JT and Austin are
finally facing one of the worst demons of their lives - the wizard Firelight
and the heist that went so wrong. The man who killed Austin’s sister, the man
who imprisoned them, the man who experimented on them. Now it’s time for a
rescue rescue - and a time to do it right
I’ve said it before,
one of the difficult parts of writing a review of a series is when you love the
same thing about the books - because how do you write a review without being
repetitive? Take the Blue Unicorn Series - how do I write this review
without repeating what I’ve already written twice before?
Because everything I
said there still applies. I love this magical cyperpunk world (I am so
desperate to start playing Shadowrun every time I play this game). I love the
mix of the magical and the technological. I love how the internet is almost a
parallel dimension with such real life applications. I love how hacking and
spellcasting feel so similar. I love how we can have the combination of druids
and wizards with weird sea god patrons. I love the combination of the giant,
terrifying dragon and the virtual godzilla which has almost as much destructive
potential even though it only exists in cyberspace. This magical cyberpunk
setting is excellent
And the dystopian
elements are really well maintained as well - there’s no grand “the world is
over!” drama nor are they travelling a lot to show the broken world like we saw
in Apocalypse
Ally. But still there are
references, among all the excellent high tech world building, that makes it
clear the nations we’re used to no longer exist, that for all the shiny
technology there’s also a lot of desperation and poverty and evidence of
things being broken - especially looking at Austin and JT’s past
I also really like
the plot. This is a heist book - preparing the team, checking all their skills,
balancing everyone, having everyone use their various abilities to get it all
together and make it work. And then it all going wrong. Of course it all has to
go wrong. But before that I think it’s really cunning and imaginative and was
great fun to watch - I think I’d like to see these characters perform successful
heists, no violence, just to see them succeed and all the imagination and
intelligence. The heist is great.
We also have all the
characters here, all prominent in various ways. I think we have a three way
protagonist - Austin, JT and Dante with Comet and Buzz being prominent but
taking a back seat. I think that was a good plan because this helps us delve a
lot into the various character’s issues - we have Dante dealing with being both
an Orc (and seen as less and facing a lot of stereotyping) and a Black woman
who has also been injured and disabled. She has moments of self doubt, a lot of
thinking that she’s unworthy or incapable. She feels out of place but still
fights back against that and reasserts her own worth and strength while also
showing off their own capability
JT and Austin are gay
and in a relationship - if you can call the hot mess of them together a
relationship. And I like the messiness - because the messiness definitely
follows through their own issues, the issues with elven glamour, their own
utter denial and fear of scaring the other away, their own lack of self worth
and their own tragic childhood. I know I’m not a fan of over dramatic
relationships - but usually that’s because they are usually so very convoluted
and unnecessary. But these work, this drama is based solidly on their
characters and characterisation - it makes sense.
Their relationship is
extremely sexual, joyfully and shamelessly so and it’s definitely attractively
written. And while there’s little attention to any kind of living with
homophobia, there is some nice exploration not just of self-worth and tensions
between sex and love but also challenging a lot of stereotypes we see a lot in
gay relationships: like JT being a bottom despite being much much bigger than
Austin. And even some interesting elements like JT being insecure about the
size of his endowment because of the stereotypes around them
We also have Austin’s
sister, a Black woman/elf/program who they are all eager to rescue: and it’s
nice to see both a Black woman being the precious person to save but also a
woman being someone to save without her being the love interest to one of the
rescuing men. And even as Austin’s sister we’ve also got JT caring just as much
about rescuing her.
These two are a hot
mess, but they’re working through it and it does work. I like them, I like
their story, I like their sexiness, I like their contrasts.
Part of me worries
that the Blue Unicorn Series may be completed here - trilogies are the
in thing after all, and the long glorious series I love so much are distinctly
out of fashion. But there is a lot more to work through here - the world is
huge, I want to know where the Blue Unicorn goes from here, JT and Austin have
so much more to work through and there’s so much more they could do. Buzz,
Comet and definitely Dante all have so much more to tell - let there be more!
