RATING: 4 stars.

Anne Bishop, a famosa autora da trilogia das Joias Negras, estreia-se na fantasia urbana com esta série intitulada "The Others" (Os Outros).

Meg Corbyn é uma cassandra sangue, ou "profeta de sangue". Viveu toda a sua vida presa num estabelecimento fechado onde ela e outras raparigas como ela são mantidas num ambiente estéril longe de tudo e de todos, apenas usadas pela sua capacidade de fazer profecias quando cortam a sua pele. Mas Meg quer ser mais do que uma ferramenta, uma comodidade por que os ricos pagam para terem acesso a um breve olhar do futuro. Por isso ela foge e refugia-se no único lugar onde estará a salvo dos seus carcereiros: a parte da cidade onde vivem os "Outros", onde a lei humana não se aplica. Mas viver entre os outros não é propriamente conducente a uma vida longa e saudável, pois estes habitantes sobrenaturais desprezam os humanos abertamente.

Sendo uma leitora assídua de fantasia urbana, estava com bastante curiosidade sobre este primeiro livro de Anne Bishop dentro do género. Afinal, gostei imenso da trilogia das Joias Negras e de todo o imaginário criado por Bishop para essa série. Queria saber como lidava a autora com fantasia urbana. E esta aventura não me desiludiu. Passa-se num mundo diferente, certamente (possivelmente para que a autora pudesse explicar com mais facilidade a sua mitologia relativamente aos Outros e aos deuses que compõem o panteão) mas é semelhante em tudo à sociedade que temos hoje em dia em termos políticos, sociais e tecnológicos. A única coisa que difere é que a história deste mundo foi pautada por diversos conflitos entre humanos e os Outros (vampiros, lobisomens, etc.) em que os Outros mostraram repetidamente a sua ferocidade e poder. Por isso, apesar de todas as suas inovações tecnológicas, os humanos vivem com receio destas criaturas sobrenaturais que controlam muitas das forças naturais do planeta. Por sua vez, os Outros, apesar de verem os humanos como 'carne', toleram-nos porque gostam das suas inovações tecnológicas. Assim, estas duas raças vivem uma coexistência tensa.

O mundo não é assim muito original, portanto, mas as personagens compensaram. Os Outros são realmente diferentes, não têm quaisquer escrúpulos em comer ou matar humanos... Ou seja têm uma aura inumana, diferente, não são heróis românticos e torturados mas no fundo humanos e bons. A Meg é um bocado uma Mary Sue ou seja, consegue conquistar todos os Outros com quem se encontra, mas é tão carismática enquanto personagem que isso mal tem importância. Gostei de todas as personagens, Meg, Simon, Vlad, Henry e a Tess (qual será o mistério por detrás desta personagem?) a narrativa é envolvente e mantém o leitor interessado e envolvido emocionalmente.

O enredo foi claramente introdutório, o objetivo era apresentar o mundo e as personagens principais mas a autora prepara o palco para outra história que nos permitirá ir mais fundo neste mundo e saber mais sobre as habilidades de Meg.

No geral, um primeiro livro muito interessante com um mundo que, apesar de semelhante ao nosso, parece ter personagens bem ricas. Irei certamente ler o volume seguinte. Recomendado para fãs da autora e para quem gosta de fantasia urbana.

