This is the seventh book in Kim Harrison's series about Rachel Morgan. Rachel Morgan is a witch and she lives in a church with two friends, Ivy who is a live vampire (meaning she still has her soul until she dies and becomes a dead vampire) and Jenks who is a Pixie. The setting is Chicago and the premise is that in the 1960's a genetically engineered tomato caused a plague that hit the human population very hard but spared most Interlanders. Because of the large loss in human population it became harder to hide so witches, weres, vampires, and pixies came out of hiding and a new society was built. Two types of police were created to police the species, the FIB for human policing and the IS for Interlanders. Rachel was kicked out of the IS and now works with her friends as a runner. Prior to this book her boyfriend, who was a living vampire, was murdered but no one knows by who.
In some ways Rachel reminds me of Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich's series because she seems to have perpetual bad luck not with cars but with demons and banshees, with other witches and vampires, with elves and the law. Perhaps also because they are both runners asked to bring in someone who does not want to be caught.
In this installment Edden from the FIB asks Rachel, Ivy and Jenks to help him bring in a woman wanted for murder and beating up a police officer. It turns out she is a banshee who is older than the city, who has had a child recently. Banshees suck up emotions from people and situations to live and can kill someone just by touching them by stealing their aura.
I'm not sure how well this novel would stand by itself. Harrison does do a good job of reveiwing who's who but since it's been a while since I read the others I did run into some moments of having to think twice to figure out who was who and why I knew them. She has done a wonderful job of creating a society that seems real and the emotions and complex feelings the characters have for one another are very well done. As a child Rachel had a blood disorder that could have killed her but was reversed, she spent a lot of time in hospitals and hates feeling out of control of her life. It was very touching for me when she visited the children who were currently in the children's wind at the hospital.
In some ways Rachel reminds me of Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich's series because she seems to have perpetual bad luck not with cars but with demons and banshees, with other witches and vampires, with elves and the law. Perhaps also because they are both runners asked to bring in someone who does not want to be caught.
In this installment Edden from the FIB asks Rachel, Ivy and Jenks to help him bring in a woman wanted for murder and beating up a police officer. It turns out she is a banshee who is older than the city, who has had a child recently. Banshees suck up emotions from people and situations to live and can kill someone just by touching them by stealing their aura.
I'm not sure how well this novel would stand by itself. Harrison does do a good job of reveiwing who's who but since it's been a while since I read the others I did run into some moments of having to think twice to figure out who was who and why I knew them. She has done a wonderful job of creating a society that seems real and the emotions and complex feelings the characters have for one another are very well done. As a child Rachel had a blood disorder that could have killed her but was reversed, she spent a lot of time in hospitals and hates feeling out of control of her life. It was very touching for me when she visited the children who were currently in the children's wind at the hospital.
I have just finished this series, reading the books in quick succession. I would not recommend anyone trying to pick it up this far in without reading the earlier ones! It has esculated so much from its humble (but still fun) beginnings. I now think I would have to rank Kim Harrison highest amongst the Paranormal/Supernatural authors.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how big the cast will be when the series runs out of steam?
Kat
I wonder a bit if it is starting to run out of steam already. I have to say when she killed off Kisten there was a big part of me that wanted to put the book down and stop reading the series. I was honestly mad at the author for days after discovering his death, it felt kind of silly to so invested in a character in a book but I really was. I read the first 4 or 5 books back to back and then read the 6th when it came out. Coming back to the series for this one was kind of hard and I did feel a little lost sometimes (I kept forgetting who Ford was even though he was in the book a LOT).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!