Review of The Neon Graveyard by Vicki Pettersson

The Neon Graveyard is the last book in the Pettersson's Zodiac series.  I didn't feel any sense of sadness when I finished reading and perhaps because by the time this book ended, I was more than ready for this series to come to an end.  What started off as an amazing idea with a unique and a large world ended up being tired and overly drawn out.  Having read all six books, I think that this series could easily have been reduced to four books.  A book for each sign just dragged out the inevitable end of the series.  Honestly, from book one, was there ever any doubt that this series would end with the death of the Tulpa?

The Neon Graveyard could easily have been renamed to everyone gets theirs in the end.  In The City of Souls: The First Sign of the Zodiac much time was spent confronting the issue of absolutism.  It was clear that for Warren the means justified the ends in every situation and if someone had to suffer or die, then so be it.  This made him no different than the Tulpa and so basically from that point on it was clear that though Warren was official a member of the Light warriors that he was closer to a Shadow warrior.  In The Neon Graveyard Warren's hatred of Joanna/Olivia was a driving force.  He threatened several times and made it clear that it was his goal to see her dead.  

Ultimately what Warren wanted was power.  When he realized that Joanna/Olivia may not be the Kairos he was determined to cross over the Midhaven to steal away Hunter and Solange's child and raise her as light.  So wrapped was he in this mission, that he did not care about his troop's reaction to Felix's death.  I was Joanna/Olivia who recovered his body.  When Vanessa sacrificed herself so that Joanna/Olivia could escape Midhaven with Hunter, Warren once again ignored the pain that his troop was feeling because he saw an opportunity to kill Joanna/Olivia.  In the end he was trapped in Midhaven and Tekla became the new leader of the light.  

To Warren, Joanna/Olivia's greatest fault was her refusal to obey his commands and sacrifice herself to his every whim regardless of what this cost her.  It seems that what Warren forgot is that in a matriarchal society, women have power and do not necessarily have to submit to a man.  In the end, Joanna/Oliva, Chandra and Tekla, the three women whom he had wronged imprisoned him in midhaven.  I suppose one could see this as an empowering act but it still does not explain how it is that a man became leader of a matriarchal society to being with.  

Review of "Cheat the Grave" by Vicki Pettersson

To be honest, I have been struggling with this series.  It started off wonderfully engaging, with a world that was absolutely unique in urban fantasy, and then somewhere along the way, it seemed to lose focus, that is until Cheat the Grave.  This book reminded me of why I fell in love with the Zodiac books to begin with.

Now that Joanna/Olivia is mortal, the forces of light see her as useless, and to make matters worse, Solange has sent Mackie the piano player from Midheaven to kill her.  If the Tulpa and the shadow hunters figure out who she really is, they will kill her.  Everywhere she turns, someone wants her dead except for the rogue agents (the greys).  Somehow she must protect the mortals she loves, and chief among her concerns is stopping Suzanne from marrying someone she suspects has nefarious intent.

The fifth sign of the zodiac was filled with the world building that the last two books lacked.  We learn more about why Hunter was such a threat to Warren, and a bit about Warren's motivations.  He was still not painted as a sympathetic person, and in fact -- we understand even more clearly that he is no different from the Tulpa.  Warren only saw himself as better, because he is fighting on the side of the Light, but if you are willing to sacrifice people, erase memories, and manipulate lives for a single minded purpose, does it really matter what the goal is?