Tina's Reading Books

This is the 14th book in a long running series that started out as a paranormal romance series but became an urban fantasy/paranormal hybrid.

One of the things an author of a long running series has to do is keep it fresh.  It can be very hard because on the one hand, the very thing a reader likes in long running series is a sense of familiarity with the characters and the structure.  When they pick up these books they have an expectation of what they will be like.  When a writer tinkers with that expectation it can be uncomfortable for a reader to acclimate to a shift.  But, if she doesn't do that, then the reader can feel that the series is boring or the 'same 'ol same 'ol" and you are reading the same book each time with just different situations.

While I didn't love this book -- for reasons I'll get into -- I do like the direction she is going with the series.  It makes sense. And Singh is doing a good job, imo of keeping it fresh.  She has managed to side step some of the pitfalls of keeping a long running series going.

Heart of Obsidian - Nalini Singh  was, imo a fan-fucking-tastic book.  Probably my favorite of the series.  It did what a pay-off book is supposed to do.  All the other eleven books before led up to that one and it delivered on a lot of promises and groundwork laid in the earlier books.  It also represented a seismic shift in the world-building inside the books.

So in the aftermath of reading it I wondered what would happen in the world of the Psy/Changelings now?  Where to next?.  What this book(and the one immediately preceding it Shield of Winter - Nalini Singh) does is it follows through on the fact that a seismic shift produces after-quakes and a ripple effect and, most importantly, unease.  Also in this book, the author also is setting up a new plot arc.

In this one we get the love story of yet another Arrow (so three books in a row have featured Psy protagonists, two featuring the arrows).  In this case it is two arrows.  The quiet leader Aden and one of his top tier Arrows, Zaira.

I had no idea really who Zaira was.  She had been mentioned briefly before,  but it didn't matter.  I don't mind a newish player wandering onto the field.  And I love Aden.

The book is action packed from the beginning.  Both Aden and Zaira are stone cold bad asses who find themselves kidnapped, outnumbered and somewhat incapacitated.  But they are Arrows and they affect a break-out worthy of a Bond movie.

This part was fun.  What wasn't so fun?  Zaira's headspace.  Good lord.  This woman was a champion at the 'I am not good for you' sweepstakes.  I get it she was a rage monster.  But she was thinking about it All. The. Time.  And she was always worried it would consume her like some Berserker creature of old.

Look, I get that Zaira had a fucked up childhood.  Apparently they all did.  But the repetition of how much anger and rage she carried was just hands down tedious.  I did a word count.  The word 'rage' was used 105 times and it was always about her fretting about herself.  Ugh.

Outside of that the story was well done.  The plot really moved, Ming is still out there too important to take care of but still plotting.  I like that he wasn't defanged and that he is going to be someone they will eventually need to deal with.

Like the idea that he Arrows aren't perfect and even some of them are breaking under the pressure of a post-Silent world.

Also liking the idea of a newer bigger threat that seems to be trying fill in where all the other fringe groups have failed.  Nature abhors a vacuum after all.  Also it is also realistic that other powerful Psy would try to challenge the power that is Kaleb, Anthony and Nikita.  Again, very smart and realistic moves that would happen when a society is undergoing such a massive upheaval that the Psy race is.  Just because SIlence is over doesn't mean things are good.  It actually is bringing to light a lot of other issues.

I liked this book because of where is fits within the overall structure of the entire series.  It is furthering the big picture story.  I wasn't keen on the romance.  Aden and Zaira didn't do it for me viscerally.  But that is ok, there are a couple other books like that in this series where I didn't connect with the romance but the plot was important.

As usual with this series I like the diversity of the characters.  Aden is Asian and Zaira is Middle Eastern.  And we also meet a new changeling pack who help Aden and Zaira out in a moment of critical need.

Looking forward to whatever happens next!