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annathepiperCherie Priest's novels about Eden Moore, who sees ghosts and other sorts of dead in Chattanooga, are consistently excellent. Not Flesh Nor Feathers, the third book of the series, is happily no exception to this rule. She continues to bring the Creepy to Chattanooga, drawing on the rich and oftentimes genuinely creepy in real life history of the South to lay down her tales. And this time around, she does it with bonus zombies.
As of Book 3 Eden is still struggling to get a handle on what the events of Book 1 have meant for her--not only in terms of the changes that pivotal story wrought for her powers, but also for her strange relationship with her half-brother. Fallout from those events lends a nice continuity to what's gone before, while at the same time, the overall main plot has an impact and scope that we haven't seen before in this series. The rising of the river in Chattanooga brings a disaster of national scale to the city, resulting in martial law, footage on CNN, looting, the works... but at the heart of it all is what's rising out of the river, old, burned, and very, very angry.
We've all seen zombies before, sure. But there's something unique about them in this book, with the added evocative description of how they've been burned almost beyond human recognition, and are wielding chains like Indiana Jones wields bullwhips. You won't get mindless moaning for brains here (despite the wry joke Eden makes to the reader about the proper noun for a group of zombies; personally, I vote for 'shamble'). Instead you'll get some some shiver-worthy undead propelled by tangible, burning wrath.
For the first time, too, there's a hint of romance as Eden is attracted to one of the characters who showed up in Book 2 and who comes off very well in his second appearance here. As with everything else in this series so far, I found this nicely understated, and a good progression from what has gone before. Five stars.
As of Book 3 Eden is still struggling to get a handle on what the events of Book 1 have meant for her--not only in terms of the changes that pivotal story wrought for her powers, but also for her strange relationship with her half-brother. Fallout from those events lends a nice continuity to what's gone before, while at the same time, the overall main plot has an impact and scope that we haven't seen before in this series. The rising of the river in Chattanooga brings a disaster of national scale to the city, resulting in martial law, footage on CNN, looting, the works... but at the heart of it all is what's rising out of the river, old, burned, and very, very angry.
We've all seen zombies before, sure. But there's something unique about them in this book, with the added evocative description of how they've been burned almost beyond human recognition, and are wielding chains like Indiana Jones wields bullwhips. You won't get mindless moaning for brains here (despite the wry joke Eden makes to the reader about the proper noun for a group of zombies; personally, I vote for 'shamble'). Instead you'll get some some shiver-worthy undead propelled by tangible, burning wrath.
For the first time, too, there's a hint of romance as Eden is attracted to one of the characters who showed up in Book 2 and who comes off very well in his second appearance here. As with everything else in this series so far, I found this nicely understated, and a good progression from what has gone before. Five stars.