In the world of
this series, life is very different. Humans and Others live
in an uneasy and fragile truce where trust is hard to come
by. The Others believe humans are a threat to the planet.
Humans believe the Others are dangerous to their existence.
That delicate world is threated by the Human First and Last
Movement, a violent hate group that believe the Others can
be exterminated. As a timely commentary on hate crime, greed,
and the fragility of the planet, the book was compelling.
It was also sometimes funny, and sometimes more than a little
frightening. I liked how the author left much of the horror
of the Elders to our imaginations; I know my imagination can
be pretty scary. I loved the Wolves and their attempts to
understand humans. And I found the blood prophets to be an
interesting balance of endearing innocence and creepiness.
The book bounced between different places and different groups,
giving the reader a lot of characters to follow. This could
sometimes be confusing. Though it is an accessible novel even
when it's your introduction to the series (as it was with
me), I suspect I could sort out the different kinds of Others
better if I'd been following the books all along. Still, this
seems like it would be a pivotal book in the series, as the
world at the end is considerably changed from its state at
the beginning. That does make me look forward to the next
book and my chance to see where Bishop goes with these characters.
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