Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

This book is, if not THE climax, at least a climactic point in Bishop's series about The Others. The most powerful of the natives, who are seldom seen by humans, or even some of the more public Others, have finally come to the conclusion that the human race must be culled, and removed from the lands they acquired by treaty and subsequently violated its terms. I'm sure that any parallels to the story of native Americans and early settlers in this country are merely coincidental, aren't you? The story seems to serve as one of those "what if?" parables, given the premise that the technology of the Europeans turned out to be less powerful than the magic of the natives, who in this world are not at all human, instead of the all too human Indians they encountered in reality.

The question is not whether the humans must be culled, but how deep the cuts should go. We are stuck with hoping that the humans who have been cooperating with the Others in places like The Courtyard will be granted reprieve from the general slaughter which is to come.

The only issue after the end of this novel is exactly where Bishop will take us next, whether to tales of rebuilding and survival, or into some utopic time of cooperation between the survivors and the Others.

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

 How often do you find yourself reading a book which is told from the "monsters" point of view so skillfully that you find yourself rooting against the humans. Or, in this case, the humans who want to drive the Others, the terra indigene from the continent.

The core plot in this book revolves around the sudden appearance of Monty's daughter, Lizzie, by herself on a train from the city where she has lived with her mother, Elayne, since Monty moved to Lakeside. Elayne has had a falling out with her boyfriend, one of the leaders of the Humans First and Last movement, after catching him sleeping around, but is killed when she tries to leave town with evidence of some of the bad things he has been up to. His partners in crime believe that Lizzie has or knows something that will implicate them,and so they try several times to take her back.

The cassandra sangues, having been forced out of the "homes" where they once were exploited, are having a difficult time surviving in the outside world. Some of them are simply giving up, others getting hit by cars, and even those who reach the few refuges which the Others have established are often overwhelmed by their new lives and end up killing themselves. Meg and her friends begin to try to put together an "Idiot's Guide" to caring for the prophetesses to distribute to the new caretakers.

There are, of course, some good veiled political and social issues in this book. The human media spouts the propaganda that Humans First spokespeople feed it without questioning, and it is relentlessly Other-phobic, while on the other hand Orwellian in its assumptions that only the human government can properly care for the poor, disadvantaged and mentally unstable cassandras, these "troubled children".

The battle lines are rapidly being drawn as Humans First - supporting businesses refuse to hire or to do business with the humans who do business with or associate with the Others. There are secret handshakes and special identifying pins that the HFL'ers wear. Simon Wolfgard begins to prepare living arrangements for some of "his" humans who are being ostracized and harassed.

The humans, for the most part, are still far too unaware, despite recent events, that the Others with whom they interact are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ancient powers that truly rule the Earth, and who can wipe out humanity in the blink of an eye, should they choose to end the experiment.

Another great book in Bishop's series. Looks like there's a fifth one in the works, too. This should be fun!

Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

 So, the first thing that is fun here is the word play Bishop creates with the title of her book, Murder of Crows. Murder is the term for a collection of crows, and in this case "murder of Crows" is the triggering incident in an incipient war between humans and the terra indigene, or Others. Crows are...well, not lycanthropes but shapeshifters who more accurately could be called, perhaps, corvuthropes. See, you learn a new (made up) word every day, eh?

Things are getting serious in multiple ways, as the leader of the Wolves, Simon, finds himself falling in love with Meg, nominally human, but actually more of a subspecies, the blood prophets, or cassandra sangue. This could cause problems for both of them, as interracial/interspecies affairs are not sanctioned in Thaisia (North America), and it is affecting his judgement in matters concerning her. Meg is also experiencing new feelings towards Simon, but neither of them wants to make things more complicated or encounter unrequited emotions, so it's all being bottled up. So healthy.

Meg's former captors are still trying to get her back, and the Humans First and Last fanatics are distributing a pair of drugs which strongly and negatively affect The Others, causing even more friction between the indigene and humans. Many humans have forgotten just how powerful The Others are, and that they exist on this continent only on sufferance, and so they ignorantly support the rabble rousers and grow restive. I'm sure there are some political undertones we could explore in this novel applicable to present real world situations, but I'm going to ignore that for the moment, as the plot is far more twisty and interesting.

