Firestorm, by Rachel Caine
Sep. 27th, 2006 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperWith this, the fifth book in the Weather Warden series, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelcaine continues her fine tradition of plots that never let up on the pace for an instant. I've got to hand it to her, she's got that pacing thing down to an art.
Picoreview: A whole lot of "not what I was expecting" throughout this plot, based on where Windfall left off. Some of it was the "wow, that was pretty cool" kind of unexpected; some of it, more the "who put what in the where now?" variety. Still a riproaring read, but one which didn't play out for me quite as well as earlier installments of the series. This may change as Book Six comes out and I get more of an idea of where we're going with all this, but I don't know yet.
Whoo boy. When last we left off, we'd had Jo running for her life from a cadre of Djinn who'd all gone red-eyed and psycho with the impact of Mother Earth Herself waking up and being pissed. And given that the cadre was led by none other than the Uberhot David Himself, this was shaping up for eight or nine thousand kinds of Oh Shit.
So I was totally expecting a book that was going to be all about the Wardens going at it with the Djinn. This was not what we got, and part of me was disappointed by that. I mean, the fangirl in me was all about the YAY! when David showed up for his first scene and was coherent, and was coherent in all of his subsequent scenes as well, sure. But it also felt like a little bit of a copout. Just about all of the on-camera Djinn action involved the Djinn going after Demonmarked Wardens specifically, not all Wardens in general. And while the whole "hunting down the demonmarked Wardens" thing was great and all, it also really kind of took the sting out of the whole idea of the Djinn as vengeful servants of the Mother about to eradicate humanity from the face of the planet.
Most of the book as well, at least from Jo's perspective, was running around putting out fires. In some cases, literally. And that fire sequence went on way, way too long given that Jo didn't actually accomplish anything, and that the only real reason it needed to be there in the plot was for her to find out that David and the other Djinn had killed Demonmarked Wardens. This kind of thing made the overall plot feel a quite a bit less cohesive to me, and it didn't really feel like it started getting its legs under it until we saw that a Demon Mark had come after the first Oracle--and that Ashan was in alliance with Demons. And by then, we were pretty far into the book.
Also? I kinda liked that Eamon wanted a Djinn to heal this person in the hospital--and I do have some curiosity as to what exactly the story is there--but through most of his on-camera time, my reaction was "yeah yeah yeah, he's a slimebucket, can we get back to Jo saving the Earth now?" It just felt like that was a subplot that was out of sync with the main goings-on, in terms of threat level. Something that would have been a more credible subplot earlier in the series, and which loses a lot of steam when paired up with a "the world is literally about to end" main plot.
But. I really disliked that he lets Sarah go and then she winds up right the heck back in his clutches, presumably while Imara is getting captured and beaten senseless by Ashan. Granted that this all happened off-camera and that therefore it would have been hard to show in a novel told in first person, but it all left me feeling "buh huh what just happened there?" Not to mention that it really left me irritated with Sarah as a character. I didn't like her very much in Windfall, and I like her even less now that this has happened. I'm not seeing any redeeming characteristics in Sarah at all, and no reason for her to be in the overall plot except as a victim for Jo to be obligated to go out of her way for since she's her sister. Bah.
On the other hand, we had plenty of goodness to exult in, so let's get down to that.
While I could have done without the bits involving Emily only half-assedly healing Jo and then trying to take Imara, I did like that Emily had some genuine fear about rumors that Jo was behind all the shit that's gone down in all the prior books. Which makes absolute and utter sense. I mean, if you're some low-level random Warden who hasn't been in on the details of the recent scary shenanigans and suddenly you're alone with the person suspected of causing it all, you've got every right to be absolutely scared. So that was pretty cool. So was Emily backing off once she learned that Imara was Jo's daughter (though one can also argue that she should have had a bigger WTF?! reaction there as well).
Liked me some Cherise, who was around just long enough to provide some interesting mortal viewpoints and then got the hell out of the way. I really liked that she immediately came up with "catering" as a reason to hang around--she may not have superpowers, but by gods, she can organize getting food. And Jo did need the reminder that yeah, while the Wardens may have the power to save the planet, everybody else on the planet has a vested interest in hanging around too, so it's really not fair to tell a regular mortal like her to just fuck off and do nothing. So, kudos there.
