A man with no future . . .When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilization is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott's extraordinary new "gift"--he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences.A woman with a past . . .Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one . . . until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defenses, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart?If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that take them beyond danger.Beyond desire.

This story begins with tension and doesn’t let up until the final page. Ware uses powerful language to sketch the horror of a world that has been changed irrevocably to one that knows almost nothing of the technological society of 2010. The need to survive and the valiant efforts of the human population, the efforts to re-establish a society based on law, the constant fear of the night-stalking monsters created by the immortals, are all artfully described as well as the efforts of the Resistance movement undercover within the city that is built on the remains of what used to be Las Vegas. Within this dark and forbidding world scenario, the story of Elliott and Jade’s love is told, first as sexual attraction and ultimately as a love that withstands the tragedies caused by unmitigated evil. It is a powerful story of passion and regard. I really like Elliott, a man of ethics and honor, who takes his medical training and promises seriously, who respects and values Jade as a powerful woman who has survived torture and untold horrors at the hands of the immortals, as a woman who uses intelligence and strategy to find and defeat all who would crush the humans. He is a gentle and kind man, full of life but one who rarely if ever allows his baser instincts to drive his actions, even in a world that doesn’t seem to know much of the society that has formed him. He is not sure he can survive in the world as it now exists and he certainly doesn’t know if he can learn to live with his new “gift.” He glories in the power to heal but he is not sure he can figure out how to make the choices as to who should be healed and who must be allowed to die.

This is the first in this series and it is a powerful first-in-a-series novel. It holds the reader’s attention from start to finish. This story is crafted by an author that demonstrates a complete understanding of the writing task and fulfills the promise of this story line with aplomb. In its own peculiar way, even though this is fiction, it forces the reader to consider what it would be like to live in a world without so many goods and services we now take for granted. A reader who desires a substantive reading experience will not be disappointed in this book.

I give it a rating of 5 out of 5.

The Heroes of New Vegas