Edit 04/30/2016 to note that my original reading dates were April 1-4, 2013, and the below review stands from that original reading.

~~~~~~~~~~

This time of year has brought a new book by Anne Bishop for the past few years, and while this year did not bring another entry into my beloved Black Jewels universe, it did bring this new novel. This is a completely different world, one with shapeshifters and Others, one with modern technology but not magic, and one where nature is as likely to kill you as to help you. And in the middle of it all is Meg, a young woman of a type of human known as cassandra sangue or a blood prophet, who's been locked up and used to sell prophecies spoken from the cuts made on her sensitive skin.

There is a lot of awesome going on in this book, mostly with the concepts as I already know and love the author's characters and talent in telling a story. To have a story set in a world with shapeshifters who have no patience with humans (and in fact often refer to them as simply "walking meat") is so incredibly refreshing (and likely much more realistic) that it's fantastic. The structure of life as an uneasy truce between the human cities, the Courtyards of the Others within them, and the countless wilderness that is the true home of the Others is clearly drawn and fascinating. The characters make sense, grow in reasonable directions, and nothing is shoved into a Mary Sue or Bella type of mold, least of all Meg. I do have one or two annoyances, namely how Simon kept noting that he couldn't figure out a character's motives because he wasn't human, yet this was never wrapped up from his POV although the motives were obvious to the (human) reader. That's a pretty minor nitpick, though, and really only stuck out to me because of it being mentioned several times.

If you like Anne Bishop's writing, you will love this book. If you are interested in fiction about shapeshifters that doesn't involve them fawning all over a main character upon meeting her, and can stomach the strange and violent things that happen around them, you'll like this book too. It's not nearly as violent as some of her other novels, but it's not for the faint of heart either. However, if you're looking for some fluffy bit of romance where an innocent girl tames a "fierce" werewolf, then keep on trucking.

This was very good. I liked the world building, and I liked Meg's character. It was definitely a book I wanted to devour. It's definitely not great literature, and it did have some problems, but it was definitely enjoyable.

Spoiler

I was so pleased when Asia died. I figured she was going to die long before it actually happened, although I was rooting for being eaten.

I did find the relationship between Meg and the Others to be a bit stretching of my credulity though. The Others and humans are supposed to have coexisted for thousands of years, and in all that time they've never seen humans as anything but meat, and now suddenly this one human is able to become their friend, possibly changing the human-Others relationship forever?

Spoiler

I also thought it stretched belief a bit that Asia and her backers could be so dumb. Everyone is afraid of the Others, and there's lots of evidence that they are capable of basically destroying humanity, but they persist in attempting to kidnap Sam and get Meg? Partly I think my problem here is just that Asia is so profoundly unlikeable. She is completely self-centered, and only cares about the possibility of someday being a rich and famous actress. But doesn't want to get there through acting talent or hard work.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. While I really enjoyed the possibilities raised by the worldbuilding, the story played out *so* slowly. If one more person talked about taking off and hanging up jackets and removing boots and mopping up snow...! The pace finally picked up in the final quarter, but it seemed to take forever. I only finished it because I have a thing about finishing books, and I kept hoping more would happen!

The protagonist was initially very interesting. She was escaping from some form of controlled existence (we find out later she is a cassandra sangue, whose skin is cut to make them experience visions, for a hefty fee of course, hence the control!) but as the novel continued, she basically alternated between being scared, delivering the mail and being so annoyingly nice to everyone that all the dangerous human-hating weres and vamps decided they loved her. Because she delivered the mail and gave them cookies. If she had lived up to the initial intrigue rather than being so boring, the story might not have seemed so slow.

Yup. While I could have believed this in small doses, by the end when all the Others (let's not get into how a human society supposedly dominated by paranormal creatures calls them something as demeaning as "other", which they seem to accept) defend "Our Meg" against the humans trying to get her back to her nice locked profit-making vision factory, I couldn't help rolling my eyes every time one of the Others joined in, fighting for "Our Meg". It really didn't make sense that this group who kept talking about how humans were just meat, and barely tolerated for their usefulness, so quickly changed their minds because someone sorted their mail and paid them basic courtesy. Surely if anyone was working for a group of people so dangerous, you'd be doing an A+ job 100% of the time to make sure you stayed alive??

The antagonist, Asia, was another source of eye-rolling. How could someone who was supposed to be smart and resourceful not see through her backers' continual manipulation? And of course, since she uses her appearance and wiles to try to blindside the males, she must be bad. Which leads me to my bugbear with all the female characters. So we have the main premise that the scared damsel in distress needs to be defended by all the thousands of alpha male characters, while all the other female characters spend their time either shopping, working out, baking or serving. I found it very difficult to believe a character like Tess would be happy with this! She was one of the characters I found most interesting, and would have liked to see more from, but to reduce someone who is supposed to be the most dangerous of the terra indigine to someone who bakes cookies in the cafe and takes orders from Simon?

So I was intrigued by some elements of the novel, but it provoked so much eye rolling that even though I've bought the second book (a weak moment when the action was finally taking place in this one) I don't think I'll read it. I've heard so much great stuff about Anne Bishop's writing that didn't seem to apply to this book, so I'll give her a try in the Black Jewels series which seems to evoke less polarisation of readers than this one does.

I really enjoyed the unique spin on this book. From our main character being a cutting prophet, the formidable Tess, the Wolves only view humans as meat idea, to the season girls. I was expecting more of a romance and less of an innocent for my heroine. But, I still loved the book and felt like it couldn't have turned out any other way.

-HEA
-Magic (in an elemental, prophet kind of way)
-Wolves
-Vamps (side-lined)
-Non-romance
-$$$ Worth full price


*EDIT*
I was glancing at another persons review and realized that there were a few differences in this book that may or may not change your mind about reading it. First of all, this book is in no way fast-paced. It also doesn't have a sarcastic or "kick-ass" heroine which is something I usually look for in a book. That being said it's definitely not a boring or run of the mill book. It was nice...not AWESOME...nice and refreshing. Great story-line with a heroine that reminded me of any normal human girl. Ordinary.

Liked the concept, lore, and world building as well as the dynamics between the main characters.

Didn't like the fact that despite all pretenses, there was slim to no tension because you knew the motivations and plans of all the characters. Honestly think it would have been better without Asia's point of view at all.

Trigger warnings: self-harm, mentions of captivity/slavery