CBR4 Book 104: "Steel's Edge" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 400 pages
Date begun: November 27th, 2012
Date finished: November 27th, 2012

This is the final book in the Edge series, and while the previous three books more or less can be read independently of each other, this one ties up enough loose ends and contains enough characters from earlier in the series that unfamiliar readers would be recommended both to avoid this review if they don't want spoilers for earlier books, and to start the beginning with On the Edge. Go on. This review will still be waiting until you return, and the books are varying degrees of awesome.

Richard Mar is the head of the once large and unruly Edge clan, which after a huge battle with a very unsavoury character known as Spider and his band of genetically mutated minions in Bayou Moon has had to relocate to the much more magical realm of the Weird, severely depleted after many deaths. Spider was an agent of the intelligence agency known as the Hand. Richard's brother Kaldar swore to get revenge, and joined the rival intelligence agency, the Mirror. Richard chose a different path, and chose to go after the bands of slavers who once kidnapped his young cousin Sophie. Not content to hunt down and kill random bands of slavers, Richard wants to follow the hierarchy all the way to the top, ending the unscrupulous practise once and for all.

If he lives long enough, that is. At the start of the book, Richard is lured into a trap and almost mortally wounded by a small group of slavers. He's saved from near certain death by Charlotte de Ney, an unusually powerful healer from the Weird kingdom of Adrianglia. She sought refuge in the Edge after nearly using her healing powers to kill her husband, who married her for her exalted social position and sought an annulment the minute he discovered that she was barren.

While Charlotte is the most powerful healer in her generation, she cannot use her powers to heal herself. She was taken from her biological family as a young child once her powers were discovered, and trained at the best medical institutions Adrianglia had to offer. Adopted by one of the foremost nobles in the land, Charlotte herself was dubbed a baroness after her years of service. Yet once a healer starts using their powers to harm rather than to heal, they risk setting in motion a devastating chain of events. The more powerful the healer, the more powerful the disaster if they lose control and start inflicting illnesses rather than healing. So Charlotte runs to the Edge, where magical abilities are dampened. Eleonore, the grandmother of Rose, George and Jack from On the Edge lets her rent Rose's old house, and helps introduce her to the locals, so she can help out, and make money.

Charlotte heals Richard, but he's been pursued by the slavers from the Weird, and they are determined to get their hands on him, no matter what the cost. Enraged by their actions, Charlotte returns to the Weird, where she is at full power, determined to destroy the slavers, every last one. Richard realises that while Charlotte is furious, harming others and bringing death doesn't come naturally to her. He tries to dissuade her and change her mind, but when she won't be reasoned with, figures that she's safer with him than pursuing the slavers on her own.

On the surface, Richard and Charlotte may seem like opposites. While Richard may have been brought up with immaculate manners from his Weird grandfather and is deeply noble in spirit, he's still a dirt poor Edger rat with no prospect other than to meet death on his quest to destroy the slavers. Charlotte may have been born humble, but was raised in luxury and trained to be immaculately poised in any situation by one of the most powerful noblewomen in Adrianglia. She's a baroness in her own right after her decade of healing service to the Adrianglian crown, and the adopted daughter of a very influential lady. Despite this, both Richard and Charlotte are very similar, and that's part of the reason why the romance side of this book felt less satisfying in some of the previous Edge books.

Richard's brother Kaldar is a rogue, charmer and consummate con man. He meets his match, Audrey, the daughter of a thief and con artist, in Fate's Edge. The romance in that book is hindered by Audrey's lack of trust in Kaldar, and unwillingness to settle down with a man she fears will be just like her father. They banter and constantly try to best each other, but are basically two sides of the same coin, and it's obvious that they're perfect for each other.

Richard and Charlotte's romance have the same problem. Both characters are devastatingly noble and self sacrificing, to the point of idiocy on occasion. Richard is hunting the slavers so his cousin Sophie won't be forced to do it herself. He's almost sure he's going to die before he discovers the leaders of the organisation, and he doesn't mind laying down his life for the cause. Charlotte is the same. She hates using her abilities to kill, but after experiencing first hand the terror the slavers can bring, she won't stop until she's made sure no man, woman or child is ever hurt by them again. If she has to unleash a plague to do so, so be it.

Also, while both Richard and Charlotte are convinced that the other is horrified and repelled by the other's capacity for bringing death, they fall in love over the course of about three days. Extremely eventful days, mind, but still less than a week. Considering their vastly different backgrounds and social status, a slightly slower development and maybe a bit more conflict would have been nice.

As always, the supporting cast of the book is amazing. Long time readers of the series will see the return of the aforementioned Eleonore, Rose and Declan, Declan's formidable mother (briefly introduced at the end of On the Edge), Jack and George, Sophie (or Lark, as she is known as in Bayou Moon), and of course Kaldar. Sophie is growing into a terribly driven young swordswoman, and Richard is probably right to be worried about her state of mind. Jack and George have aged and developed since their adventures in Fate's Edge and can still make me laugh, even though their subplot in this book is quite a lot darker than in the previous book.

