Kai and Nathan are still in San Diego while Kai tries to heal
some of the damage caused by the rampaging magical dagger in
the last book
But it’s soon clear that destroying a magical artefact
imbued by a god of chaos has ramifications. They may have foiled his plans, but
the god of chaos is now out and he may be dead but he is powerful and looking
to change that
All the while Kai still has decide what she wants to do
with her life. She loves Nathan and she has a unique powerful talent the elves
can help develop – but does she want to be the human in the Court of Winter, separated
from her friends, divided from her culture and often derided by the
oh-so-superior elves?
Hmmmmmmm
Definitely hmmmmmm.
This is my brain on this story:
Brain 1: It’s a book without Lily and Rule. This is going
to be interesting because we’re going to get to see this world through a
different lens. We’re going to see a different mind set and excellent part of
the world setting that Lily would otherwise not notice. This is an excellent
way to open up this world when we’ve excellently established Lily is the
central protagonist so it isn’t a distraction
Brain 2: But but but, Lily was established as protagonist
because she’s super awesome and amazing. And I’ve had several books of back
stories to make me not only be invested in Lily but be thoroughly cheering her
every move. Who is this Kai and Nathan and why do I care? They’ve had, what,
one short story and a couple of cameo appearances? I am not invested enough in
this people for them to displace my awesome Lily. They’re far too external to
the main plot, the main battle etc to be really relevant to the rest of the
series. It feels more like a spin off series – hey an awesome spin off series –but
now these people are stood in Lily’s space. I don’t know half of these people
We keep getting revelations and shocks about these people that completely miss
because I feel like I’m supposed to have read 4 other books to actually know
who they are
Brain 1: But this let’s us examine so much of the world
building is accessible here! Lily sees the elves as an annoying enemy and is
pretty much not that involved or invested in elven culture or world building and
her practicality makes her tolerate the need for Cullen’s theorising but
definitely not being willing to run with it. Kai is front and centre in elven
culture, sidhe realms, dramatis personae who are constantly mentioned actually
appear in this book. We meet them and the depiction of elven society is awesome
– we have such an awesome building of a completely alien culture, different
standards and values and ethics. As well as a really really interesting take on
the concept of the Fae Queen of Winter – not just a queen of cold, but a queen
of hard truths and a queen of the warm winter hearth. Definitely an original
take
Brain 2: but but but Lily isn’t invested in all of this
because it’s not relevant. And I love the world expanding, I really do. I love
the world setting. I love expanded world setting. I love how Kai brings her own
views and conflicts to this huge world setting. But we
already had one book where a new big bad muscled in on the whole storyline and
now we have another one? Sure there’s more than one thing happening in this
world – but while Rule and the werewolves and Lily are dealing with their enemy
perhaps undead elven gods of chaos can go get their little party together in a
city other than San Diego. What is the enemy and her minions actually doing
while we have a hiatus anyway?
So I’m left thinking I loved loved loved this book and
would also be a really awesome… but also feel this excellent world has reached
a point where branching into spin off series would be better arcs than
protagonist shifting when the protagonists have such disparate goals. If Kai
and Nathan and Lily and Rule were actually aiming at goals that were closer
together then they would work as shifting protagonists. But the only real
reason Kai and Nathan are there is because a random occurrence pulled them in
and there was a brief coinciding of goals with Lily and Rule
Ok, maybe I’m being harsh here. I mean, the random occurrence
happened was a direct result of the enemy’s plotting. And the big wave of magic
is definitely – or should definitely – cause more magical hijinks for Earth
than just the Lupi’s great enemy popping up. And maybe Rule is singularly
focused on this but Lily is an FBI agent and member of Unit, if some magical unicorns
start shish-kebobing random commuters in Wisconsin, she’s hardly going to check
out and say “hey not my monkeys.”
So is this a different direction the book are taking? Not
just Lily/Rule vs the Lupi’s enemy, but Lily facing the endless magical threats
and opportunities which face Earth and the allies and friends she has along the
way beyond just the Lupi – and beyond even her. But that’s a difficult path to
take away from an already well established epic meta plot and awesome
protagonist and could go very wrong in a complete unfocused mess – which was
exactly my concern about this series way back in book
4.
We continue to have some excellent racial diversity here.
Kai is native American – Navajo – though we do hit the Native-American-woo-woo
trope really hard here. Netty Two-Horses and Benedict are both prominent
characters as well – and both are also Navajo. We have Arjenie, a prominent
female character who is mixed race and Nathan, while not human, is definitely
dark skinned. We actually have a preponderance of POC characters among the main
cast, only Cullen and Cynna (the latter of which doesn’t play a huge rule) are
not POC – and a number of side characters: hostages, police, lupi – are all POC
as well.
We also have different, skilled, capable women working
together, liking each other, being mutually supportive and being actual friends
without everyone focusing on one character. Female team work! Female
friendship! Female peers! No female loathing!
We also have some excellent character nuance with the Big
Arsehole cop – who is an arsehole and damn good at his job – as well as Kai’s
revelations about elven culture, painting people with too broad a brush while
also assuming they’re superior in ways that just don’t follow through
LGBT inclusion is… fraught. As has been said previously,
elven culture assumes universal bisexuality (kind of making not only LGBT
people the alien creatures but also making BEING LGBT alien)… which comes with
considering non-bisexuals perverse. So, yay, more homophobia. And the actual
only depiction of a bisexual character here is a murdering, chaotic rapist
enslaving people… this is not inclusion. Don’t do this.
