The Urban Fantasy/Fantasy genre is one of my favourites in both young adult books and adult fiction. Out of all of them, this is the series that always comes to mind when people ask me for a recommendation. I want everyone who loves this genre, or is even curious about this genre to read and love this series.
I have two top favourite things about this series. The first one is the world Anne created. To completely flip the creation of life as we see it to Namid and the Terra Indigene, turned the story into something unlike anything I’ve read before. Let me clarify what that means a little. Namid is the World, the Terra Indigene are the top of the food chain so to speak. They consist of the Elders, aka Namid’s teeth and claws, they typically stay as far away from the human population as possible. There are also the Elementals, named Winter, Spring, Air, Fire etc, which I’m sure if you think about it can understand who they are. With the Elementals come their Steeds, Mist, Tornado, Earthquake… again the names say a lot of their role in the story. Then the Sanguinati, who are basically Anne’s version of a vampire. The largest part of the Terra Indigene are the shifters, wolves, bears, crows and even sharks there seems to be no limit.
So. Imagine the city, town, wherever you live, imagine they had a courtyard within it. This courtyard would be much like a small town in itself, it would also be full of The Others, the Terra Indigene, who are there to … supervise to a degree, but to also learn from and observe the humans. Now imagine all the problems that could cause, I mean we as humans have enough issues with race as it is, can you imagine throwing some shifters in there? A sanguinati to drink your blood? This world is not under human control, every bit of anything that the humans have, they have to lease from the Others. The question is ... do the humans rebel? Or do they respect the food chain? What would you do?
Then we have Meg, a blood prophet or cassandra sangue, who has escaped her compound. Meg is looking for refuge, a place to stay safe and hidden for awhile. Till she stumbles on a help wanted sign for a job “where human laws do not apply”. I don't want to tell you more, I can feel the spoilers on the tip of my tongue.
The second thing ... I love that Anne doesn't rush. This series is filled with complex details and crazy scenarios, yet she never pushes you through one thing to get to the next. She takes all the time she needs to nurture relationships, develop character personalities and to get everyone, including the reader, though one drama to the next.
This most recent release, Etched in Bone, was the perfect finish to the series. It was slightly more character driven than story line, but as it was the last book with these characters, I was happy for the chance to get closure and to say goodbye.
Please consider this series for your next read. The world is awesome, the characters become family and the storylines are complex.
