Onward in Jane’s ever increasing trials and tribulations in the world(s) of the VAMPIRES!

On the upside, I really love Jane’s new found family in Eli and the Kid. It’s great to have someone close to her that she can rely on more directly than all the on again off again allies, potential lovers (as screwed up as many of those are), and other relationships she’s had through the series.

“And we don’t give a rat’s ass that you’re a skinwalker,” the Kid added. I heard the slap on the back of his head, and my smile went even wider. He’d braved a head slap to reassure me in that gutsy, bigmouthed way teenaged boys have. “As long as you don’t shift and get hungry enough to think about us as dinner. ’Cause, like, that would, like, totally suck.”

On another upside, it’s fascinating to dig more into Jane’s more recent past. Not hundreds of years ago when she was born (still needing more of that), but her life as a child and a few into her badass (if lonely) way of dealing with all of that.

Worldbuildingwise, the Vampires continue to get more complicated. Bruiser is an Onario now? Whatever that is. Sounds neat. And whatever Soul actually is? More of that please! For whatever reason, I like injections of weird, unique things in urban fantasy.

On the downside, relationship drama. She really needs to get over Rick. That’s not an option (for now). Just move on. Bruiser would be great. Leo (relationshipwise) is a whole heaping mess and I hope that’s not a serious option. Or any of the other men, really. Just… it’s been six books. Move on already.

Overall, it’s a fun adventure and I really look forward to what’s going to happen next!

I love The Wheel of Time.

Robert Jordan built an absolutely wonderful world. And when he passed away, Brandon Sanderson (with the help of Jordan’s wife and team) managed to do what I really wasn’t sure was possible and managed to finish it.

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That’s the cost. That’s the price. Get ready, because when you crush the humanity out of humans, you’re left with humans with no humanity.

In other words, you get what you pay for…

The 5th Wave had an interesting premise with a lot of potential: alien spaceship shows up; 4 waves of death and destruction kill 99.99% of humanity. This is the story of all that unfolding, plus what happens next.

The Infinite Sea takes that… and continues it?

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After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive.
After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

It’s the end of the world (as we know it). The aliens came and killed off most of humanity–in some actually fairly interesting ways. This is the story of what comes next.

At first, it’s the story of Cassie after the end of the world. How she survives each wave (not told in order), how things keep getting worse, and then finally how she starts to find some other survivors.

“I would kill for a cheeseburger. Honestly. If I stumbled across someone eating a cheeseburger, I would kill them for it.”

But then we start getting a few more points of view. More survivors and their own stories of death. Child soldiers. Human* survivors every bit as bad as the aliens. A possible look into what comes next.

How do you rid the Earth of humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

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Abe Kalotay died in his front yard in late February, beneath a sky so pale it seemed infected. There was a wintery wet snowbite to the still air and the sprawled-open pages of the book at his side had grown slightly damp by the time his daughter Joanna came home and found his body lying in the grass by their long dirt driveway.

Oh, that’s quite the opening. Such beautiful language for something so dark. Which really sums up the book in a lot of ways.

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Another day, another Kingfisher. And once again, I quite enjoyed it.

This time, we have a novella length story that takes Rapunzel and turns it more than a bit sideways. As the blurb says:

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Instead, we get Toadling. Raised by the fae with the power to turn into a frog and some other minor magics of her own, she ends up standing guard over a girl in a tower for years and years–centuries really, it’s not entirely clear; nor does it particularly matter.

I quite enjoyed the different take on the story–I do love a good fairy story. I enjoyed the character of Toadling. The idea of the bramble and a gift gone awry. Not a huge fan of the idea of straight up pure evil in general and it doesn’t work any better here (spoilers I suppose?). But it’s a small enough part of the story that I don’t think it particularly detracts.

A good book. A quick read. Worth it.

I hate it.

No, not the book, I actually quite liked the book. It’s never an easy task to bring together as many different plotlines as you have when you’re the second book of the third series set in the same world–and I think Bardugo did it well.

No, I hate that one particular death in this book. They did not have to die.

Which I suppose means that it worked? Except… I don’t really feel like it changed anything, other than to annoy me, the reader. So it goes I suppose.

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Yeah… no.

Just about stopped right there—not a huge fan of the Sabe plot line. It gets better though; until…

The what now?

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The Handmaidens. Hired to look like Padme; now they’re impersonating one another.

Good times. Silly names. But that’s Star Wars for you.

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Walk softly and carry a big stick. Or stomp loudly and carry enough firepower to start a small war. Whatever worked.

And so continues the saga of Jane Yellowrock (and Beast!).

This time around, there’s a vampire plague, a new (old) vampire making a play for territory, and Jane accidentally making promises she certainly doesn’t mean to–and perhaps starting a war for her troubles.

It’s a solid book.

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