Wildifre Gospel (Habitat #3) by Kenya Wright

Lanore is done. Zulu is done. They have lost enough. They have suffered enough. Too many people have died. Now people are going to burn.

Despite the rampaging warpath and Zulu’s insistence on doing things “his way” (which involves a lot of bodies and Lanore is done trying to stop him), politics still intrudes even as the corpses pile high. Dante and his vampires, while very much deserving of being burned, have some very tempting offers to make. If Lanore can resist burning him

Of course, she could find other allies – but there are so many factions, none of which trust each other and Lanore doesn’t know if she can rely on any of them.

Meanwhile MeShack is going through a stunning transformation – and learning more about demons than ever he expected to.

I think the balance of this book with its world building and multiple factions is really excellent. I have always loved the underlying setting of this series because it is so original. The concept of the Habitats with the captured supernaturals inside after losing their war against humanity is unlike anything I’ve seen before. It creates a setting that is not just unique but is always relevant to the story – we can’t forget the basic setting because it defines the entire story

From little things like their home being inherently enclosed and limited – therefore making running and hiding a difficult proposition – to thematic elements like constantly living behind bars and how destructive that is to the inhabitants

It also creates a setting with no humans at all which is definitely an interesting twist as the different species exist with their own powers and cultures and rivalries which are often complex and intersect a lot with some brilliant class analysis and the depiction of the mix-breed supernaturals (often, but not always, less magically powerful and always disenfranchised). Again, the setting is always present in these depictions – like the various supernaturals who hate the vampires because they refused to fight in the war against humans (while the vampires insist it was pointless to fight a war they couldn’t win).

This also underpins a lot of the motivations of the characters which really drives the story. The twisty politics of this story as Lanore and Zulu have become major and renowned players is huge – we have multiple factions all vying for their attention (or servitude) and pretty much all of them are conniving and have their own agenda – all gazillion of them. Lanore doesn’t trust any of them, not one tiny iota. So why does she work with them – well politics is a main element but the underlying pressure is freedom

She hates Botelli vampire family and doesn’t particularly like vampires in general – but they’re working to free them from the Habitat. That’s worth it. Similarly others give her the chance to visit other Habitats – which, in itself, is presented as such a miraculous thing. The impact of this, the whole driving point of the storyline all works because of the foundation of their imprisonment. Even while so much of this story is characterised by Lanore finally snapping over how many of her friends have been lost and endangered and is quite willing to see Zulu pile bodies high – and add her own piles of ash – they still work with these forces because of that desperate wish for freedom. It’s this amazing metaforce behind everything else, behind all the personal stories and the revenge and the love, there’s always that pressure to be free that truly affects every decision

I also love how the different insular Habitats have been handled – like they live in Santeria (since every Habitat is based on a religion) which means the Santeria religion has a lot of influence and inclusion – but at the same time the inhabitants know little about not just the other Habitats, but also the religions they’re named after – like Meshack not having a clue that Christianity is monotheistic. Equally how each Habitat operates is based not just on the supernatural and religion, but also the politics and the laws of the country it’s in – it’s these details that make the world so rich, because each there is so much history and difference there

Review: The Burning Bush by Kenya Wright, Book 2 of the Habitat Series

 Lanore and Zulu are pushed into retaliating against the Vampire Dante’s brutal slaughtering of Mixies – either they retaliate or their allies, the Rebels, will and they’re much less concerned by the casualties they may cause

Unfortunately doing so escalates into a greater and continued war with the vampire – a war that has casualties close to both of their hearts and it’s a war that could do massive damage to the Habitat

And to make things more complicated, the Habitat police have evidence of her inside one of the bombed buildings – more than enough proof to have a Mixie arrested or just killed. Their price for her silence? Her acting as detective again, her untrained skills being vastly superior to that of the inept Habbies. She needs to track down a strange arcane murderer who has killed a Mixie – not that the police care about the Mixie, but by finding her murderer they may find the murderer of a rich, influential Pureblood’s daughter.

But tensions between them and the Rebels flare along with the war against Dante fluctuating – and just when Lanore needs more careful thinking to work her way to who is truly behind the conflicts she has to deal with Zulu’s raging emotions.

I was extremely happy when I saw this book was coming out and when Kenya Wright sent us a copy, I’d been waiting eagerly for this one for some time.