Dark is definitely the operative word for this story. Ilona Andrews said in an interview once that if the series was a meal, On the Edge would be the starter, Bayou Moon the heavy main course, Fate's Edge the frothy and sweet dessert and Steel's Edge the bitter and black coffee at the end of the meal. The subject matter of this book is not a light one. There is death, so much death, and not just for deserving bad guys. I was in tears by the end of chapter three, and several times throughout the book (although some of the tears were happy ones).

A lot of story strands started in earlier books are finished off with this one, and it's a very fitting end to the story. To say that my expectations for this book were high is a massive understatement. I started pining for this book after finishing Fate's Edge a year ago, and every snippet and mention of it just made me want it more. I needed the book to be good, and it is. As Spider and the Hand are the main villains in Bayou Moon and secondary villains in Fate's Edge, I would have liked it if that subplot wasn't finished off almost as an afterthought towards the end of this. Just as the romance between Richard and Charlotte was resolved in no time at all, the final act of the book also felt a bit rushed. None of them are enough to seriously ruin my enjoyment of the book, though, and to be satisfied with the end for the characters.

Ilona and Gordon Andrews have said that they may return to Jack, George and Sophie in a later series, if they have enough material to write their story properly. I certainly hope they do, because these three characters are probably my favourite in the entire series, the world building in these books is excellent, and their writing is amazing. Congratulations on finishing on a high note.

CBR3 Book 100: "Fate's Edge" by Ilona Andrews

Publisher: Ace
Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Date begun: November 29th, 2011
Date finished: November 30th, 2011

Fate's Edge is the third and penultimate book in the Edge series, and while the previous books could be read more or less independently of each other, this one is more of a straight sequel to book 2, Bayou Moon, and while it will make sense, won't be half as satisfying. As a consequence, this review will also contain minor spoilers for books 1 and 2, and if you haven't read the series, stop reading this and go read On the Edge instead.

Audrey Callahan comes from a family of con men and grifters, who have benefitted greatly from her magical ability to unlock anything, but sick of being used, Audrey cuts all ties with her family, and determines to stay on the straight and narrow. She wants to use whatever tricks she used pulling cons to aid her in her new, respectable career as a private investigator. When her father shows up on her doorstep, suggesting one last heist, so they can get her older brother into rehab (again), she reluctantly agrees, on the condition she never has to see or hear from either of them again.

Kaldar Mar is an all-round scoundrel, and uses his good looks, guile and intelligence as a spy, working to get revenge on the Hand, the ruthless organization that wiped out his former home and much of his family. He's tasked with tracking down the powerful object that Audrey helped steal, and believes he can easily charm Audrey into assisting him. Audrey may look gentle and innocent, but she calls Kaldar on his game immediately, and leaves him tasered and tied to a chair in her office within minutes of meeting him. She knows he's bad news for her, and her law-abiding and normal existance, and wants nothing to do with anything he's proposing.

The Hand are after the object her family stole, however, and their agents don't care who they have to torture and/or kill to get it back. Once Audrey realizes how many people her theft may have endangered, her conscience won't allow her to turn her back on Kaldar's mission, even though all her instincts tell her to stay far, far away from the dangerously charming man who not only can keep up with her and her schemes, but whose skills possibly even surpass her own. A charming ladies man like Kaldar would never be happy tied down to just one woman, so she'll need to keep her wits about her to avoid heartbreak and rejection once the mission is over.

Ilona and Gordon Andrews are husband and wife, and co-write all their books. As well as the Edge series, they also write the paranormal Kate Daniels books, which I also adore. With a few exceptions, all their books are brilliant, and they are now on my pre-order list, no matter what books they produce. The Edge series books are a bit more focused on romance than the Kate Daniels ones, with a central couple getting their HEA over the course of the story. In Bayou Moon, Kaldar's cousin Cerise finds her match in the werewolf William, and both characters appear over the course of this book as supporting cast. As do Jack and George, the younger brothers of the heroine in On the Edge. That's why it makes a lot of sense to have read both the previous books in the series before starting this one, quite a lot of essential back story is given there.

The main plot is not a romance, though, it's more a mix of a quest and a heist movie. If you like Ocean's Eleven with the clever protagonists and the witty banter, and characters constantly working to outsmart and one up each other, this should be right up your alley. Audrey and Kaldar are both very guarded and have dark pasts, and both are used to being the smartest person in the room. In some ways, they're almost too perfectly matched. The banter between them is a joy to read. The supporting cast, pretty much all comprising (as mentioned earlier) of characters introduced in the former two books, are all excellent too, and I laughed out loud several times over the course of the story.

The villains of the story are really very brutal, and there are some scenes of quite graphic violence. So be warned of that if you have weak stomach. While they are seemingly ruthless, they also have a clearly stated purpose, and they don't perform their gruesome acts randomly and without reason. That possibly makes them even scarier.

Generally, while the central romance in this moves more slowly and is in some ways less compelling than in the previous Edge books, the action and adventure plot is excellent, and this may be my favourite of the series, and also, one of my favourite Ilona Andrews novels, so far. As far as I could gather, they are only planning one more book in this series, to center around Kaldar's brother Richard, but if they were planning a spin off set some time in the future, I would love a book focusing on Jack and George when they've had a chance to grow older and even more awesome than they are in this book.

