#predator cities

So, so much to say about this one, so I'll bullet it out for brevity:

Freya was better in this, though she clearly hadn't learned much despite becoming a schoolteacher and moral authority in the town

Tom was worse. Still loving of course but his worst moral impulses and tendency to see the best of people and total lack of suspicion despite living in a literal dystopian nightmare were his undoing once again. But that was the point of his character, to satirise that kind of moral hero that in another kind of story would have the plot and setting twist around on itself to validate his character and approach

Hester really amped up the bloodthirstiness in this one. But Reeve made it if not relatable per se, understandable. The people of Anchorage never really tried with her. Even the children, even her own child, were not discouraged from bullying, shaming and ostracizing her. She was not only one of the few adults in the community, but she was directly responsible for anyone in the city being free at all, and indirectly responsible for Anchorage even attaining the land it did at all in the first place by facilitating Pennyroyal to come to the city to even give Freya the idea of trying to reach the old continent. I enjoyed reading her as much as I did the first time I read this 16 or so years ago, although this time I was much more aware of how slightly concerning it was how comfortable she was with killing strangers - which is again meant to satirise the kind of action hero who only sees 'grunts' and 'people of value' and is happy to murder their way through any number of the former to get to the latter. How many soldiers or other lives were killed by heroes like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, or Captain America and Iron Man, who might have had backstories and loved ones if only the camera had focused time on them like Reeve chose to on Hester's opponents?

Wren was pretty irritating, but that was the point of her. Though, she felt a little like a second bite for Reeve at making a Hester-like heroine who didn't have any of Hester's baggage (and apparently wasn't troubled by her own past actions like how she had bullied and belittled her own mother)

The setting was wonderful and Reeve introduced a great array of supporting characters. I was suspicious of Cynthia from the off although Boo Boo would also have made a great double agent

I liked what was done with Shrike

Dr OneOne Zero was a fascinating character and the scene where she had to dissect her own brother or else be killed herself was chilling to find in a book ostensibly aimed at a young audience; though not inappropriate, threading the line well without threatening to cross it. The kind of thing that probably causes a stronger horror reaction in adults than in children who can speed past it without thinking too much about the implications

A couple of references to Theo as 'The African' seemed a little out of place in what was otherwise a generally very mixed setting

The offhand references to catastrophic nuclear war and orbital weaponry were a bit too close to home in 2026

I really enjoyed how the story developed in general; the machine leadership was also a little chilling at a time in which AI is being pushed in everything

Pennyroyal spared again. Wren is too soft just like her father

You really get the feeling that things might have gone better for Hester if anybody around her had ever actually tried to properly listen to her without judgement and silencing or shaming her point of view; but unfortunately she has had the bad luck to be continually surrounded by characters whether heroic or villainous who want to rewrite the narrative and reframe her actions, choices and character, whether that's Pennyroyal, Freya, or Tom!

I felt sad for what happened to Uncle even though he was not a good man

Going in to the final book... Hester is really the one I care about the most still. She's the most interesting character. I feel like Anna Fang and Fishcake are going to end up fucking something up in a major way though. And Tom is going to cause things to go badly as well.

At least Hester and Wren got to briefly reuinte happily. That might be Wren's last happy memory of her mother.

I think what gets me about some other readers' (re)views of this series is that... a lot of what Hester says, she doesn't actually mean as fact. She just doesn't know the words to process her own feelings because she's never been taught and everyone around her assumes she does know and is being deliberately unhelpful or blunt because she wants to. This book revealed she can't read as fast as a regular adult. She wasn't schooled or educated. She lives by her wits because she has to. She literally has a physical disability and may well also have brain damage from her childhood disfigurement. Yet she's constantly held to an educated neurotypical standard and punished harshly both physically and morally by those around her when she doesn't meet it. Reading this book I see a woman with severe untreated post-natal depression who sees herself as a weapon because that's the only thing those around her have ever let her be.