Born of Air……. Well….. That was….. Interesting….
So, I just finished the 5th book in the Elemental Origins series; Born of Air. A.L. Knorr did well, although it felt very short, had a very different tone and sort of just… stopped. This curiosity will be harder for me to express, I think. I hope you can follow my ever morphing train of thought here, Curious One, because by the end of this, I myself may even be confused.
(I will be discussing each book in the series. Skip down to the Release Schedule!)
Born of Air‘s Mysterious Beginnings
The prologue of Born of Air was a remarkable start! You are introduced to a young woman who is pregnant and doesn’t speak English, although she was taken to a hospital where they only speak English. There was a lot of mystery and intrigue within the short prologue and because of that I wanted more than there was.
The young woman has eclampsia. The doctors do all they can, but they were only able to save the baby girl. Before giving birth, a nurse found the janitor of the hospital which could speak a little bit of Arabic. She told him she was from Jordan and that there was no father. Moments before giving birth and dying, she wrote something down on a piece of paper. It was a name for a baby girl…
Petra Kara is 19 years old. At first, you notice the change in tone of Born of Air. It was fitting, seeing how Petra is 19 and not 17 like the other girls, however I think that maybe the switch was so sudden and the book so short that I felt a disconnect from the whole story. As Petra’s history is explained I felt a connection to it and her, but with the other girls it was a lot about improving themselves and growing and loving and with Petra’s story it was more about telling people she had abilities.
She grew up in the foster care system. She had gratefully found a loving ‘mother’ who took her in and kept her until she passed away suddenly from cancer. It was a relief to not read yet another back story where Petra was used and abused in the foster system. I’m not saying that she had it easy, of course she didn’t, but it was a nice break from the thousands of back stories in novels that revolve entirely around the trauma of foster care. I enjoyed it.
Due to the foster care background, you are able to assume correctly that the young woman from the prologue was in fact Petra’s mother. Also because of the foster care system, she had a regular psychologist that she visited frequently up until she came of age.
You are introduced to this psychologist via an odd, peculiar, and semi-fatherly way. She tries to get him to help her get a spot on an archaeology dig somewhere near Iraq. Petra is determined to go to Cambridge next year after saving enough money. She had already gotten accepted, she just couldn’t afford the tuition. He refuses and the next thing she does is literally blurt out to him that she can read minds. He is disbelieving, of course, and after she demonstrates that she is being truthful he shows fear.
Naturally.
Information Shock
That is a big bomb to drop on anyone, let alone a psychologist. This line continues further when she also reveals that she is telekinetic. She moved a water glass across the table. In the end, she realized that he couldn’t help her. Her hope was that he had run into someone, anyone, in his line of work who had the same abilities or similar. She wanted some answers and some help. She left his office and that was that.
You can feel the passion and determination about archaeology and Cambridge rolling off of Petra’s character. She is young, ambitious and full of the hope that she will one day make her dreams come true.
On her way to work, she sees a bulletin posted about an excavation. Her excitement, hope, and ambition are enough to make her call and schedule an appointment; even though she is so young and has no experience. It was a beautiful moment for her, realizing that her dreams could actually happen. I’m a sucker for dreams coming true…
Far Away Discoveries
Of course, she gets into the program and off she goes to the Acacus Mountains near Libya (this is in the southern part of North Africa). She has a meeting with the other members of the team, which due to her age she feels eyes on her for the majority of the time. She opens her mind to theirs and gets feelings of sadness. It’s confusing, especially to her because she is SO excited. It starts to give you the hesitative mystery and theme of Born of Air.
On her flight to Libya, she connects with two co-workers who are also part of the dig; Ibby and Jesse. On her adventure, she becomes close to Jesse and the two have a natural connection. They talk often during their dig, but every time she opens her mind, she gets sadness and confusion. It is super weird. They make some discoveries in the sand and even celebrate with some sand skiing! I think sand skiing would be fun if you had a bit of protection for when you fell.
Anyways, on a silent night Petra couldn’t sleep, she went for a walk and ran into Jesse who also couldn’t sleep. They decide to run on top of the rocks for a bit of fun under the clear, starry sky. During their fun, Petra slips and falls into a sand pit which takes her down into a cave. She yells for Jesse but he wasn’t there or couldn’t hear her so her curious mind kicks in and she begins to explore. She finds stones embedded into the walls and ovals highlighted by the glow of the moon. She steps into the ovals and suddenly her lungs fill to bursting with a wind. She floats off the ground and expands, taking in more and more air.
She was inhaling the Ghibli. Ghibli is a hot, dust-carrying North African wind that originates in the highland of Libya and blows towards the Mediterranean every spring and summer. It has been known to bury whole cities with sand overnight. The locals are terrified of Ghibli and they can lose everything if they aren’t careful or thoughtful of where they are and what they are doing.
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Run
During her experience, she has a vision of someone who looks like her. She thinks it is her father and he has one, simple message for her. “Run.”
Her experience ends and after she regains her thoughts she can hear the frequency on which every item in the cave runs on. She places her hand on one of the stones in the wall and matches her heartbeat to its frequency. It explodes and because of this, she is terrified and ashamed.
