Audiobook: Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop

Etched in Bone
Author: Anne Bishop
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 7, 2017)
Length: 16 hours and 21 minutes

Description: New York Times best-selling author Anne Bishop returns to her world of the Others, as humans struggle to survive in the shadow of shape-shifters and vampires far more powerful than themselves….

After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders - a primitive and lethal form of the Others - the few cities left under human control are far-flung. And the people within them now know to fear the no man's land beyond their borders - and the darkness....

As some communities struggle to rebuild, Lakeside Courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, though Simon Wolfgard, its wolf shifter leader, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn must work with the human pack to maintain the fragile peace. But all their efforts are threatened when Lieutenant Montgomery's shady brother arrives, looking for a free ride and easy pickings.

With the humans on guard against one of their own, tensions rise, drawing the attention of the Elders, who are curious about the effect such an insignificant predator can have on a pack. But Meg knows the dangers, for she has seen in the cards how it will all end: with her standing beside a grave.

My Thoughts: The Humans First and Last have been defeated leaving a new world for the humans and Others to learn to navigate. There are many abandoned towns. Communication doesn't easily pass from one region to another. The trains, boats, trucks and other vehicles are limited to daylight only transport. There are food shortages and floods of refugees who poured into Lakeside when their towns were destroyed.

Tolya Sanguinati is in charge of the town of Bennett which was emptied of human life when the Elders passed though. He has asked the Lakeside Courtyard to hold a job fair to help him find Intuits and Simple Life people who can run the businesses and farms that exist is the area. But the Elders may not have finished their purge of the pesky humans. They want to observe the humans in the Lakeside Courtyard to decided what sort of humans they are going to let repopulate those empty places.

Having Elders observe would be fine except that Lieutenant Montgomery's brother Jimmy has come to Lakeside with his wife and two children. He is not a good person. He is a thief and a schemer and never does anything for anyone unless he gets something from it. Since he has a hold on Monty's sister Sierra which causes her to do bad things for him, his presence upsets the working relationships in the Courtyard.

Simon and the rest of the Others in the Courtyard would have been more than willing to drive him out or kill and eat him but are forced to let him stay so that the Elders can observe his behavior. Simon does get the Elders to promise to help protect the human female pack though.

Jimmy's schemes run the gamut from pressuring Sierra for money and food to attempting to rent out empty apartments in the apartment building where he is staying to encouraging his children to shoplift in the Others' store to masterminding a theft of meat from the Others' butcher shop. All of these are thwarted and Jimmy thinks he has skated free to his next scheme because all is good if he doesn't face any consequences.

But Jimmy's latest scheme is kidnapping Meg so that he has a captive blood prophet of his very own. That scheme will be his last as humans, Others, and the Elders unite to find Meg and bring her back home to Simon.

This was another excellent episode in The Others series and brings the main plotlines to a very satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook version of a favorite series.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook: Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

Marked in Flesh
Author: Anne Bishop
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 8, 2016)
Length: 15 hours and 21 minutes

Description: For centuries, the Others and humans have lived side by side in uneasy peace. But when humankind oversteps its bounds, the Others will have to decide how much humanity they're willing to tolerate - both within themselves and within their community....

Since the Others allied themselves with the cassandra sangue, the fragile yet powerful human blood prophets who were being exploited by their own kind, the delicate dynamic between humans and Others changed. Some, like Simon Wolfgard, wolf shifter and leader of the Lakeside Courtyard, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn see the new closer companionship as beneficial - both personally and practically.

But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans is seeking to usurp land through a series of violent attacks on the Others. What they don't realize is that there are older and more dangerous forces than shifters and vampires protecting the land that belongs to the Others - and those forces are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect what is theirs....

My Thoughts: This is the story which bring the ongoing plot thread having to do with the Humans First and Last movement to its conclusion. Humans First and Last have begun attacks on the Terra Indigene - especially the Wolfgard. What they don't seem to realize is that the Others who live in the Wild Country are very close to exterminating all the pesky humans.

