I have yet another series review for you guys. I have loved this series since I first read it years ago and as I recently re-read this series, I thought I should finally share my thoughts on the books! Not only is the writing really great, but the characters are also amazing. I love the world that Anne Bishop has created.
Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shapeshifters, and paranormal beings even more deadly. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget . . .To say that I was excited for this story would be an understatement. As y'all know, I'm a huge fan of Anne Bishop and her Others series so knowing that I could go back into this world was so exciting. Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of Lake Silence. As much as I love the world, and learning more about it outside of Lakeside, I wasn't as invested in the characters.
After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns like Vicki’s have no distance from the Others, the dominant predators that rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what’s out there watching you.
Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe–one of the shapeshifting Others–discovers a dead body, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the man’s death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, things get dangerous–and it’ll take everything they have to stay alive.
So let's talk about the positives before we go to the negatives. Anne Bishop continues to be a masterful world creator. Even though we know a lot about the world through The Others series, I was surprised that she was able to tell us more about this world in this story. For one, it was fascinating to see how people outside of the Lakeside Courtyard deal with the aftermath of the uprisings. How has the rest of the world changed? How are the Others in the rest of the country dealing? Even more so, how would trying to work through their difference affect the humans and the Other alike?
I also want to mention how much I loved see how others humans and the Others interact with each other without Meg and other cassandra sangue. Meg was psych an integral character in the first five books but she obviously isn't around in other parts of this world. There's always good and bad apples everywhere--which just happens to be another topics for this book.
However, I didn't care about any of the characters in this story. I felt like the narrative was focused a lot more on the world and setting I up for future stories. The characters didn't get as much time to be developed as I would have liked them to be.
Overall, I continue to be impressed by Anne Bishop's world building abilities. I like seeing how this world works, the intricacies of all of the magic and creatures, and just so much more. As much as I didn't like the characters--and thus, the overall book--I did want to more. I always end up with more questions about the world but I don't think it's a negative. It's such a positive because I've become so invested.
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There are ghost towns in the world—places where the humans were annihilated in retaliation for the slaughter of the shape-shifting Others.Just when I didn't know if I would like the new books in this series, Anne Bishop gives me Wild Country. As much as I didn't enjoy Lake Silence, I enjoyed Wild Country even more. As I've said time and a time again, characters make or break a story for me. I know Anne Bishop's ability to create an amazing world and characters, so that's what I was looking forward to in this story.
One of those places is Bennett, a town at the northern end of the Elder Hills—a town surrounded by the wild country. Now efforts are being made to resettle Bennett as a community where humans and Others live and work together. A young female police officer has been hired as the deputy to a Wolfgard sheriff. A deadly type of Other wants to run a human-style saloon. And a couple with four foster children—one of whom is a blood prophet—hope to find acceptance.
But as they reopen the stores and the professional offices and start to make lives for themselves, the town of Bennett attracts the attention of other humans looking for profit. And the arrival of the Blackstone Clan, outlaws and gamblers all, will uncover secrets…or bury them.
The characters in Wild Country are different than what we know from The Others, but are just as compelling and that's what I want from my books. There are some characters that we've met in The Others books and there are some news one too. Regardless of when they come into the story, I liked most of them. Obviously, I don't spend five books with them, but I'm hoping to see more of them. (I'm trying to be as vague as possible as to not spoil anything.)
The plot line was also very different but I liked it. There is so much work that needs to be done to rebuild this world after the choices made by certain humans, and I liked seeing how these choices affected the outside world. The Others are just as interesting and slightly frightening as they have been in the past. There were some similarities between Etched in Bone and Wild Country which led me to be a little confused as to why certain events were allowed to happen. In some ways, I understand, and in others, it didn't fit with any of the characters.
I can't wait for more in this world (I just now learned that there's going to be another book in this series), these characters and overall, just everything.
The World of the Others:
Written in Red (The Others, #1)
Murder of Crows (The Others, #2)
Vision in Silver (The Others, #3)
Marked in Flesh (The Others, #4)
Etched in Bone (The Others, #5)
Lake Silver (The World of the Others, #1; The Others, #6)
Wild Country (The World of the Others, #2; The Others, #7)
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