The Others – Some Background
The Others is a fantasy series by Anne Bishop that at the moment, consists of six books. The first five deal with the story of Meg Corbyn and Simon Wolfguard. Visions in Silver and Marked in Flesh are the third and fourth books respectively. The first two books are Written in Red and A Murder of Crows.
The Others tells the story of a world parallel to ours. Similar in some respects but quite different. In this other world, humans are not apex predators, merely another creation. While the Others, the true apex predators, come in various shapes and sizes and warily tolerate human existence. Throw into this mix, the third group of people, women who can prophesize the future, not quite human and not Other. It’s a recipe for oppression, conflict, and resolution.
The Others – Visions in Silver
I read Visions in Silver about 10 days ago. It picks up where Murder of Crows left off. The Others rescued the Blood Prophets from many of the compounds. Now though, they must learn how to deal with these girls, coddled since birth and addicted to cutting themselves in order to see the future. Compound that with Meg their defacto leader, still learning how to cope with the outside world and the Humans First and Last movement stirring up trouble. Lastly, another mystery ensues as Monty, the police liaison between humans and Others must deal with the surprise arrival of his young daughter. Why is she there and what happened to her mother?
There are a lot of threads in this story and Anne Bishop weaves them well. So much so, that I plowed through this book quickly in a few days. And if it weren’t for having to wait to take book four, Marked in Flesh, from the library, I would have plowed into that one too. On the GoodReads scale, I’m going to give this book 4 stars, I Really Liked it.
The Others – Marked in Flesh
I stayed up until 1 am last night to finish Marked in Flesh, not because the ending was so compelling but because I just wanted to finish it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad read. I just didn’t find it the ending as enthralling as it could have been. Actually, I could say that about the entire book which seemed to climax at about the 60% mark and everything afterward was a bit of a letdown.
Marked in Flesh picks up shortly after Visions in Silver ended. You know, because characters that suffered an injury during Visions in Silver still bear the signs of healing wounds. Actually, though the author doesn’t provide months for this world, I figure based on their similar names, only four to five months lapsed over the course of the series. As a matter of fact, this book seems to have the longest time span, maybe six weeks.
In this story, we’re dealing with the escalating violence of the Humans First and Last Movement (HFLM), as they try to destroy The Others to claim more land and resources (and riches) for themselves. The rhetoric of the HFLM reminded me so much of the alt-right in this country and Nazis before them, I found myself with a bit of stress reading it. The only difference, in this story those assholes unwittingly were using a scapegoat more powerful than could be imagined. The HFLM destruction left a so satisfying feeling I can only hope it carries through to real life in a few short months.
Marked in Flesh – My Thoughts
I found the story a bit over-extended. Anne Bishop introduced us to a new human-Other settlement and the characters to go along with it. This left me feeling as if these characters were only there because she couldn’t bear killing off an existing, beloved character. Furthermore, without the benefit of a map of the country and even one of the world, it was hard for me to visualize where things were in relation to the other. Not to mention the confusion I incurred between Joe and Jackson. Again, feeling as if thrown in to advance the story without destroying any existing beloved areas (or characters). Lastly, threads added that didn’t seem to advance the entire arc (e.g., Jesse and Tobias Walker, Monty’s family), while others still remain unresolved (the old woman who Simon met as a child – will we ever find out more about that?).
All that said, I did enjoy the book, read it in two days, and look forward to the next. Though I’m not as compelled to move on to Etched in Bone as I was to move to Marked in Flesh. On the GoodReads scale, a solid three stars, I liked it.