In the Lakeside Courtyard, things are better. Meg and Simon are working together to build better relations between humans and the Others. Lieutenant Montgomery and his officers are tying very hard to keep the peace.

After the Wolfgard are attacked throughout Thasia, Simon brings the human pack into the Courtyard to protect them from the retaliation that the Elementals and Elders plan for the humans in Thasia. These humans include Montgomery's mother Twyla and his sister Sierra and her two young daughters who managed to get out of Toland before the Elementals hit it.

We also see what is happening in Cel Romano as the Humans First and Last use the events in Thasia as a distraction for their massive land grab and slaughter of the Others.

This story was darker than earlier books in the series with its killing of The Others including Simon's friend Joe Wolfgard and the battles in Cel Romano. But Simon and Meg's relationship is growing closer and Meg is learning to use prophecy cards instead of cutting her skin to reveal the prophecies that buzz under her skin.

I enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of this story this time. I like the way Alexandra Harris narrates the events.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

Vision in Silver
Author: Anne Bishop
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 3, 2015)
Length: 16 hours and 4 minutes

Description: The New York Times best-selling author of The Black Jewels Trilogy transports readers to a world of magic and political unrest - where the only chance at peace requires a deadly price....

The Others freed the cassandra sangue to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in greater danger than ever before - both from their own weaknesses and from those who seek to control their divinations for wicked purposes. In desperate need of answers, Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn's help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him.

Meg is still deep in the throes of her addiction to the euphoria she feels when she cuts and speaks prophecy. She knows each slice of her blade tempts death. But Others and humans alike need answers, and her visions may be Simon's only hope of ending the conflict.

For the shadows of war are deepening across the Atlantik, and the prejudice of a fanatic faction is threatening to bring the battle right to Meg and Simon's doorstep....

My Thoughts: In this episode of The Others series, most of the blood prophets have been removed from the compounds where they were cut to reveal prophecies for anyone who would pay and have been moved to Intuit and Terra Indigene villages. But all is not going well. Taking care of these girls who are addicted to the euphoria they get from cutting and who are quickly overwhelmed by all the stimuli that bombards them is not something the Intuits and Terra Indigene know how to do.

Meg is trying to control her own addiction to the euphoria of cutting by arranging a schedule of controlled cuts. She knows that her addiction can kill her if she can't get it under control. In her first controlled cut which she has with Merri Lee as her recorder, she sees a number of things that will concern the Courtyard in the next couple of weeks. One of the things she sees are blood prophets who are left on the side of the road to survive or die on their own. All of them are pregnant and have been thrown out of the breeding farms that were run very secretly to keep up the supply of blood prophets. Her vision begins a search by the Others and some humans to locate the girls and the farms and to get the girls to safety. One terrible discovery is made when Others discover what happened to the boy babies born in these breeding farms which causes Simon to go out of control and threaten to kill all the humans in the Courtyard.

Another part of Meg's vision shows growing ties with some humans who are able to work honestly and honorably with the Terra Indigene. Her vision shows gardens and For Sale signs which lead to the Others in the Courtyard purchasing some apartment buildings to provide homes for those "wolf lovers" who are being persecuted by humans of the First and Last Movement. Humans are also concerned about future food shortages which surprise the Others who see no reason why there should be such shortages.

Lieutenant Montgomery's seven-year-old daughter Lizzy also comes to Lakeside when her mother puts her on a train to escape enemies in Toland. Her mother had taken up with inspirational speaker Nicholas Scratch who is trying to convince people to join in the Humans First and Last Movement and who is a visitor from Cel Romano which is preparing for a war with the Terra Indigene to gain more territory. Lizzy brings her toy bear Boo Bear who just happens to be stuffed with stolen jewels that were meant to help finance Cel Romano's war which leads to lots of danger for Lizzy from those who need to get the jewels back. 

