While this is part of one of my favorite ongoing series, this installation was a little meh; 3.75 stars. The problem I think was that this story was focused on too many potential threats, as opposed to one big one. There’s internal problems in the Library (politics and doctrinal differences mostly, but also some likely hidden agenda from an unknown in the upper echelons), Alberich is back (Librarian gone bad final boss type), Irene is still on probation and getting unpleasant job assignments, something’s wrong […]
“Why is some accident of uncontrolled neurochemistry the ‘real me,’ and a carefully reasoned system of priorities somehow false?”
Borderline is a sharp urban fantasy book with a new take on the “fairies walk among us” trope. It stands out, in part, for its unusual protagonist (more on that later) but also achieves above-average marks for its balance of fresh world-building with a well-paced plot. Leaning too hard on one or the other can result either in a story that drags under the weight of excessive detail, or an ill-defined, unprincipled universe where anything goes with the plot because anything can be magicked to […]
I miss when I cared deeply about this series
This review will probably not be coherent to anyone except those familiar with this series, and maybe not even then. There will be spoilers. And conflicting feelings. The shortest version of my history with the Fever series is that I instantly fell in love with the first five books, reading them all in succession over the course of a weekend. I had Fever fever. I’ve read those original five several times since then. When I learned that Karen Marie Moning planned to continue the series, […]
You saved the world two days ago. Time to save it again
Mac Fraser is trying to enjoy lunch with a goblin when a businessman at another table starts freaking out. It seems that the poor human can suddenly see monsters. Granted, there are monsters in the restaurant, but regular humans shouldn’t be able to see past their glamours. Fortunately for Mac (and the monsters), the guy was high and will forget what he saw in a few hours. Unfortunately for Mac (and the rest of the world), the guy was high on a new drug called […]
Being a fan of this series has become a moral dilemma
My relationship with this series had a good run of five books, but it seemingly ended and we went our separate ways. Now, it promises it has changed with a new perspective, so I was curious and checked the new installments out. I’m not really sure I’m feeling it, but I keep giving the new books the benefit of the doubt. There aren’t any red flags and they’re not irredeemable, so there must be no harm in continuing the series, but I still feel a […]
In which I haphazardly scatter a bunch of feels to the wind
I’m afraid I’m not going to be very succinct here. My love for the Fever series has been documented in Cannonballs past, as well as my skepticism about the direction taken of the last book. I’m not going to spoil Burned in this review, but I’ll be talking about trends and events throughout the previous books so consider yourself warned on that score. Here’s one thing right off the bat I feel like I should mention: sometimes that even in 4- or 5- star reviews (so, books I […]