5/5 stars on Goodreads
It’s been a while since a book captured my attention so
completely that I just kept reading through the night without the need to check
social media or other distractions even once. Written in Red by Anne Bishop
managed that rare feat. It’s the first book in The Others series, published in
2013. I’ve long meant to read the series, but I only now had a chance to. All I
can say is, I should’ve read it sooner.
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| Written in Red by Anne Bishop |
One of the reasons I’ve postponed reading it is because I
believed it to be fantasy, as the other books by Bishop that I’ve read have
been. The cover of the book strengthened the notion too. But it’s actually
urban fantasy set in modern world with a unique origin story. The world is
ruled by the Others, beings who can assume the look of humans, but who are all
either apex predators or elementals with huge powers. Humans are meat to them,
in minority, and fairly thoroughly subservient to Others. Humans are tolerated
because of their innovative nature, but—should the need arise—they are easily
disposed of too.
However, the story isn’t really about the conflict between
humans and the Others. It’s about a woman who isn’t completely either. Meg is a
blood prophet who seeks shelter among the Others and begins to carve a life for
herself there. Having grown up in an institution with no outside contacts, both
the human world and the world of the Others is alien to her.
The book has a great cast of characters, many of whom get
their own point of view chapters. Meg is a bit of a Mary Sue, in a sense that
everyone instantly likes her. That is explained with her special nature, but it’s
still a bit too convenient how predators who don’t really understand humans at
all fall for her kindness so easily. But it’s also amusing and charming to
watch those interactions.
The Others are violent and convincingly alien. Unlike in
urban fantasy in general, there are no mitigating characteristics that would
make them more acceptable to readers. Simon, the leading male character, is a
wolf, and although he has to spend a lot of time looking like human and
interacting with them, his reaction to most things is that of an animal. There
is rapport being built between him and Meg, but to describe it as a romance
would be making it too human.
Despite the non-human nature of the Others, they are the
good guys of the story. The bad guys are all human. The divide is fairly black
and white too, which makes the inevitable conflict fairly straight-forward. Bad
people want Meg back, even if they have to risk an attack against the Others. In
the end, the conflict isn’t as interesting as everything else that is happening
in the book.
Meg’s story continues in subsequent books, so this is
only the beginning. And since I’m a latecomer to the series, I don’t have to
wait to read them all.
***
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| Siren's Song by Karen Chance |
3/5 stars on Goodreads
Siren’s Song by Karen Chance is an in-between book in
her Cassandra Palmer series. It’s a companion book to Dragon’s Claw, an earlier
in-between book. Both take place in magical Hong Kong during an attack against
it, but in the first the star is Dorina Basarab, and in this one it’s John
Pritkin, the war mage. Both books have a couple of scenes where they interact,
and it’s fun to witness the characters of different series meeting.
For an additional book—a novella like the cover says—this is a long-one; a hundred
thousand words, according to the author, so a full-length book. Half of it would’ve sufficed. The
book starts well, but it evolves into an endless, endlessly repetitive battle
that is so confusing that it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. And in the
end, it doesn’t even matter. All the fighting has no impact on the outcome of
the story.
I like Pritkin. He is by far my favourite character in
Cassandra Palmer series, and more of him is always better than less. But
despite the length of the book, I felt like I didn’t know him any better in the
end than I did before. Instead of the endless mayhem, there should’ve been more
internalising, something that would’ve strengthened the character. The author
has struggled with this, but has become better in the past couple of books. It’s
therefore upsetting that she’s reverted to her earlier bad habits.
There aren’t all that many books left in the series in
general. The author has told that her publisher has dropped her, but that she’ll
self-publish the rest. If Siren’s Song is an example of how those books will
turn out, they might be disappointing.