This book is one of the few truly original urban fantasy stories I’ve come across. Its world setting is completely and utterly different from any I have seen before. The supernatural races and humanity fought a war for control soon after the supernatural was discovered and, after initial successes, humanity won. The surviving supernaturals were fenced into massive, enclosed cities, unable to leave and the only humans they interact with are the Habbies, the Habitat Police, who are actually human criminals given the chance to lower their sentences by working in the Habitat. Needless to say, it doesn’t create the most driven, skilled or uncorrupted police force imaginable.

Within the Habitat are all kinds of supernaturals – vampires, fae, elves, shapeshifters, demons, witches and no doubt many more. All of them living under the oppressive control of then humans, with invasive tracking devices and monitoring. There are also the Mixed blood, supernaturals with different supernaturals as parents who are reduced to a heavily oppressed, second class citizen status.

It’s a massive and rich world – and a very detailed one that is elegantly presented. Despite there being no lectures or massive info-dumps or clumsy “as you know” conversations, a lot of information is still passed on as it is relevant, as well as small details that add greater depth and realness to the world. For example, the Witches hate the vampires because they fled during the war rather than standing alongside the other supernaturals. Or the different methods the humans used to suppress each supernatural. The world is so fleshed out that it feels like a real history with all the minutiae and nuance and details available but none of them overwhelming the story.

Review: Fire Baptized by Kenya Wright

Lanore lives in the Santeria compound in Miami. All supernatural beings are forced to live separate from the humans who guard the compounds extremely carefully, ensuring they can never escape into the human population. Inside, all are supernatural of some kind - faerie or vampire, shapeshifter or demon or witch or even stranger creatures, and all marked with a brand on their foreheads that denote their supernatural type.

Lanore wears the cross to mark her as mixed blooded. And as such she is reviled by her fellow supernaturals, a lesser citizen, to be mistrusted and hated and discriminated against. She’s the first mixed blood allowed to attend university (albeit with great difficulty) and she must constantly step warily to try and negotiate a highly prejudiced world.

Which isn’t made any easier by a string of murders, one of which she witnessed and the killer made it clear he is aware of her. Faced with a grossly incompetent (and indifferent) human police force, she is pushed into the role of investigator as people keep dying gruesome deaths and she may be next on the list.

And of course she has 2 men to dodge between. MeShack the were-cheatah, and old ex who she grew up with with his own issues, and Zulu, a fellow mixed-breed leader of the Mixed Breed Rights movement, pushing for equality and justice that is both demanding, requires great political maneuvering and sometimes disturbing allies.

The most amazing part of this book is the world, because wow is it several kinds of shiny. We have a gazillion supernatural creatures, an entire society made up of supernatural creatures, and no humans. We have a history of oppression, we have different laws and cultures and different movements and politics for each of the movements. We have many sided many layered conflicts, a rich and complex society we have so much magic and possibilities. It’s almost impossibly rich and diverse yet at the same time incredibly real and well done that I can envisage this society working this way. I think I’d read this whole series even if it were just a long series of info-dumps.

But it’s not - because not only do we have this wide, wonderful world, we also have it presented appropriately, revealed as and when it becomes relevant without tiresome lecturing or screeds of musings to serve as informing us.

And the story works well within this world. Lanore isn’t a trained investigator and it is a little questionable why she gets herself involved but it’s not entirely unrealistic. And the investigation itself is rather reactive because there’s so little to go on, but though Lanore often seems to be running at the rear of the investigation, it works because she isn't a professional and she engages so well with the world while hurrying to catch up. And, in the end, she does get proactive once she has enough information together. Despite her hurrying to catch up, I wasn’t bored as often happens in murder mysteries when they end up chasing rather than investigating, but the rich world and the way Lanore works with it just runs smoothly and makes the pacing work. There are side plots to keep us going with the main plot of tracking down the murderer including Zulu’s work with the mixed-blood rights movements which I definitely want to see more of.

Unfortunately there is also the romance storyline that I didn’t care for at all. First of all, both Zulu and MeShack cross lines a lot. She is marked as possessed twice against her will. They constantly press her and push past her boundaries and their alpha male posturing over her and against each other is intolerable. MeShack breaks her vibrators to keep her loyal to him and throws out the flowers that Zulu buys her. Zulu virtually starts a war because a vampire is touching her. And while Lanore, as the strong, non-spunky, capable woman that she is turns round and says it’s not ok, she doesn’t make it stick or the men don’t respect her enough to take her objections seriously.