How about that Lewis, then, giving Jo the car? This, ladies and gents, is part of why Lewis is still in the game when it comes to Jo's affections. He totally understands her and what she loves. And I liked that we had just enough of a fight between David and Jo about the car to get across just a touch of jealousy on David's part and to hit Jo with the cluehammer that Lewis is in love with her. No more than that, and very quickly moving on, since bigger things are still at stake. Perfect.
David? Oh my yes, still Uberhot even if I'm starting to swing to the Jo/Lewis ship camp.kisanthe has posited to me that David is really too much of a Dream Guy, a point with which I think I agree. Jo's got tons and tons of hot burning passionate love for him--but you could make a very good case that there isn't much substance beneath it. After all, every single time David's with Jo, he's generally doing one of two things: having hot burning passionate sex with her, or else making grand romantic gestures like oh, say, sacrificing himself on her behalf. Kinda light on the whole "daily existence" connection you need if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone. The ties she has with Lewis still feel like they're more real. See previous commentary re: car. ;)
Raise your hand if you totally envisioned the Earth Oracle as played by the lady who played the Oracle in The Matrix. I kept expecting her to offer Jo a cookie.
Also, raise your hand if you're also an LKH fan (or former fan) and kept reading "Asher" for "Ashan" every time he was on camera. I kept doing that all throughout this book. Hell, I've kept doing it typing up this LJ post. But! Really, really liked that Ashan had teamed up with the Demons in his desperate attempt to purge humanity from the planet. Really nice touch, that, and I hadn't seen it coming at all. His fate was exquisite justice as well--that brief description of his gagging on every breath he took in his shiny new human form spoke volumes.
I'm not sure yet what I think about the whole idea of Jo losing her memory, though. I came out of that ending with a big ol' mental case of whiplash, going, "What the hell just happened here?!" And naturally I read the preview chapter for Thin Air, and I'm all "Timmy's still in the well! AAAAAAH!"
Long story short, shakier work perhaps than previous installments--but keep 'em coming, Rachel. Very anxious to see how this story is going to end!
rachelcaine continues her fine tradition of plots that never let up on the pace for an instant. I've got to hand it to her, she's got that pacing thing down to an art.Picoreview: A whole lot of "not what I was expecting" throughout this plot, based on where Windfall left off. Some of it was the "wow, that was pretty cool" kind of unexpected; some of it, more the "who put what in the where now?" variety. Still a riproaring read, but one which didn't play out for me quite as well as earlier installments of the series. This may change as Book Six comes out and I get more of an idea of where we're going with all this, but I don't know yet.
Whoo boy. When last we left off, we'd had Jo running for her life from a cadre of Djinn who'd all gone red-eyed and psycho with the impact of Mother Earth Herself waking up and being pissed. And given that the cadre was led by none other than the Uberhot David Himself, this was shaping up for eight or nine thousand kinds of Oh Shit.
So I was totally expecting a book that was going to be all about the Wardens going at it with the Djinn. This was not what we got, and part of me was disappointed by that. I mean, the fangirl in me was all about the YAY! when David showed up for his first scene and was coherent, and was coherent in all of his subsequent scenes as well, sure. But it also felt like a little bit of a copout. Just about all of the on-camera Djinn action involved the Djinn going after Demonmarked Wardens specifically, not all Wardens in general. And while the whole "hunting down the demonmarked Wardens" thing was great and all, it also really kind of took the sting out of the whole idea of the Djinn as vengeful servants of the Mother about to eradicate humanity from the face of the planet.
Most of the book as well, at least from Jo's perspective, was running around putting out fires. In some cases, literally. And that fire sequence went on way, way too long given that Jo didn't actually accomplish anything, and that the only real reason it needed to be there in the plot was for her to find out that David and the other Djinn had killed Demonmarked Wardens. This kind of thing made the overall plot feel a quite a bit less cohesive to me, and it didn't really feel like it started getting its legs under it until we saw that a Demon Mark had come after the first Oracle--and that Ashan was in alliance with Demons. And by then, we were pretty far into the book.
