The Great Library Series, by Rachel Caine

Seem to be on a YA kick here. Perhaps it's a result of more of the genre being made available for free via Overdrive than the adult stuff, which the funding folks probably figure we can afford to pay for, while the teens can't (being too busy getting tattoos, and bling for their iPhones).

This one has been a fun ride. The premise is that the Great Library of Alexandria was saved, rather than destroyed, and that the librarians have been the sole arbiters of what knowledge the human race is allowed to read and have. Enter a world of black market book smugglers, anarchists called The Burners, and where the invention of the printing press has been suppressed more than once. Nearly non-stop action.

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine

Book One of this series certainly starts out fast and furious - literally. Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden, capable of influencing either by calming or inflaming, a storm, and she's on the run for murder of a fellow warden, actually her supervisor, Bad Bob Biringanine. The weather wardens are jointly responsible for keeping the hurricanes, tornadoes and whatnot from destroying too many human lives and property, as it turns out that storms actually have some sort of consciousness, and are extremely malevolent.

The same thing is true with earthquakes and wildfires, and there are also Earth and Fire wardens who are tasked with keeping those under control, too. Very powerful wardens are assigned a djinn, and elemental creature who is able to multiply and focus the power of the warden when dealing with particularly powerful and tricky natural disasters.

Joanne owns a classic Mustang named Delilah, and we get to travel headlong across country with her as she tries to find her few allies to help her avoid being executed (or worse) for the murder of Bad Bob, and to rid herself of the demon mark inside her. The mark is the whole reason she killed Bob in the first place, and though it may have some effect on her powers, its influence is evil over the long term, and she really needs to exorcise it.

This is an interesting road trip, and perhaps a great beginning for a series, but after some of the special effects in Ill Wind, I just have to wonder how Caine can top the over-the-top weather action.

Unknown by Rachel Caine

In the second book of Outcast Season, Cassiel and Luis keep right on from where we left them, trying to thwart the evil former djinn, Pearl, who is kidnapping talented children and training them to be her mindless followers. The end game for Pearl is to force Cassiel to do that for which she was exiled, destroy the human race.

The romantic and sexual tension between Luis and Cassiel continues to build in this novel. I have to give Ms. Caine credit for not having her protagonists give in to their primal urges - that's a rare thing in the world of urban fantasy today.

The pace continues to be fast and frantic, with our duo racing to find the missing children and rescue them. The tough thing is that the children don't really want to be rescued. They've been brainwashed into believing that Luis and Cassiel are the villains, having been shown illusions of their parents being murdered by Cassiel.

Our heroes forge some new alliances, e.g., getting the FBI to help track down Pearl's fortresses in remote areas, and to participate in a raid on one of those compounds. Cassiel also convinces one of the New Djinn, Rashid, to help fight Pearl and her minions.

It's a good thing that Cassiel and Luis are able to channel power back and forth between them, as the number of times they're seriously wounded in a fight, and have to be miraculously healed borders on the absurd.  I'll keep forging ahead to find out how it all turns out, but I'm forced to suspend my critical faculties far too often while reading the series.

Undone by Rachel Caine

I hadn't previously read any of Rachel Caine's books, so I saw this was the first book in a new series, Outcast Season, and thought it would be a good place to start. Somewhat unfortunately, this series is tightly intertwined with her Weather Warden series, so I had to interpolate a bit in the mystery areas, and managed to get by without understanding any of the history.

Undone is the story of a djinn, Cassiel, who has disobeyed one of the djinn chieftains and is exiled to Earth in the body of a human being. She finds refuge, albeit grudgingly, among the Weather Wardens, and is dependent on them to provide her with power, without which she will die. She is assigned to an Earth Warden named Manny, and he finds her a place to live and gives her a job assisting him in his duties, which seem to be things like defusing earthquakes before they build to dangerous levels. If I had read the other series, I'd probably understand what all the versions of wardens do a little better, but I've placed the first book in that series on hold at the library, so I should be caught up in a couple of months.

As one might expect, there are evil forces in play, and Cassiel and Manny come under attack for no apparent reason. As they work together, and Cassiel comes to know Manny's wife, Angela, and his daughter, Isabel, and also comes to know something the djinn have never learned - love, though she doesn't recognize it as anything more than a strange annoying feeling at first. Sounds pretty human to me.

As the forces against them escalate, and the situation grows more dire, they are joined by Manny's brother, Luis. Cassiel feels a different sort of attraction for Luis, which we humans recognize quite reaadily, but which has her even more mystified. I'll give you three guesses.

So, this feels like a good start to the series to me, although I thought that the potency of the enemies they faced escalated awfully fast. Not sure what Caine will do to top things as she goes along. It's also got a bit of a shameless cliffhanger at the end, forcing us to forever wonder about a beloved character, or just go buy the darned second book. I think the third one has already been published, so I imagine we're in for the long haul, folks.