This book is filled with growing tensions as the Humans First and Last Movement maneuvers for more power in Thasia. This maneuvering is counterbalanced by more humans working with the Others in the Courtyard and showing them that some humans can be trusted.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook: Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

Murder of Crows
Author: Anne Bishop
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 4, 2014)
Length: 14 hours and 13 minutes

Description: New York Times best-selling author Anne Bishop's "phenomenal" (Urban Fantasy Investigations) world of the Others - where supernatural entities and humans struggle to co-exist, and one woman has begun to change all the rules....

After winning the trust of the terra indigene residing in the Lakeside Courtyard, Meg Corbyn has had trouble figuring out what it means to live among them. As a human, Meg should be barely tolerated prey, but her abilities as a cassandra sangue make her something more.

The appearance of two addictive drugs has sparked violence between the humans and the Others, resulting in the murder of both species in nearby cities. So when Meg has a dream about blood and black feathers in the snow, Simon Wolfgard - Lakeside's shape-shifting leader - wonders if their blood prophet dreamed of a past attack or a future threat.

As the urge to speak prophecies strikes Meg more frequently, trouble finds its way inside the Courtyard. Now, the Others and the handful of humans residing there must work together to stop the man bent on reclaiming their blood prophet - and stop the danger that threatens to destroy them all.

My Thoughts: This is the second book in the Others series of urban fantasy novels. It tells the story of Meg Corbyn and Simon Wolfgard and the Lakeside Courtyard.

Meg is getting used to her new job as the liaison for the Courtyard and is busy making friends and making a place for herself. However, the Controller who owned her and used her to have the prophecies he sold for lots of money hasn't given up on recapturing her. Nor has he given up on plans to make more money helping the Humans First and Last movement eliminate the Terra Indigene from Thasia.

The story concerns itself with two new drugs that are making inroads on the humans in Thasia. Gone Over Wolf builds aggression to the point of not caring for their own survival in humans who use it. The second drug makes the user so passive that they don't care about their own survival either.

The Controller has also developed a new use for the girls who don't have enough valuable skin left. He is having them put through meat grinders while they are alive to mix their flesh in with other ground meat which has the same effect as Gone Over Wolf but is much easier to spread to more and more people.

Humans First and Last are also looking for opportunities to kill Crows in order to keep their curiosity from noticing things they don't want the Others to find out about. One of Meg's first prophecies in this story has to do with saving Crows. She also has prophecies about the man the Controller has sent to find her and return her to him.

Simon calls a meeting with lots of Terra Indigene from around Thasia to discuss what to do about the drugs and the poisoned meat. Their first idea is to kill all the humans or, at least, to kill all the prophets. Simon introduces them to Meg which changes their minds about total destruction and together with Meg's human pack they try to find the Controller.

The story includes a big battle once the Controller's compound is found and the rescue of Meg's friend Jean and five other young prophets. The rest of the girls are going to be spread among the Terra Indigene settlements and the Intuit settlements to keep them safe from being used. But it will be up to Meg to help all those new places learn what to do to keep the girls alive. She is the Pathfinder who will find the way for them to live.

I noticed that some of the pronunciations have changed in this book both of character names and the Cassandra Sangue. Simon's voice hasn't changed and makes me think that the reader must have gone home with a sore throat after each recording session since it sounds like Simon has a sore throat and scratchy voice throughout the book.

I like that Simon and Meg are getting closer even though neither of them realize that they are falling in love while the humans who know them best do realize it. There are lots of cautions to Simon to watch out that he doesn't become too human by Others characters who are seeing him change.

The story was exciting and entertaining. Meg's problem with the Controller and the threat of being recaptured is resolved in this story. However, plenty of problems remain both for Simon and Meg and for all the cassandra sangue who have lost the structure that helped to keep them sane. And the Humans First and Last movement isn't going to go away any time soon despite losing the valuable assistance of the Controller.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.