Chill Factor, by Rachel Caine

[annathepiper]

Okay, so I had been planning on using this icon only as the one for Books What I Read Because of Russell Crowe, but I think that I shall also have to use it for Books What Have Heroes That Make Me Swoon. I mean, day-em, just starting this post caused me to mistype Russell's name before I caught myself, and do you all know how much it takes to make me mistype "Russell Crowe"? David in rachelcaine's books, that's how much. Which brings me to my review post for Chill Factor!

Picoreview: Rachel Caine is an evil, evil temptress, and she does not let up for one single minute in the third book of her Weather Wardens series--and proves she had surprises and then some waiting for me as I tore my way through this installment. Browsing her site today, I spotted someone's comment that her books are just like M&M's--you rip right through them, and while they're a fluffy, snack-y sort of read, they are oh so tasty.

Ahem. RIGHT THEN.

I have a huge morass of conflicting reactions to the tail end of this story. The fangirl reaction: "Nooooooooo! Rachel! You EVIL, EVIL TEMPTRESS! How could you give us David making sweet love to Joanne, murmuring words of fire into her ear, getting her pregnant, and then getting ripped to shreds by Rahel-turned-Ifrit? AIE! HE MUST BE ALL RIGHT!" The reader reaction: "Good gods, I need to get the next book NOW. NOW. NOW." The aspiring writer reaction: "Ahem. Muse? Hey, muse? You're taking notes on this, right? On How to Make One's Hero As Swoonable as Possible, and Then Even More Swoonable? Not to mention How to Set a Breakneck Pace and Keep Your Readers Coming Back For More?"

Because holy crap, that was a hell of a read. I don't even know where to begin, aside from sniffling over the aforementioned ripping apart of the aforementioned David (sniffle!). Okay, I will admit I'm just a trifle confused as to what exactly Lewis might have done that let David come back out of the bottle, even briefly, as himself rather than as Ifrit-David--but I'm sure I'll find out as soon as I rip into book four.

And how about that secret-society-founding Lewis, huh? Anybody besides me think "Ra's Al Ghul"? 'Cause all that talk that the Ma'at were giving Jo about restoring the balance of the Earth sure did spookily remind me of the speeches Liam Neeson kept giving Bruce Wayne in Batman Returns. And yet... Lewis seems better than that. We do get reminded that along with being The Most Powerful Warden Ever, Lewis does get a hefty dose of compassion as part and parcel of the Earth Warden section of his powers. On the other hand, I did want to smack him around a bit for giving Jo shit about David. On the third hand, I also wanted to hug the poor man for that last question he gave Jo: "Does he make you happy?"

Why do I smell a sacrifice to David of some of his own power on Lewis' part, hrmm?

I'd like that, and it'd be pretty neat if that's what's going on. There is still clearly Something There between Lewis and Jo, David all aside... and Jo is clearly aware of it. Clever, clever Rachel, keeping that in there just to keep things really interesting. ;)

What else? The beginning sure floored me with a whole bunch of "what the hell?" Very effective--because we as readers had no idea what was going on any more than Jo did, which was exactly the right way to go about doing that as Lewis sneakily arranged to "kill" Jo and then dump her inside Vegas.

And I really, really liked that Jonathan was way more in charge of the situation than Kevin was--that Jonathan, as Most Powerful Djinn Ever, wasn't about to let a pipsqueak teenage boy seriously take advantage of him. I still take a bit of issue with the convenience of how somebody snatching the bottle of a bound Djinn makes them the new master of that Djinn. (But thinking more about it, I wonder whether that was deliberately done by the Wardens if they set the whole thing up in the first place with enslaving the Djinn. I could see it causing the Wardens a fuckload of problems if someone could command a Djinn no matter where the bottle might happen to be. If a Warden goes rogue, that leaves too much power in their hands if their Djinn can't be snatched out from under them. Hrmm.)

And how about that Quinn? I should have known that the new character who got the most lines and who seemed likeable to Jo would in fact be the actual bad guy. Hee. A trifle too convenient that he was also the person who tortured the secrets of the Djinn out of Jo herself six years ago--but a forgiveable convenience, as far as I'm concerned, because see previous commentary on these books being oh so tasty. ;) Not to mention that it also led into some nice little revelations about Marion--apparently Sekrit Love Affairs With One's Djinn are more common among the Wardens than Jo might otherwise think, huh? Whee!

And OHMIGOD, Jo's got a Djinn bun in her oven! Oddly appropriate, given that 2006 in my experience thus far has been Year of the Baby--it's even leaking into the fiction I'm reading. ^_^ I wonder how long the gestation period is if you're carrying the child of a Djinn?

And that last note with Jo telling off Paul and his backup and walking off the job--nice. It will be very, very interesting to see if this situation gets repaired at all in the next book or two!

Yep. Gotta go get Windfall. Tomorrow. Whee!

Comments

[tvaddictgurl.livejournal.com]

Windfall is awesome! It is too long until the next one. We can discuss our mutual love of David at WW.

[annathepiper]

I'll look forward to it. :D And I hope to scarf me that copy of Windfall on my way home!