Also? I kinda liked that Eamon wanted a Djinn to heal this person in the hospital--and I do have some curiosity as to what exactly the story is there--but through most of his on-camera time, my reaction was "yeah yeah yeah, he's a slimebucket, can we get back to Jo saving the Earth now?" It just felt like that was a subplot that was out of sync with the main goings-on, in terms of threat level. Something that would have been a more credible subplot earlier in the series, and which loses a lot of steam when paired up with a "the world is literally about to end" main plot.
But. I really disliked that he lets Sarah go and then she winds up right the heck back in his clutches, presumably while Imara is getting captured and beaten senseless by Ashan. Granted that this all happened off-camera and that therefore it would have been hard to show in a novel told in first person, but it all left me feeling "buh huh what just happened there?" Not to mention that it really left me irritated with Sarah as a character. I didn't like her very much in Windfall, and I like her even less now that this has happened. I'm not seeing any redeeming characteristics in Sarah at all, and no reason for her to be in the overall plot except as a victim for Jo to be obligated to go out of her way for since she's her sister. Bah.
On the other hand, we had plenty of goodness to exult in, so let's get down to that.
While I could have done without the bits involving Emily only half-assedly healing Jo and then trying to take Imara, I did like that Emily had some genuine fear about rumors that Jo was behind all the shit that's gone down in all the prior books. Which makes absolute and utter sense. I mean, if you're some low-level random Warden who hasn't been in on the details of the recent scary shenanigans and suddenly you're alone with the person suspected of causing it all, you've got every right to be absolutely scared. So that was pretty cool. So was Emily backing off once she learned that Imara was Jo's daughter (though one can also argue that she should have had a bigger WTF?! reaction there as well).
Liked me some Cherise, who was around just long enough to provide some interesting mortal viewpoints and then got the hell out of the way. I really liked that she immediately came up with "catering" as a reason to hang around--she may not have superpowers, but by gods, she can organize getting food. And Jo did need the reminder that yeah, while the Wardens may have the power to save the planet, everybody else on the planet has a vested interest in hanging around too, so it's really not fair to tell a regular mortal like her to just fuck off and do nothing. So, kudos there.
How about that Lewis, then, giving Jo the car? This, ladies and gents, is part of why Lewis is still in the game when it comes to Jo's affections. He totally understands her and what she loves. And I liked that we had just enough of a fight between David and Jo about the car to get across just a touch of jealousy on David's part and to hit Jo with the cluehammer that Lewis is in love with her. No more than that, and very quickly moving on, since bigger things are still at stake. Perfect.
David? Oh my yes, still Uberhot even if I'm starting to swing to the Jo/Lewis ship camp.
kisanthe has posited to me that David is really too much of a Dream Guy, a point with which I think I agree. Jo's got tons and tons of hot burning passionate love for him--but you could make a very good case that there isn't much substance beneath it. After all, every single time David's with Jo, he's generally doing one of two things: having hot burning passionate sex with her, or else making grand romantic gestures like oh, say, sacrificing himself on her behalf. Kinda light on the whole "daily existence" connection you need if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone. The ties she has with Lewis still feel like they're more real. See previous commentary re: car. ;)Raise your hand if you totally envisioned the Earth Oracle as played by the lady who played the Oracle in The Matrix. I kept expecting her to offer Jo a cookie.
Also, raise your hand if you're also an LKH fan (or former fan) and kept reading "Asher" for "Ashan" every time he was on camera. I kept doing that all throughout this book. Hell, I've kept doing it typing up this LJ post. But! Really, really liked that Ashan had teamed up with the Demons in his desperate attempt to purge humanity from the planet. Really nice touch, that, and I hadn't seen it coming at all. His fate was exquisite justice as well--that brief description of his gagging on every breath he took in his shiny new human form spoke volumes.
I'm not sure yet what I think about the whole idea of Jo losing her memory, though. I came out of that ending with a big ol' mental case of whiplash, going, "What the hell just happened here?!" And naturally I read the preview chapter for Thin Air, and I'm all "Timmy's still in the well! AAAAAAH!"
Long story short, shakier work perhaps than previous installments--but keep 'em coming, Rachel. Very anxious to see how this story is going to end!