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This is book 7 in Illona Andrews Kate Daniels series. Illona Andrews is a husband and wife writing team, which makes them a bit unique in the genre and perhaps explains why Daniels books stand out.
Anyhow, this book was by far the most satisfying read that I've had in the last four months. Been in a bit of a reading slump of late. While it was suspenseful, and resonated for me on multiple levels, plus has a wicked dry wit...that equals my own, (always helps when the writer has the same sense of humor that you do), it was not as good as the previous novels. In part due to the deadline, it felt rushed - the plot felt rushed in places. As if the writers were barreling through it to get from point A-C as fast as possible. It's an end of an arc - and that may well have been part of the problem.
That said, I did enjoy it quite a bit. If you are unfamiliar with the series or forgot what happened in the previous novels - the writers provide you with a rather succinct summary of what occurred before in a prologue that is written as blurb from the lead character's friend/lawyer - Barabaras. We also get a short list of key characters and their bios. Just to familiarize everyone. Now, having just completed George RR Martin's latest magnum opus A Dance With Dragons, I failed to see the necessity for it and found it rather amusing that they felt they had to. After all Martin doesn't do it - and he has over 1000 characters to keep track of and a convoluted plot.
The plot races along at a fevered pitch. The heroine barely gets to take a breath before she is thrust into the next calamity. Which, from a reader's perspective, does require a wee bit of suspension of disbelief. This is, however, a common enough failing of the urban fantasy genre, I'm looking at you Jim Butcher, that I was able to hand-wave it. The readers of the urban fantasy genre don't have a lot of patience for down-time. Fickle creatives with short attention spans - or so the writers may believe.
Hence the furiously paced plots.
The fevered pitch of the plot and action sequences don't bode well for the steamy sex scene, described as weirdly steamy by Publishers Weekly. Curran and Kate have just escaped a prison, been racing from bad guys, confronted bad guys, and been without a shower, a comfortable bed, or nourishment for about two weeks. The moment they resolve the major issues, get a touch of downtime, they jump each others bones. It's a brief scene. I'm not sure I'd call it steamy. Did jar me a bit - not because I don't like sex scene - I actually prefer sex scenes to fight scenes - the outcome is less bloody and no one dies. One is about loving someone else and creating/appreciating life, the other is about destroying someone else, hating life, and destroying it. Which would I rather read? Let me think.
Unfortunately the writers are better at writing fight scenes. It appears to be absurdly easier to write about killing things than making love or having sex. Maybe because the latter is so intimate and exposes us more? When you write about sex - you write about something you do, possibly a lot, or think about. When you write about killing things - it is just, hopefully, something you imagine but have not done. Sometimes it is easier or less scary to write about what we imagine? There's a rawness in sex scenes that isn't present in a fight scene. Which may explain why so many writers struggle with it, some avoid it altogether.
These two at least tried. I think it would have worked better if they timed it differently. Put a bit more space between the sex scene and the last conflict. Maybe had the sex scene in the shower? The last book had a better sex scene - it was in the shower.
Other than that? No real quibbles here. There are a few typos, but nothing that drags you out of the story. And they are to be expected in a book that was rushed. If a writer takes 5 years, I expect higher quality, if they churn it out in 9-12 months, I expect a few errors here and there.
I adored the writers use of obscure Eastern and Middle Eastern Mythology. Along with her rewriting and subversion of biblical text. The antagonist, not sure villain is the right word, is Nimrod aka Roland, the Great Hunter, and builder of towers including the Tower of Babel - which the heroine states was actually an allegory for the fall of magic, magic overwhelmed the world, so tech fought back, now the world has shifted in the opposite direction and magic is fighting back. Roland was a lot more interesting and complicated than expected. These books have complicated and rather fascinating villains. Also, extremely well written and interesting female characters - the writers aren't afraid of female power, nor feel a need to denigrate it - unlike the vast majority of urban fantasy writers. Nor do they appear to have gender bias. There's also more than one character who is homosexual or bisexual, without much or any fanfare.
The ending worked for me, and didn't seem to be much of a twist - I was admittedly somewhat spoiled on it, but the groundwork was well-laid. It also lent itself rather well to the overall theme regarding power and how corrupting it can be. There's a rather apt quote which forshadows Curran and Kate's decision at the end. "To have power, you have to be willing to sacrifice your friends and be ruthless enough to put the needs of the many over the needs of the few." In short, you have to be willing to throw someone to the dogs or leave them behind. Kate can't do it. In her discussion with fittingly enough a were-rat, Robert, he tells her that her unwillingness to put her own safety over the 16 year old boy she cares about makes her a good person but not a good leader for the Pack. As leader, her life is more important. But she can't put her life before another's. Which makes her a good hero, but not necessarily a good leaders. Leaders, Robert points out, have to be ruthless bastards. Curran has a similar dilemma, when it comes time to save Kate from a prison stronghold, he has to fight his own council to do it. They insist that he is too valuable to risk - and to let her go or send someone else.
Curran had built his organization - in order to protect his wife and children and family. Only to discover that leading the organization would put them in jeopardy and that what he built would not protect them. That the villain, he was attempting to protect Kate from - could walk through his fortress as if it were made of sticks, with no one noticing. Power - didn't provide him with the safety and stability he valued, instead it was crunch on his time and took him away from what he desired. It's an interesting and well-done examination of how hollow a thing power is.
Their choice is between safety and power. The safety of themselves and all they hold dear, along with their city, the Pack, etc - or the power to rule over it. A nice theme for our times - for I think this is a choice most leaders make around the world, but few appear to understand it.
Overall, an fun and well-written ride. I wish they'd been given a bit more time to fine-tune it. Or better editorial support. But then I'd have had to wait longer to read it. And considering I just read a book that took over 6 years to write and get published and was twice the size of this one, I'd have to say length and time doesn't necessarily make it better.
Anyhow, this book was by far the most satisfying read that I've had in the last four months. Been in a bit of a reading slump of late. While it was suspenseful, and resonated for me on multiple levels, plus has a wicked dry wit...that equals my own, (always helps when the writer has the same sense of humor that you do), it was not as good as the previous novels. In part due to the deadline, it felt rushed - the plot felt rushed in places. As if the writers were barreling through it to get from point A-C as fast as possible. It's an end of an arc - and that may well have been part of the problem.
That said, I did enjoy it quite a bit. If you are unfamiliar with the series or forgot what happened in the previous novels - the writers provide you with a rather succinct summary of what occurred before in a prologue that is written as blurb from the lead character's friend/lawyer - Barabaras. We also get a short list of key characters and their bios. Just to familiarize everyone. Now, having just completed George RR Martin's latest magnum opus A Dance With Dragons, I failed to see the necessity for it and found it rather amusing that they felt they had to. After all Martin doesn't do it - and he has over 1000 characters to keep track of and a convoluted plot.
The plot races along at a fevered pitch. The heroine barely gets to take a breath before she is thrust into the next calamity. Which, from a reader's perspective, does require a wee bit of suspension of disbelief. This is, however, a common enough failing of the urban fantasy genre, I'm looking at you Jim Butcher, that I was able to hand-wave it. The readers of the urban fantasy genre don't have a lot of patience for down-time. Fickle creatives with short attention spans - or so the writers may believe.
Hence the furiously paced plots.
The fevered pitch of the plot and action sequences don't bode well for the steamy sex scene, described as weirdly steamy by Publishers Weekly. Curran and Kate have just escaped a prison, been racing from bad guys, confronted bad guys, and been without a shower, a comfortable bed, or nourishment for about two weeks. The moment they resolve the major issues, get a touch of downtime, they jump each others bones. It's a brief scene. I'm not sure I'd call it steamy. Did jar me a bit - not because I don't like sex scene - I actually prefer sex scenes to fight scenes - the outcome is less bloody and no one dies. One is about loving someone else and creating/appreciating life, the other is about destroying someone else, hating life, and destroying it. Which would I rather read? Let me think.
Unfortunately the writers are better at writing fight scenes. It appears to be absurdly easier to write about killing things than making love or having sex. Maybe because the latter is so intimate and exposes us more? When you write about sex - you write about something you do, possibly a lot, or think about. When you write about killing things - it is just, hopefully, something you imagine but have not done. Sometimes it is easier or less scary to write about what we imagine? There's a rawness in sex scenes that isn't present in a fight scene. Which may explain why so many writers struggle with it, some avoid it altogether.
These two at least tried. I think it would have worked better if they timed it differently. Put a bit more space between the sex scene and the last conflict. Maybe had the sex scene in the shower? The last book had a better sex scene - it was in the shower.
Other than that? No real quibbles here. There are a few typos, but nothing that drags you out of the story. And they are to be expected in a book that was rushed. If a writer takes 5 years, I expect higher quality, if they churn it out in 9-12 months, I expect a few errors here and there.
I adored the writers use of obscure Eastern and Middle Eastern Mythology. Along with her rewriting and subversion of biblical text. The antagonist, not sure villain is the right word, is Nimrod aka Roland, the Great Hunter, and builder of towers including the Tower of Babel - which the heroine states was actually an allegory for the fall of magic, magic overwhelmed the world, so tech fought back, now the world has shifted in the opposite direction and magic is fighting back. Roland was a lot more interesting and complicated than expected. These books have complicated and rather fascinating villains. Also, extremely well written and interesting female characters - the writers aren't afraid of female power, nor feel a need to denigrate it - unlike the vast majority of urban fantasy writers. Nor do they appear to have gender bias. There's also more than one character who is homosexual or bisexual, without much or any fanfare.
The ending worked for me, and didn't seem to be much of a twist - I was admittedly somewhat spoiled on it, but the groundwork was well-laid. It also lent itself rather well to the overall theme regarding power and how corrupting it can be. There's a rather apt quote which forshadows Curran and Kate's decision at the end. "To have power, you have to be willing to sacrifice your friends and be ruthless enough to put the needs of the many over the needs of the few." In short, you have to be willing to throw someone to the dogs or leave them behind. Kate can't do it. In her discussion with fittingly enough a were-rat, Robert, he tells her that her unwillingness to put her own safety over the 16 year old boy she cares about makes her a good person but not a good leader for the Pack. As leader, her life is more important. But she can't put her life before another's. Which makes her a good hero, but not necessarily a good leaders. Leaders, Robert points out, have to be ruthless bastards. Curran has a similar dilemma, when it comes time to save Kate from a prison stronghold, he has to fight his own council to do it. They insist that he is too valuable to risk - and to let her go or send someone else.
Curran had built his organization - in order to protect his wife and children and family. Only to discover that leading the organization would put them in jeopardy and that what he built would not protect them. That the villain, he was attempting to protect Kate from - could walk through his fortress as if it were made of sticks, with no one noticing. Power - didn't provide him with the safety and stability he valued, instead it was crunch on his time and took him away from what he desired. It's an interesting and well-done examination of how hollow a thing power is.
Their choice is between safety and power. The safety of themselves and all they hold dear, along with their city, the Pack, etc - or the power to rule over it. A nice theme for our times - for I think this is a choice most leaders make around the world, but few appear to understand it.
Overall, an fun and well-written ride. I wish they'd been given a bit more time to fine-tune it. Or better editorial support. But then I'd have had to wait longer to read it. And considering I just read a book that took over 6 years to write and get published and was twice the size of this one, I'd have to say length and time doesn't necessarily make it better.