Tag: paranormal

 

Every book in this series have been marathon reads for me, and Etched in Bone was no exception.  I picked it up yesterday morning and pretty much did absolutely nothing else until I read the last page about midnight last night (although I did stop, in the name of marital harmony, to shovel some dinner down; luckily, there was a footy game on last night, so the shovelling went largely unnoticed).

I have loved every moment of this series; been sucked into this world so thoroughly that interruptions leave me hazy about reality and I have been as attached to these characters as much as, or more, than any others.  Possibly more than real people I know.

But… this one; this final book concerning Meg and Simon, was not as great as the first 4.  Because this book deviated from the rules the author created for The Others.  In any of the other books, Jimmy would have been a stain on the sidewalk before chapter 3.  I get what she was trying to do here, I get what she wanted to explore, but it was not done as gracefully, and the effect felt forced; its execution more heavy handed.  In short, Jimmy got on my nerves; I stopped being horrified and started getting irritated and mumbling ‘why isn’t this man dead yet???’.

Still, I’d recommend this to anyone who likes urban fantasy and/or parables.  Because this whole series is one giant parable about the human race: our capacity for grace, our capacity for vice, and our wholesale destruction of everything in our path as long as we remain unchecked.  As horrifying as The Others are, I can’t look around at what’s going on today and not sort of wish our Earth had Naimid’s teeth and claws to protect her.

I’m attached so thoroughly to these characters in the Courtyard, I’m not sure I’ll read the next book; which is apparently in the same universe but with a different setting and characters.  I want more Tess!  But I’ll definitely be re-reading these.

 

Well, obviously I loved this one. I almost went the whole 5 stars, but I was able to put it down when I finished and not just start re-reading it, so I figured it must be lacking something.  Let’s call it ‘not enough Tess’.

But honestly, I had some fears over this one because surely the author couldn’t keep on writing books this consistently good; surely there had to be a weakling among the litter?  If there is, it hasn’t yet been written.  Once I started it, I didn’t want to put it down.

That’s all I’m going to say, because I don’t want to spoil it for those that haven’t read it yet.  But yes, it is well worth the read.

Maybe my favourite of the nine books so far.  It was fast-paced, a little bit breathless and everybody pulled their heads out of their… and started acting like a unit instead of a roomful of kids hyped up on too much birthday cake.

Fire Touched took a page of out Zee’s book of philosophy and played no games; there weren’t any sly plots on the side, no melodramatic angst, no misapprehensions or misunderstandings.  It was a welcome change to have a story where Mercy and Adam worked together from beginning to end.  I loved that Zee got a lot more page-time and I think it might be a little wrong how much I liked Baba Yaga’s character.  These two and Margaret’s cameo made up for the absence of Samuel and the small bit with Bran (although I loved this scene, with Charles playing invisible chorus).

I’d have liked to have known more about Aiden’s power (how it works) and his past, although I did enjoy learning a bit more about Underhill and, I don’t know if the author intended this or not, I liked the allegory of mankind’s treatment of Earth.

At the end of the book, I had a feeling it lacked a very small something, but on thinking about it, I think that’s more about my expectation of side plots and melodrama (because let’s face it, that’s pretty much SOP in most books) going unfulfilled than anything of substance actually missing.  I went 4.5 stars because as much as I really enjoyed the plotting, the writing and the characters, fae politics just aren’t that fascinating to me, and that’s purely personal taste.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Briggs does next.

I knew (sort of) how this one ended and had put off starting it until the release of the ninth book was closer, but actually it’s not quite as cliff-hanging an ending as I was expecting.

I love this series; I love the humour, the snark, and the inclusion of a lot of old Christian mythology.  I like the way the author conveys the horror of bad things happening without making the reader wallow in it.

Eighth Grave After Dark is both the culmination and the deepening of the overall story arc.  We have the ultimate family reunion in addition to the cold and hot cases Charley is trying to solve.  Reyes becomes a bit more human too, if you’ll excuse the expression.  The author’s depiction of hell brought to mind scenes from Constantine and were incredibly effective.

The ending is … ok.  It’s a neat and tidy way of getting around what might have proven problematic in future plots, but it works for me.  I’m very much looking forward to the ninth book.