CBR2 Book 86: "Bayou Moon" by Ilona Andrews

Publisher: Ace Books
Page count: 480 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: September 28th, 2010
Date finished: September 29th, 2010

William Sandine is a changeling, raised in the Weird, a magical world where the geography in some ways mirrors our world, but things are very different and they have magic rather than technology. Being a changeling means he turns into an animal, in his case, a wolf. He is not a were-wolf, as such, he can't turn other people into shapeshifters by biting them, his changes are in no way controlled by the full moon, but the condition is hereditary. Having been raised a special ops soldier and an outsider, William has very few ties in the world. He is living in a trailer in the Edge, a semi-magical area in between the Weird and the Broken (basically our mundane world, where there is technology but no magic), collecting plastic action figures and working construction in the Broken.

He is contacted by what is basically the Weird-version of the CIA, and asked to go on a secret spy mission in a massive swamp area of the Edge known as the Mire. A crazy enemy spy master known as Spider, and his band of mutated agents are trying to get a special weapon, which would be disastrous for the Kingdom of Adrianglia. Since Spider hates changelings, and has a history with William, the Mirror are pretty sure he won't refuse the chance to get revenge and stop Spider once and for all. They're not wrong. William accepts the mission, and goes into the Mire, where he meets a young, seemingly homeless woman he has to make a deal with to get to his arranged meeting place.

The woman William affectionately names Queen of the Hobos, is in fact a young Mire noble named Cerise Mar. Her family has huge numbers and lots of land, but are very poor. The Mar family is in a feud with a neighbouring family, who has taken over one of their houses. Cerise's parents have gone missing, and that leaves her the head of the family. She needs to prove to the local authorities that her father didn't sell the house before he disappeared, and get the rivaling clan evicted. Then she has to locate her parents. She agrees to guide the strange Weird noble to make some extra cash, but had not expected to have to fight for her life to get them to their destination.

It soon becomes clear that Spider has kidnapped Cerise's parents, and tries to torture them to find the location of the hidden weapon William is also there to find. Spider wants to know why Cerise left the Mire so suddenly after her parents' disappearance, and figures he can also use her as leverage against her parents. When William realizes that Spider's mutant goons are after Cerise, he becomes even more determined to stay at her side, and the more time he spends with her, the more remarkable he discovers that she is.

Bayou Moon is the follow-up to Ilona and Gordon Andrews' On the Edge (they write all their novels under her name), but can be read completely independently, and works as a stand-alone novel. On the Edge is probably Andrews' best novel to date, it is certainly the one I love the most, and considering I adore ALL their books, that is great praise indeed. That one is completely self-contained, by the time they wrote Bayou Moon, they knew they had a series on their hands. As such, this one has a bit more of an open ending, but no edge of your seat cliffhanger that makes you curse the authors and tear your hair in frustration until the sequel comes out. Another thing that makes it obvious that the authors knew they were now writing a series, is the multiple story lines in Bayou Moon. There are a whole load of characters introduced, some not so very vital to the main plot, who I suspect will become protagonists in later stories.

William Wolf, as he is often called, first appeared in On the Edge, but everything you found out about him in that book is repeated here for new readers. He has always been a loner, born in a society that doesn't really accept changelings, abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, raised in a orphanage and trained from an early age to become a soldier and a killer. He feels that love and a family will always be denied him, and is therefore very conflicted when he meets Cerise and realizes that she is not repulsed or scared by him. He hides his true nature from her for a long time, afraid that he will lose her, but desperately wants a relationship with her.

Cerise has more family than she knows what to do with. A multitude of relatives, hardly any money, and heavy responsibilities on her shoulders. She has helped her father run the family finances for years, and when her parents suddenly disappear, she has to take the reins of the whole clan, and try to steer them right, in the midst of what looks like a very likely to be bloody family feud. She has also been trained to be the family fighter, and is not very amused when William assumes she needs protection, and can't take care of herself. As well as a brilliant manager, Cerise is a fierce fighter, and shows that she can cut freaky mutants in half with one sword thrust.

On the Edge is primarily the romance between Declan and Rose, with a secondary storyline about danger threatening the Edge and the surrounding world that needs to be stopped. In Bayou Moon, which I had been hoping would be the same, only with William and Cerise as protagonists, there are a bit too many story lines. There's a lot of time spent introducing Cerise's many colourful relatives and their various quirks, and there's the feud with the neighbouring family, and the spy subplot with Spider and his nefarious plans. The book has not one, but two climaxes, first the Mars have to fight their neighbours, and then they all have to take on Spider and his band of mutant spies to reclaim the mysterious and dangerous weapon, and free Cerise's parents.

Too many stories to keep track of splits the focus of the book, and makes it a less satisfying read. It's a shame, because I think Ilona and Gordon were trying for something more advanced and sophisticated with Bayou Moon, and I don't entirely think it worked. I did not in any way dislike the book, but I don't love it as much as I wanted to, and it did not live up to my (admittedly very high) expectations. I will still eagerly anticipate every new book written by the couple, though, and I am huge fans of their blog.