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| Book 1 in the Others series |
Written in Red by Anne Bishop
5 stars
I recently discovered this book thanks to @has_bookpushers on Twitter. I inhaled this book and then moved on to the next book within days. I stayed up way to late but it was so addicting I couldn't stop reading.
This world is another unique one. There are vampires and shapeshifters but there are also other creatures that don't have names. They are known as the terra indegine or Others. The Others despise human and consider them "clever meat." They lease the land humans occupy by on the continent of Thaisa. I think Thaisa is North America in Bishop's world. There are some clues even though every country and city have different names than the real world. Bishop includes a description of the world for her readers which lays out the setting without turning into an expository essay.
We have multiple points of view and all of them are in Third Person Limited. Our main protagonist is Meg Corban. She's a difficult kind of human. She's what the Other's consider "not prey." She doesn't have the prey smell and she has a child-like innocence. She's a sweet blood. This is because she is a Blood Prophet or cassandra sangue. Meg escaped from a compound full of other Blood Prophets and winds up in the Courtyard in Lakeside. Blood Prophets have the need to cut and once the skin is cut, they see prophecies. If they speak, they feel an orgasmic-like euphoria but if they don't, all they feel is an excruciating pain.This book...I can't believe I didn't know about it sooner. The I love the setting, the plot, the characters, everything. Even though it's set in an alternate universe, it's not hard to follow. That makes things much easier to understand. Bishop manages to explain things without the reader feeling overwhelmed with details. I love when an author can do that.
Meg's view of the world is so different and I love it. She thinks differently and that has an impact on everyone in the Courtyard. Simon, the leader of the Courtyard is a Wolf and Bishop managed to capture the essence of the Wolf and the other terra indegine shapshifters. They don't think like humans and Bishop is able to show this. I loved it. I loved the relationship/friendship that forms between the two. There is actions and fights and there Bishop doesn't hold back on the descriptions of kills.I love this book. There isn't a heavy romance element and I find that refreshing. You can see the budding relationship between Meg and Simon but it's slow to start so we'll see what's in store for them. The world so interesting and addictive. I just want to know more. Anyone who is a fan of fantasy and alternate universes would love this book. It's like Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews or Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter sereis. The world is different yet still familiar. Ah, so amazing. Definitely a must read.
