
And so here we are, the third (already?) of the continued Hollows Universe. This time around, we’ve got the fallout of taking over the city from the vampires, all sorts of chaos with Hodin, and (finally?) the introduction of a new Pixie to perhaps balance Jenks out a bit. Plus, I am enjoying seeing more of Pike in a (mostly) non-sexual/romantic relationship with Rachel, running the city together.
Oh, it’s quite a story.
For the first, I’ve long had an on again/off again debate about Rachel refusing to kill anyone.
I smiled at my warrior-poet, wishing it was that easy. But I’d never killed anyone. At least, no one who hadn’t wanted to be dead—and I wasn’t going to start now.
On one hand, how exactly is cursing someone into a mouse any better? Especially if there’s no plan whatsoever to return them to human form?
This book has another example of that (I’ll leave who and how as spoilers). And I suppose the main thing to consider is that–well, barring some magic of course–death is permanent. It’s possible that people do in fact grow and change (we see more than enough fo that in Trent and Al), but not if they’re dead.
It’s an interesting issue to grapple with.
On the next…
“Hodin—you remember him?”
The tips of Vivian’s hair began to float as she tapped the nearest ley line. I could feel her aura tingling, and I put a few more inches between us as we slowly followed Stef. “Red eyes,” she said, pulling the petals off, one by one. “Cosmic powers. Living in your church. Looks like a skinny biker dude poet.”
I do enjoy Vivian and Rachel’s relationship. And I’m perhaps exactly as intrigued by and also annoyed by Hodin as I’m supposed to be. So much potential to counter Al and the other demons. But in the end, it’s not who you were born as or even what you’ve done long past. It’s who you are now that counts. And I suppose that’s all the problem, now isn’t it?
And the last? Jenks has been alone for a few books now. In a pixie’s life, that’s practically forever. So the introduction of a new counter to him (and I fully expect eventually more)? Wonderful. And Getty can well keep him on his toes. 😄
Overall, another solid entry!
I’m almost caught up now. Not sure what to think about that.
Onward!
A few random thoughts that stuck out:
“I like this one,” Jenks said, and my eyes flew open to find he had returned, standing on the dresser to look very Peter Pan–ish as he stared down at Pike’s sketches. “Four strikes and you’re out,” he added, poking his sword at the napkin with the four Xs on it.
I think I’ve caught this before. I’m pretty sure that somehow, in this universe, baseball is centered around four strikes instead of three. It’s tiny details like this that make the whole ‘alternate world’ thing all the better.
Trent took a breath as if to deny it, then relented. “Apparently they need me to visually confirm something. I’ll do it in the morning.” He smiled thinly at Pike. “Lawyers. Can’t live with them, can’t kill them. Not even during the Turn.”
And yet, no matter the world, everyone jokes about lawyers.
“Ah, Rachel?” he said as he hustled to keep up with me. “Is yelling the best course here?”
“I’m from the Midwest. It’s how we start.” My hands began tingling, all the way to my toes. Hands on my hips, I scanned the rafters for a crow. “Ho-o-odin!”
Midwestern girl, woot.
“Blah, blah, blah,” I said, making the appropriate hand gestures, and the vampire turned a bright red. “You, Finnis, are an old undead. And your time to rule is done.”
That’s… a Hotel Transylvania reference, isn’t it?
And one that I only somehow realized this far into the series:
Dalu (pronounced the same as the demon Dali) is Welsh ’to pay’. And gallu (pronounced roughly like Al’s name, although the ll is a bit different, closer I suppose to ‘gashy’) means ’to be able’ or ‘power/force’. Galu (better match for pronunciation) is ‘close up’, which works as well.
I have no idea if that was intentional. But it is amusing.