Book Review – Murder of Crows

Book: Murder of Crows (The Others 2) by Anne Bishop
Release Date: March 4th 2014
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 4,5 out of 5 stars

Other books in this series I reviewed
Written in Red

Goodreads

Possible spoilers for the first book in this series

Synopsis

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.

Review

Some series suffer from the second book syndrome. Other series manage to keep the same quality. And then there are the series that manage to bring forward a second book that is better than the first one. Series that spring to my mind for this last one are the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud and The Graveyard Queen by Amanda Stevens. And also now The Others by Anne Bishop can be counted to that as well.

I felt the first book had an incredibly slow start and it took me ages to get into it. But that was not the case with this book at all. It only took a few chapters before I was back emerged into this world and characters. I had a good handle on the world now and how things worked and the relationships between the various characters. Which was a good thing because there are a lot of mentions of new side characters that are weaved throughout the book.  The side characters are all very interesting.

In this book we continue to follow Meg in her search to fit into the park amongst the Others which seems to go better every day. Yet she struggles with her feelings for Simon when he is in human form. Things are uncomplicated when he is a wolf, but when he is a human things change. They both don’t really understand how things can work between a man and a woman and it causes some issues between them.  I like that because obviously things are different for Simon as a wolf. But Meg also had little interactions with other people and has very little idea about romantic feelings and platonic relationships. So I felt that was rather realistic.

The drug that was mentioned in the first book becomes the bigger plot for this book where it appears to be linked to the blood of a blood prophet. I have to be honest and say that I hadn’t quite made the link with the drug and the ending of Written in Red with Simon and Meg when I read it. But it certainly makes sense.  We also learned more about where blood prophets came from and what kind of organization Meg had been kept in. While there is still a lot to be discovered about Meg’s abilities, I like how not everything is being thrown at us at once. I hope we do get some more answers in the next book though.

I was glad we also got to see some more of the world than just the park. It just helps to deepen out this world. We also learned a bit about the situation across the ocean in the area we know of as Europe.

If I have one complaint it is that I feel we get so many side characters and small sub plots it can be hard to remember if you take some time between reading these books.