal’s blood can be diluted with saline and given out a drop at a time to help cure blood-borne diseases like AIDS.  It is released slowly and secretly because of the violence that has met previous attempts to heal people.  Now a street version of the drug is showing up and Fana is the source.  She’s using the kids she met to distribute her blood in North America.

When her network contacts start dying violently, the adult immortals realize they are being hunted again.

Liked

  • I loved the first half of this book.  It seemed like a probable scenario that teenagers would reject the caution of their parents and try to do something radical that backfires on them.
  • There is a twist in the middle of the book that is done very quietly and is deliciously creepy.  I actually gasped.  I had to put the book down for a day just to let my mind wrap around it.

Didn’t like

  • The second half of the book didn’t stand up to the first for me.  It seemed to be more about setting up a confrontation for the next book instead of making this a complete story on its own.
three-stars