Backlist Burndown Review: Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

Return to New York Times best-selling author Anne Bishop’s 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.

Murder of Crows is the second installment in The Others series by Anne Bishop. I am listening to these books in audiobook format, and find they are very well suited to that medium. The world is interesting, but not overly complex. With the second book, more details of the world are revealed as the story is told.  I would say pretty much everything from the first book is expanded a bit deeper in this second book. It is all done in a manageable, easy to remember and follow way.

In this book, violence is rising and straining the already tense (at best) relations between humans and the Others, particularly in the neighboring town. There are dangerous new drugs that seem to be fueling the conflicts and Meg has had one of her visions and it is full of blood and feathers. But, blood prophets are in a tough position of everytime they cut to learn more, they get one cut closer to death.

As Meg and Simon work together, their relationship also deepens. One thing I find a bit strange, borderline irksome, is the romantic interest in a character that is between the two different species (which does not have to be  bad), but Simon in his wolf form expresses some feelings that are not at all in line with a romantic interest for me. A couple of examples would be if he were to express a desire to play with Meg ( a game like fetch) or if he looks forward to getting pets from her. Some of it is not even necessarily what he is thinking, but how it comes across. These are the innocent almost submissive sort of interactions that a person may have with a pet. They have the same amount of sexuality to them as one would expect to find in interactions with a child. Which is ZERO. So to have a relationship that consists of this very asexual aspect, an aspect where adding a sexual component would just feel wrong just comes across as strange to me. I mean, yes, every relationship has aspects to it that are asexual, but honestly, most of them wouldn’t feel wrong if you did manage to turn it into sexy times. It’s a really weird dynamic that I haven’t completely come to terms with. Maybe the point is supposed to be that Meg has become so important to Simon that he is actually able to put himself in a submissive role with her.  When I think about it like that, the interactions can make more sense, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they seem less strange to me. That said, outside of these particular aspects, I do like the Simon and Meg pairing and enjoy it when they are on a more “adult” level than what I just described.

Overall, I would say this was another enjoyable read, sort of a “popcorn” type of story that you can just sit back and enjoy. The pace was good, the magic and different races add a very interesting political dynamic as they interact with each other.  I am sure I’ll read the next one for a future Backlist Burndown.

I have challenged and committed myself to reading at least one book from my backlist every month and posting the review on the last Friday of the month. I invite anyone interested to join me and link up their own Backlist Burndown reviews. I will offer the link at the bottom of my monthly Backlist Burndown reviews, and also will keep a running record of the reviews on my Dracarys! Backlist Burndown page available from my top menu.