Thursday, March 14, 2013

Review: Written In Red




REVIEW:
Written In Red
Anne Bishop
Released: 3.25.13
NAL
448 Pages Hardcover
ISBN: 9780451464965


Blurb From the Publisher:

As a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut—a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg’s Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard—a business district operated by the Others.
Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she’s keeping a secret, and second, she doesn’t smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she’s wanted by the government, he’ll have to decide if she’s worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

Our Thoughts On:


This is not your shifter romance novel. This is something about terrible beauty with the price of pain. When Anne Bishop creates a world, she weaves is from the very fabric of our imaginations. There are no soft coy creatures in Written In Red, there is never a point when you totally sympathize with the characters because you are always with the forefront in your mind of their Other nature. Of the fact that they are beings that create their shapes on how best to fit into the world at the time it is taking place. There is no humanity, or compassion in a limitless creature and the abilities that these beings can possess it beyond our imaginations; even sometimes the terra indigene cannot explain what one another is, or does.
                The Others is coming out to be one of the best new series by a renowned author that I personally have seen in a while. Taking the commonplace thought of a shifter, but them weaving it through history and creating a whole new society and twist on the first creations on Earth, Bishop has designed a perfect beginning to a series. Struck by how absorbed you can been in the over 400 pages of this book is a page turner. Not wanting to put it down, and not having the plot consumed in my mind was tricky.
 Written In Red was absolutely fresh and breathtaking. Opening up with a history to a world that we have never imagined, Bishop gives readersw a glimpse into the world of the terra indigene and their adaptations. We are given glimpses into the Others as the story unfolds and rapidly progresses, but never enough to slack our thirst for background on a whole new element. Like a tease Written In Red is an opener for finer things to come, as readers have opened their hearts to the characters, but are left to hunger for more. 
There is a girl running for her life, for a fee someone can read a prophecy spoken through her blood but like a ticking time bomb there is only so much to go around. At some point all blood prophets are used to hard, or cut too many times, or are driven to madness. Meg Corbyn has been captive all of her life, and after a flee from her captivity she is on the run looking for somewhere to hide so she can live a life before she has none left. What she never imagined was that she would find something in the original inhabitants of the world, that no human has ever seen or known before, but that is what Meg may not understand herself; that she may be something other altogether than just plain human to begin with.
Taking the job as Human Liaison of the Lakeside Courtyard of terra indigene as a means to find protection from the Controller who owned her and other blood prophets, Meg soon learns that the saying is true, that Human Laws do not apply in the Courtyard. When Meg begins being a person of interest to the law enforcement and other individuals it will take all of the Earth Natives to protect something they have grown to care for, but it could cost the price of Lakeside and the world if this Meg Corbyn were to be taken into the wrong hands. That which the earth natives claim as their own, will never leave under force or duress, they protect what is theirs, and Meg has now become part of their Courtyard, and something not with a price tag for visions but a trust earned and respected.
With equal parts stunning and captivating Written In Red pushes boundaries taking readers into a violent world of chaos and order, and yet held together with the heart and soul of its characters. When delving into this new Tale of the Others there is something gained in their perspective but also taken by their bloodthirsty quest to protect and serve what is theirs. Gaining in intensity as Meg begins to see more of her future and the cost that gaining such prophecy delves onto her friends and surrounds, she is struggling to protect this community that she trusts while fearing but respecting. It is a fine line to appreciate people and beings as they are and tamping down your fear of otherness but Meg Corbyn walks a line that defies the earth people, but also captivates them. Written in harsh detail but also loving scroll take a walk in the wild lane with this read, but remember there are so many more things that go bump in the night and as easily as you could see many of them there are more Others in the world than can fit in our realm of understanding


Soapbox Moment:

I am a huge fan of Anne Bishop. In fact, her Black Jewels Series totally captured me in my teen years and has carried on through all of the books since in her series. What Bishop creates is a hearty dynamic world her character's live in while they are struggling to survive, but also they are vying to understand themselves usually before something is taken away from them. With really captivating storylines and truly amazing and breathtaking characters, Bishop immortalizes here series. Even though Black Jewels began over ten years ago it still reads fantastic today.
With the new unleashing of her Others series I am sure to be on the lookout for every new release. I love this new perspective on this new breed of shifter/entity that is existing on our side of reality. The feral nature of these beings as well as their adaptation to society and humanity while also existing on their own front was fresh and amazing in Written In Red.


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