The only thing that falls flat for me in this book is the rather contrived nature of how the blood prophets "see" their visions. They can only relate them in images which they have already experienced, so the cassandras in captivity are shown booklets of approved images which they can use, while Meg, who has escaped to "the wild" is beginning to have a far wider range, but her prophecies are still very childish, in my opinion, and just seem a little hokey. I mean, she sees a fish fin and a donkey, and what that means is the name of the man who is hunting for her and other cassandras, Phineas (fin + ass). Can't Bishop come up with something a little better than that?

Humans who associate with The Others are being harassed and threatened, like the girls who work at Howling Good Reads, and police officers like Monty and Captain Burke are going to have to choose sides, so to speak, soon. The Others respond quickly and decisively to eliminate threats from the humans, and cities can be and are destroyed to pay for the sins of a small number of their inhabitants. We begin to see a picture of a wider world here than just that of Lakeside, and Meg's prophecies must expand to include threats to more than just her new friends.

After a huge buildup, the final confrontation between the indigenes and the renegade Controller takes a dozen pages or so. Bishop may have wrapped this one up a little hastily, even though I'm sure there are more novels coming in this series. Soon, I hope.

Written in Red by Anne Bishop

 The mind is the first thing to go, I guess. I cannot for the life of me remember where I found a review of this book that intrigued me so much I had to put it on hold at the library. Thanks, whomever. This is the most completely fresh take on the whole vampires, werewolves and things that go bump in the night that I've seen in ages.

Hmmm...the premise...The Others were on the Earth long before humans came on the scene, and for the most part humans were merely prey, but their rapid breeding and technology kept them around long enough to colonize the new world, where they found a whole new batch. The telling of the tale of the colonization and negotiations sounds very similar to what happened with the native Americans here, except that in this case the indians were not overwhelmed by the invaders, and turned out to be very shrewd negotiators, as well as having supernatural powers. I'm not quite sure, given the dynamics of the situation, how we got from point A to the setting of the story, which has telephones and automobiles and modern weaponry in the cities, while still being threatened constantly by what might happen if the humans irritate The Others, who actually include elementals capable of drowning a city or burying your civilization under a glacier, but if we just wave a magic wand over the whole history and logic thing and accept the situation as presented, it gets pretty cool.

Meg Corbyn (not her real name, she really only has a number designation) is a cassandra sangue - blood prophet. She, and other girls like her, are kept as property of very wealthy patrons who ration out their prophecies to those who can pay for them. Every prophecy is created by cutting a portion of the cassandra's skin somewhere, and eventually when all the untouched skin is used up, so is the prophetess. The public believes they are pampered servants, but they are actually abused slaves, and Meg risks her life one day by escaping from her compound and running away into a snowstorm. As her strength and hope begin to flag, she arrives at Lakeside Courtyard, a colony of The Others, and is rescued from the storm by their Wolf leader, Simon Wolfgard, and given the job of Liason between the nearby humans and the supernatural community, mostly to spite the other applicant for the job, Asia, who has been trying to worm her way into Simon's bedroom, and whom he just doesn't quite trust for some unknown reason.

Though her only knowledge of the world outside of the compound comes from books and other lessons she has been taught - just enough to let her interpret what she sees in her visions - Meg turns out to be a very conscientious and thorough Liason. Her primary duty is to receive shipments from human suppliers, and mail from the outside world, sort it, and make sure it gets to the right "people" within the Courtyard.

At the same time, there's a new sheriff in town. Lieutenant James Crispin "Monty" Montgomery has been run out of his last job for allowing a young Wolf girl to kill and eat the pedophile who had been holding her captive, after Monty handcuffed the pervert. The Humans First folks made life difficult for him, his fiancee broke up with him, and kept custody of their daughter. It did, however, make him nearly perfect for a job that opened up in Lakeside Courtyard, enforcing laws on the human side, and making sure the humans don't run afoul of The Others more immediate methods of justice.

In addition to getting used to their new surroundings, developing relationships and understanding their place among the Others, and learning new jobs, Meg and Monty must also deal with outside forces that threaten to destroy what they have. Meg's controller has hired mercenaries to recover his "property", Humans First fanatics are scheming to start a war between the races, and others with merely mercantile motives are snooping about for more information on the Others. Good, semi-twisty intrigue, the threat of violence and mayhem, and some slightly different protagonists make this a really good read. Hope Bishop writes a few more in this world.