Finally, she hears Jesse calling her name and he helps her get out of the cave/hole and he “knows” something happened to her, which just adds to the mystery of everything in Born of Air. They get back to their camp and a few weeks pass with cautionary looks from Jesse and now Ibby as well. While Jesse and Ibby were talking about something, a stone overhead started to move and shift. Petra yells their names to get their attention, but they didn’t have enough time to get away before it would have crushed them. She runs towards them and catches the rock with her sound waves and telekinesis, saving them both from death. She guides the rock and finally sets it down.
After a while she turns to find everyone frozen in their tracks, just staring at her.
Introducing Euroklydon In Born of Air
Before her first word, all hell breaks loose. People run screaming “Euroklydon, Euroklydon, Euroklydon!” Everyone leaves except the handful of archaeologists that came on the plane with her to do the dig.
A Euroklydon is known by some as a tempest from the east carrying a wind of biblical proportions. Others know Euroklydon as a deity who controls winds.
More mystery is added when the people left with her don’t fear her or are too shocked about what she is. She tells them about her childhood and everything that happened in the cave. The next morning, they go to the cave to explore and find some potential answers.
When they all get back to their camp site, they go to sleep and Petra is kidnapped by a community where part of their security detail was from. With discussions to either kill her or turn her to join their cause, (remember, they believe her to be the goddess manifestation of the Ghibli itself, who has destroyed families and livelihoods for centuries), she is rescued by a woman she met during her sand skiing adventure – Molly.
Molly gets her back to her camp and advises her group to fly out first thing to keep Petra safe. They take her advice, but during the middle of the night they are ambushed by the group who kidnapped her. A battle ensues and Petra easily protects her friends without killing anyone.
The head person behind the dig comes and helps and is actually a ‘supernatural’ company, which means that Petra’s secret is safe. Ibby is also revealed to be a metal supernatural, so there is that too. Ibby and Petra are whisked away from the rest of the team (not given the chance to say goodbye to Jesse) and sent home.
Petra decided to be tested by the company to find some answers she was seeking by the only people who could have them.
During the epilogue, I was a bit dissatisfied. There is even more of the mysterious theme to this book and the company had so many secrets. They knew and were trying to test her father, her mother was probably running from the company trying to keep her unborn daughter from the clutches of their hands, they hire supernatural beings to be on their side so no one else can have them, they bribe them to keep them in line, and on and on the list of mysterious corporation goes.
I have an instant dislike to manipulation so before I even finished the short epilogue, I hated the company.
The people in charge are selfish and I hope they get their butts kicked in the final book if that is the route it takes.
You are also given a few tidbits of information. Petra is very, very powerful. Her ability to match sound wave frequencies gives her the ability to wipe out millions of people with just a thought and they have no experience in training someone of her caliber. The doctor who tested her wants to kill her and they have knowledge about the other four girls and want to recruit them. They plan on using Petra to do that and Jesse is mysteriously never heard from again. Ibby was dismissive enough about the true nature of the company that it made me question what her thoughts truly are about them and I want to know the circumstances of her recruitment. I am still curious here.
Final Thoughts on Born of Air
I will admit to you here, Curious One, I did not enjoy this book near as much as any of the others. It was very short and fast to read, which gave me little time to fully explore the world with Petra. I guess I am trying to say that the delivery of this novel was blunt, whereas all the others were expressive and creative. Perhaps A.L. Knorr was trying to give you more of a subconscious insight to Petra and her personality and past, but I got more of the impression that the author may have become a bit bored with these stories and just wanted her series to end.
Maybe it would be better for me as well if I just sat down and read the entire series without writing about each of them between. You know? Fully and entirely immerse myself into the world of Saltford and their travels and have a deeper, uninterrupted connection to all the girls together.
I really hope that the final book is cohesive and works them all uniquely and together in a beautiful collaboration of their future. I cannot wait to get started on the final book of the Elemental Origins and hopefully you enjoyed this book enough with me to read on as well. I’m about to get my answers and I cannot wait.
Are you ready for answers, Curious One? Because it’s time for another book….
Curiosity Release Schedule for Elemental Origins Series
Book 1: Born of Water – August 30th, 2020
Novella 1: The Wreck of Sybellen – September 1st, 2020
Book 2: Born of Fire – September 4th, 2020
Novella 2: Pyro: A Fire Novella – September 6th, 2020
Book 3: Born of Earth – September 9th, 2020
Book 4: Born of Aether – September 12th, 2020
Book 5: Born of Air – September 15th, 2020
Book 6: The Elementals – September 18th, 2020
I really hope you follow me along my journey of curiosity with the Elemental Series by A.L Knorr. I loved it and I hope to see some other curious faces visit my thoughts.
Make sure to visit A.L. Knorr’s website or her Twitter @ALKnorrBooks!
My next discussion will begin with the sixth book of the Elemental Origins Series, The Elementals. I’d love to see you there, Curious One! Subscribe to my blog to get an email when a new Curiosity posts!
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