All That Lives Must Die by Eric Nylund – Review

San Francisco’s Paxington Institute ain’t no Hogwarts. I like the Harry Potter books and consider J.K. Rowling an excellent author, but in Eric Nylund’s All That Lives Must Die, his sequel to Mortal Coils, half-Immortal, half-Infernal teen siblings Eliot and Fiona Post find out that failing a test or class at the new high school they’re enrolled could prove to be fatal.  Both sides of the post family in Nylund’s Mortal Coils fought a vicious custody battle over Eliot and Fiona, and though they passed three tests that placed them in the custody of the Immortals, in All That Lives Must Die the real all-out war for them begins. It’s one of the best YA novels I’ve read in a long time, and this series just might ensure Eric Nylund’s own literary immortality.

Their mother is Audrey a goddess and also one of the three Fates. She’s otherwise known as Atropos and she can cut the thread of life as easily as you or I butter bread. Their father Louis, the Prince of Darkness or Lucifer himself,  has fallen out of favor with the other Infernals and had lost his memory for sixteen years believing himself to be a homeless street person. He regained his memory in Mortal Coils and wants to do all he can to get himself restored in power, which means he has to get his Underworld Lands that he lost to the other Infernals back. Though he seems to genuinely care for his children, and appears to want to look after their best interests, he is not called the Father of Lies for nothing.  His own interests generally outweigh anybody else’s, even Eliot’s and Fiona’s, and he – like the other Infernals – use them as pawns to further their own reputations.

Fiona and Eliot are coming to terms with who they are and in All That Lives Must Die they face their biggest challenge yet, a high school filled with students just like themselves, descended from the Immortals, the Infernals, and the most powerful mortal magical families in the world. Their initial test is finding and getting into the Paxington Institute on time their first day of school  is difficult enough as it is supposed to be at the intersection of two streets that don’t intersect according to their map. How they finally get to the Paxington Institute is one of the many cool things about this book and it whetted my appetite to read more about Eliot’s and Fiona’s adventures, especially how they somehow manage to do well enough to stay alive and the intrigues and schemes that they’re involved in, both at their school and outside of it.

They only have two classes to start with at Paxington. You may think it’d be sweet if you just had to take two classes each day at your school, but the classes are exceedingly difficult ones. They have History, taught by the headmistress of the school, Miss Westin, and gym class, taught by Mr. Ma. The History class requires that the students have knowledge of legends, myths, and the history of the Earth’s mortal magical families. Fiona and Eliot are assigned a lengthy reading list to catch up with the rest of the teens, because these are areas of knowledge sadly lacking in the otherwise exemplary education of the Posts, due to Rule 55 of the 106 rules that Audrey has imposed upon them, supposedly for their own good:

Rule 55: No books, comics, films, or other media of the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres – especially, but not limited to, the occult or pseudosciences (alchemy, spirituality, numerology, etc.) or any ancient or urban mythology.

The teens are amazed when Audrey suspends this rule, and Rule 34, which has is a prohibition against playing any instrument, singing, or humming music, two rules gone in one day. But, the new, additional rules of the League of Immortals and the Paxington Institute that they’re under kind of take the joy out of them from the suspension of Rules 55 and 34.

All of the students are split up into various teams their first day of school, teams that they’ll be on throughout the entire year. The leader of the team Eliot and Fiona find themselves on, Team Scarab, is Jeremy Covington. He and his sister, Sarah, are descended from an Irish mortal magical family, and are very snobbish about it. Fiona and Eliot want to tell everybody that they belong to the League of Immortals, and are descended from the Immortals and the Infernals, but talking about this is against one of the most important rules the League has imposed on them, so they have to keep the truth a secret.  Two other members that wind up on their team, Robert Farmington and Jezebel, an Infernal, also were in Mortal Coils. Robert Farmington had been a driver for their uncle Henry Mimes, and Fiona had developed a little crush on him. He fell into disfavor with the League of Immortals, to put it mildly, and they kicked him out. Mr. Mimes got him into the Paxington Institute – at least, this is the story Eliot and Fiona are told – as a sort of payback for his good work, and that he got kicked out of the League. In reality, he’s there to spy on the Posts, aid them if they need it, and to further Mimes’ own plans.

Jezebel, one of the Duchesses of Queen Sealiah’s Poppy Lands in the Underworld, used to be Julie Marks when she was a mortal. Eliot had a crush on her, much like Fiona had with Robert. Eliot can’t help but notice the remarkable resemblance, but thinks there’s no way that Julie could have become an Infernal. Jezebel is, like Julie was, amazingly beautiful, attracting the attentions of all of the guys at Paxington. She’s there to spy for Sealiah and report back to her, but despite emotions that should have been long dead, like her old self, Jezebel feels an attraction towards Eliot.

The gym class is really a training, a preparation for the teams to meet up against each other in races to secure the flags of the participating teams. Half of whatever winning team must make it to their flag, racing through a grueling obstacle course and maze, parts of the course being forty feet in the air. If neither team has half or more of its members able to reach their flag within a set time limit, it’s considered a loss for both teams. Many people get injured, break bones, and some even die each year participating in this competition. Reading about the competitions between the teams and Eliot’s use of the violin, Lady Dawn, that Louis gave him to musically combat the other teams, was one of the plot’s many inventive elements.

All That Lives Must Die is a tour de force that’s guaranteed to solidify Eric Nylund’s standing as one of today’s top authors of Urban Fantasy. I can’t wait to read the next novel in the series, whenever it comes out, to find out what happens next. The adventures Eliot and Fiona Post experience and the daily tests they have to undergo to prove themselves worthy are very imaginative, and make what is a novel that’s almost 700 pages long seem to breeze by. The book’s title, All That Lives Must Die, is taken from Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, as was Mortal Coils. Nylund’s creative use of explanatory footnotes and his having Eliot and Fiona engage in bouts of vocabulary insults, insulting and attempting to outdo each other, was entertaining and lots of fun to read. I give this, and Mortal Coils, my highest recommendation–check them out today!