Review: Prequel to MPire Trilogy by T. L. James Now Out!

The Mpire: Chronicles of



The Haulm Boys

By T. L. James
PHE Ink
ISBN: 9780982447543


I don’t know how she does it, but I was on page 75 of The Mpire: Chronicles of the Haulm Boys by T. L. James, before I realized it! I had already read The Mpire: In Search of the Lost and had The Mpire: Death Cometh on my Wish List, until yesterday when I proceeded with my order.

Chronicles of the Haulm Boys is a prequel to the Trilogy. My guess is that it was written based upon questions from James’ fans. Essentially, it takes readers into the early lives of the Four Horsemen—yes, that is who the Haulm Boys are—and explains how and when Mallory left the family, presumably dead, and returned. Personally, I didn’t find it hard to move into the first book, but for those who are interested in details of the lives of each of the involved men, then you will definitely want to add this prequel!

All I have to say is—Wow, this is soooome family!

First of all, there is a generation of Haulm men that now rules the family; with Uncle Mal as the head. He is brother to Malcolm, the father of the boys who will become The Four Horsemen. Specifically, Marc represents Pestilence; Marek is War; Marlon represents Famine; while Mallory will find out that he represents Death. The four brothers are responsible for keeping the balance of power between Angels and Humans.

Early in the prequel, there is a telling scene about the family. Malcolm is making breakfast for each of the boys, who each order an entirely different breakfast. Pork chops and oatmeal for one! Mallory has not yet come to the table and Malcolm smilingly indicates that he did not sleep well last night—and if you catch my reference to why, you are probably right.

In the meantime, Uncle Mal is demanding that Mallory come to breakfast, sit down and recite his Psalm prayer! In the midst of total chaos, one brother suddenly hears Mallory whispering in a quivering voice, “The Lord if my shepherd...” And then he looked down at Mallory’s feet and say the thick dark red blood streaming down his leg.”

And soon, as men in black, broke into the home, it was realized that Mallory was gone...

Jealousy, betrayal, threats, and deceit are all normal within this family. Each brother tries to find his own way, only to find out what one of his own family has done...This is a scary family that thinks nothing of execution of another family member, if warranted by those that make the decisions.

I’m still trying to project what might happen in the last two books, but, really, I haven’t a clue! And that’s good right? Because the creativity and unique storyline T. J. James presents in the prequel, TheMPire: Chronicles of the Haulm Boys and the upcoming two books of the Trilogy has just got to be read if you have been hooked! I’m one of those; You too? Then, look for my review of the second book in the Trilogy coming soon!

And if you haven’t read any of these books yet, I’d recommend you start with the prequel, since it has a short excerpt of each of the books in the Mpire Trilogy for you to read!

G. A. Bixler