Feathered Quill Book Reviews

 #Bookreview of The Call of Abaddon (The Abaddon Cycle Book 1)

By: Colin Searle

Publisher: Searle Productions

Publication Date: July 29, 2025

ISBN: 978-1-069265302

Reviewed by: Ephantus Muriuki

Review Date: June 19, 2025

Some doors open into the future. Others into your past. And some... into something you never asked to remember...

Reading The Call of Abaddon (The Abaddon Cycle Book 1) by Colin Searle feels like dropping into a biopunk fever dream with cyberpunk flavor — except it's not style over substance. It's loud with the clank of metal limbs, thick with radioactive fog, and thrumming with the haunted voices of things that seem godlike but are, in truth, ancient alien intelligences pushing against the fabric of sanity. But what makes Colin Searle’s sci-fi epic more than just a neon-soaked joyride is the aching humanity behind it. Beneath the psionic powers, nanotech mutations, and ruined megacities is a deeply personal story about memory, trauma, and the terrifying idea that your mind may not be your own.

The book follows Jason — or “Subject 107,” who’s living underground in a post-collapse world where society has been fractured by war, biotech gone rogue, and a mysterious entity called the Abaddon Beacon. Jason’s trying to scrape together a life among scavengers, militia, robots, and other survivors in the hidden “Village” below New Toronto. He’s haunted by voices — literal ones — and is relying on a drug called Osmium to keep them at bay. But when a salvage mission leads him into contact with infected technology and long-dormant psychic powers, it becomes clear that Jason isn’t just being hunted — he might be the key to unleashing, or stopping, something ancient and cataclysmic.

Unbeknownst to him, the Abaddon Beacon — an alien obelisk sealed for over a century inside a United Earth Federation research facility — is leaking its viral psionic influence into the world, infecting tech, minds, and systems alike. And across the solar system, a ruthless Emperor is closing in, determined to claim its power.

The story unfolds through layered scenes packed with action, squad dynamics, and world-building details that drip with texture. You can feel the grit under your nails. Whether it’s scaling a half-sunken spaceship teetering above a crater or navigating a malfunctioning energy dome that barely keeps a storm-wracked Earth at bay, the setting is always alive, always threatening to cave in. But what keeps you hooked isn’t just the spectacle — it’s the characters.

Jason and his brother David, their close ally Sam (a powerful psionic with secrets of her own), and their hulking robot companion Talos are all sketched with just the right blend of attitude, loyalty, and fatigue. These people are tired — emotionally and physically — but they keep moving, scavenging tech, mentoring green recruits, and doing their best not to go mad. Their banter is gold, especially with Talos, whose dry existential sarcasm gives the book some well-needed levity.

Here’s a feel of Searle’s style from a moment when the story’s tone shifts from grounded sci-fi into cosmic techno-horror:

“Find us, Jason…” Jason sucked in a breath as another whisper from nowhere tickled his tired mind. Abaddon. How the hell was it breaking through the drug barrier? “Anywhere you run, we can reach you. Anywhere you hide, we will find you. The only way out … is to find us …”

It’s this balance — grounded struggle and eldritch, psionic threat — that gives The Call of Abaddon (The Abaddon Cycle Book 1) its heartbeat. While Jason is wrestling with his identity and psychic inheritance, the world itself feels unstable, like it’s held together with rusted bolts and bad memories. The “nanophage” — a horrifying mutation of helpful tech — is creeping into everything. And through it all, the voice of Abaddon is a chilling whisper in the corner of your mind, asking what you’d sacrifice for the truth.

Quill says: The Call of Abaddon (The Abaddon Cycle Book 1) by Colin Searle reads like a mash-up of Mass Effect, Neuromancer, and Akira, with enough visual flair to make it wildly cinematic. But what sticks is the vulnerability — the idea that saving the world might mean confronting the darkest version of yourself. There are echoes of Dune in how psychic power and legacy intertwine, and hints of The Expanse in the way factions and tech politics brew tension beneath every decision — all wrapped in the creeping dread of Lovecraftian influence.

For more information about The Call of Abaddon (The Abaddon Cycle Book 1), please visit the author's website at: www.colinsearle.com