Camille D’Artigo is the protagonist in this book, facing
the every growing and worrying effects of the war against Shadow Wing and the
civil war in Otherworld – a war that is now affecting their family as well as
bringing chaos to the Otherworld, allowing all kinds of monsters to break
through the portals and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting Earth.
Now she has a unicorn gifting her with an artefact of
legend of immense power that may be one of their best hopes against Shadow Wing
– except it’s been lost and it’ll work just as well for their enemies as
against them.
And there’s a new spirit seal to find – and this one is
being hunted by a lethal and cunning Rakshasa, far more dangerous than any of
the other demons they have had to face. Added to that, Morgaine is back and the
ancient, power-hungry sorceress has her own plans involving Titania, the long
defunct Seelie queen
To complicate all of that – Smokey, the ancient and
mighty dragon, is demanding her attention as well, as per their agreement. But
Smokey wants into her heart and not just her bed – which is difficult with her
current lovers to take into account.
My only major complaint with this book – in fact the
series in general, is its poor pacing and the easily distracted protagonists. I
think this book is especially bad for it. There’s one moment in particular that
stands out. They are trying to find the Pixie with the Black Unicorn’s horn
before anyone else, since this is an artefact with massive, incredible power.
It simply cannot fall into the wrong hands. Menolly, after working at the bar,
gets a lead on the horn (and it turns out to be true) so she goes home and…
… watches Jerry Springer with Delilah, waiting for
Camille to get up rather than waking her. When she does get up (early because
something else entirely interrupts her) she, Delilah and Menolly start weeding
the garden. No, really – the horn could right now be heading into demon hands
but they’re doing some gardening. Then they have breakfast. Then Iris regales
them with a tale from when she was a House Sprite in Finland. Then Camille
potty trains their pet gargoyle. And I am sat there reading this book and
restraining the urge to yell at it because the world is supposed to be on the
brink of collapse, demons are supposed to be invading, civil war is breaking
out in Otherland, the world is in Serious Peril so some urgency may be required.
An additional problem with that is it makes me less happy
with the variety of plots. We have a lot of different threads in this book – we
have the Rakshasa and his minions looking for the spirit seal, we have the
Unicorn and the horn, we have the problem of the Cryptos and the unguarded
portals, we have Morgaine and Titania, we have Camille with Smokey as well as
big insights into Camille’s past. All of these plot lines add to the overall
story and are wonderful threads of the plot that really go together well. And
individually I like each one. They really add to the richness of the world and
the much greater sense of the coming battle – but because the pacing is already
slowed down by random domesticity it makes me less patient with anything that
might stop the main plot line actually moving forwards.
I think that’s a problem as well with how long winded
everything is, the amount of times they have to sit around a table to the
lounge discussing things, even before every battle they consult on what exactly
each member is bringing to the fight while their enemies approach. How many
times does Trillian have to say “I stab things” before we take it as a given?
The more the pacing is slowed down, the less I have the patience even for
reasonable deviations and expansions on the plot or numerous side plots.
Which is a shame – because the world and these plots? Are
awesome and epic. I particularly like how the series has expanded. From Camille
and her sisters doing what they can in their little corner of the war, it’s
growing steadily bigger as more and more of the fight rests on them. You can
feel the gathering of powers, there’s a real evocative sense of them building
alliances, power and even an army against Shadow-wing. And with every force
they build it further sets up the enemy as a truly epic force.
It also serves as an excellent way to world build – both
present and future. As they form further links with Smokey we learn about
dragons. The re-emergence of Titania and Morgaine’s plans furthers our
knowledge of the fae courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie. We have the unicorn
bringing a whole new side to the conflict and adding much more knowledge of the
Cryptos and their part in the war. Even things like the portals becoming
unguarded and the invasion of the goblins and the trolls serves to bring more
knowledge about how the order is breaking down with the civil war and Otherland
descends further into chaos.
And this is a world where I can just revel in the world
building. The three realms, their incredibly rich history, even the personal
history of the sisters - it’s all very
well designed, wonderfully connected and extremely wide. With every book we
learn something knew but there’s no sense of the world being made up as the
series progresses – it’s a world that is being revealed, not cobbled together.
Relationship-wise Camille is an interesting character.
She’s overtly sexual and always on her terms. She dresses extremely sexually
but every time she does she makes it clear that she dresses like that because
she enjoys the clothes, she likes wearing them, she likes how they look. She
never puts them on thinking of how they look to guys or who men like looking at
her dressed that way; her sexuality and sensuality are hers and her possession.
And something she controls – which she frequently lays down to Morio, Trillian
and Smokey, being clear that she won’t give anyone up she doesn’t want to.
Which is why it’s disappointing to deal with Trillian and
Smokey’s constant posturing and alpha-male egos. Especially Smokey. Smokey is a
dragon, this makes him proud, determined to get his own way, dangerous and
repeatedly something the cast have to tip-toe around for fear of rousing his
ire. Throw in his relationship with Camille and this becomes… difficult. Has he
ever hurt her? No. Has he ever threatened her? Well… yes – he’s threatened the
men she love and he’s presented ominous warnings and, above that, he’s a dragon
who could kill her on a whim, is expected to kill her on a whim and expects to
be obeyed. While the way he is written makes me doubt very much he ever would
hurt Camille and he certainly loves her, it doesn’t change that Camille is
frightened of him. It doesn’t change that he expects obedience from her on many
occasions and she gives it because he is a dragon and he hasn’t made a real
attempt to dispel her fear – for herself, her lovers or her family. It’s an
explained by the woo-woo dynamic, but it feels borderline abusive and certainly problematic.
Inclusionwise we don’t have a lot, again. Morio is a POC
but he’s a rather secondary character; we do have some POC villains and side
references. I am glad we got more of Morio's backstory this book because he was beginning to feel a bit like a null character, especially after the emotional and demanding Trillian and Smokey, Morio just feels like a shape more than a person. Menolly and Delilah have expressed the possibility of same-sex
attraction, but it’s opposite sex relationships we constantly see. We do have a
very nice insight into disability discrimination with a woman worrying about
their inability to adopt because her husband is in a wheel chair, but it’s a
reference more than inclusion.
I love this series. I love the world, I love the epic
plot lines, I love the characters. In fact, the character building is some of
the best I’ve seen out there – all of them are very human. But it has some
issues that trip it up and bring it down – resulting in good books that very
much had the potential to be great or awesome books.
