Early Review – Marked in Flesh (The Others, Book 4) by Anne Bishop (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0451474476
Stand Alone or Series: 4th book in The Others series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for review
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review. I have been a long time fan of Anne Bishop’s work and really loved the first two novels of The Others series. I thought the third book was a bit weaker than the first two…this book was more in vein with the third book. I ended up enjoying it but got a bit bored at points because the pacing is a bit slow. Five book are planned for this series.

The rebellious group of human called Humans First and Last led by Nicholas Scratch is ramping up their activities against the terra indigene. What Nicholas doesn’t realize is that both his and HFL’s actions are stirring up powers that are older and even more dangerous than the terra indigene and Elementals we already know. Meanwhile Meg and Simon are becoming more and more integrated with the human society around them and trying to help protect those humans who resist joining the HFL. They also know that a storm is on the horizon and that many of the humans won’t survive the days to come.

The story in this series has continued to broaden and involve more and more of the world. While I appreciate understanding the world better and the broader story; the story is losing a lot of focus. In this book we jump between many different Courtyards, different Inuit communities, and even different continents. We hear from numerous points of view; some of them engaging and some of them not.

I honestly miss the books when we spend more time with the denizens of Lakeside Courtyard. There are just so many more new characters introduced that I am starting to have trouble keeping track of all the characters at all these different locations (a glossary of who is as what location would have been awesome to have).

There is a lot of good in this story too. I continue to really enjoy the changing dynamics at Lakeside Courtyard and how the terra indigene and humans interact and support each other.

Additionally I really enjoyed watching the Elementals take out their rage on the humans who tried to defy them. Oh, and I can’t forget the Elders who were an awesome addition to the story; so mysterious and so fierce.

The whole story is shadowed by a sense of dread. These stupid HFL humans think they can take on the very elementals and earth and win? Oh, my. Is it wrong that throughout the story I was rooting for the non-human segment of the population? The way things are tied up is quite satisfying and I enjoyed it a lot. I believe that there are five books planned for the series; however this would be a great book to end the series on…it really wraps things up nicely.

Overall this was a good addition to The Others series. I really enjoyed the parts with the Elementals and Elders and enjoyed watching Nicholas Scratch get what he had coming to him. I did think that the book lost focus some and switched POV way too much. There are just so many locations and characters covered in this book that it made the story move slowly and it got hard to keep track of who was who. I would definitely recommend this to fans of urban fantasy (although it’s more like alternate reality contemporary fantasy). I am interested to see what happens in the fifth book, since the main story arc seems to be resolved in this book.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge