Jane Fletcher (1) (1956–)

Warning: this book contains some torture. Although I didn't consider the physical aspects to be very graphic, the emotional aspects are awful, and the book ends without giving readers a chance to see how well the character manages to recover.

Although most of Fletcher's Celaeno series could be read in any order, I would advise newbies not to start with Shadow of the Knife, even though it's chronologically the first book (it takes place 14 years before Rangers at Roadsend). While the overall show more story would probably make sense, I think this is the only book in the series that doesn't explain why there are no men on Celaeno, and how reproduction works there.

This was my last unread Celaeno book. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it, because, once I finished it, that would be it – I haven't been able to find any signs that Fletcher is still writing, much less that she plans to write more in this series. Okay, so the world-building has serious problems, the pacing often isn't very good, and the books tend to end too suddenly. I know all of that, and yet something about this series really works well for me. Rangers at Roadsend and The Walls of Westernfort were my favorites, and I was hoping Shadow of the Knife would be as good or better.

Shadow of the Knife stars Ellen Mittal, a rookie in the Roadsend Militia. Farmers in the area have had hundreds of sheep stolen from them, and the Militia hasn't managed to find a single one. Ellen, increasingly frustrated with the uselessness of the Militia's efforts, talks to a Ranger friend of hers and ends up becoming involved in a deeper investigation into the thefts, which may have something to do with a gang in Eastford led by a woman known as the Mad Butcher. Ellen's life is further complicated by Hal, a new farmer in Roadsend who is either genuinely interested in her or somehow involved in the sheep thefts.

I'll start by saying that I think this might be the best-written Celaeno book. There were still some issues with the pacing, but thankfully they were due more to Fletcher's choice of protagonist than to world-building infodumping. Ellen's status as a rookie meant that she missed out on a lot of the action and strategic planning in the first half of the book, which in turn made me feel like I was missing out on the most exciting parts of the story. Things got better later on, after Ellen was promoted and given more freedom to investigate on her own. It made me wish Fletcher had chosen to write her as an older and more experienced member of the Militia.

Of course, if Fletcher had done that she would have also had to rework a few of her other choices. Not that I would have minded. Ellen seemed painfully young compared to Hal, and their romance rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. I couldn't quite get a handle on Hal, who seemed like she should have had her pick of potential lovers and yet for some reason was drawn to easily flustered Ellen. I ignored my misgivings, however, because I figured that this would be a fantasy with romantic aspects, like the other Celaeno books. Ellen would doubt Hal's intentions and suspect her of being involved in the thefts, Hal would prove her trustworthiness, and together they'd foil the villains and find love.

Sometimes when things go the way you expect them to, it's boring. It can be nice when a story shakes things up a bit. It can also be horrible. My review is going to include some spoilers from here on out, because I can't figure out how to write about this without revealing too much.

Basically, Hal is revealed to be one of the villains. I have to hand it to Fletcher, once she chose this route she went all the way. Hal wasn't just a thief who unwittingly got involved with a bunch of murderers – she stole, she lied, she was one of the ones who slit Rangers' throats, and she stood by as her cousin, the Mad Butcher, beat her elderly aunt and gave her brain damage. She did nothing to stop the Butcher from torturing Ellen, and she made it clear that, no matter what the Butcher had done or would do in the future, she was going to stand by her, because family sticks together.

Ellen's emotional reaction was awful and gut-wrenching. She felt used and betrayed, but part of her still loved Hal and wanted to believe that not everything between them had been a lie. After she was tortured, Hal came to her and healed her up a bit, and then they had sex (on page, with Ellen's remaining cuts and bruises described as “areas of heightened sensitivity”). I was horrified and, afterward, so was Ellen. At some point, her disgust and self-loathing morphed into a realization that she still loved Hal and didn't want to see her die. Although Ellen forgave Hal, I couldn't.

I suppose you could call the ending tragic. Hal was more than likely killed, although Ellen chose not to find out for certain, so that she could pretend Hal was still out there somewhere. This was one of those times when I would dearly have loved an “X years later” epilogue. I needed some kind of reassurance that Ellen eventually recovered from her emotional wounds and found happiness. Unfortunately, the book ended soon after Ellen's escape and Hal's probable death and, as far as I can tell, neither Ellen nor Hal were ever mentioned again in the series.

Of all the Celaeno books, this one is hands down the darkest and most depressing. After four books worth of SFF with romantic aspects, I don't think it was out of line to expect that this one would give me something similar. I'm incredibly sad and upset that my last unread Celaeno book turned out to be such an enormous betrayal of expectations.

Rating Note:

How am I supposed to rate something like this? On the one hand, part of me regrets reading this book, and I doubt I'll ever want to reread it. Just putting my thoughts in order so that I could write this review was draining enough. On the other hand, I really do think Fletcher's writing has gotten better, and Ellen's confused emotions during and after her captivity felt believable. Horrible, but believable.

I'm so deeply disappointed in this book that part of me thinks it deserves a half-star rating. Another part of me thinks I should rate it a bit higher than I am, because it packed such a serious emotional punch, even if those emotions were not the ones I wanted or expected. I settled on 1.5-stars. I feel like I might as well have thrown a dart at the entire 3-stars-and-less range.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Silver Ravens is a fun mix of fantasy and slow burn wlw romance. It features games developer Lori Cooper, who reads a magazine in a dentist's waiting room, solves the puzzle page and gets sucked into a strange world with ciphers to solve before she's allowed to go home. She meets Tamsin, who leads a band of warriors for the fay queen, and who she thinks is insane, dangerous, and very, very attractive. Lori's goal is to solve the puzzles and go home, but things are never that simple.

I really show more enjoyed this book. I liked the contrast between the modern world, where Lori starts off, and the fantasy world of the fay, where most of the story takes place. The fairy city of Annwyn, and the rest of the magical world, is mysterious, creepy, beautiful and, at times, scary. I loved the weirdness of it; the mix of ancient armour and modern weapons, for example. It really makes sense in a place that's outside time.

The plot is great. The romance is super slow burn, but it's also unambiguously wlw from the start which is good. And to be fair on the characters, there really is too much going on for a romance to develop quickly! The beginning of the book immediately sucked me in with a mystery, and I was gripped from then onwards. Things are dramatic and exciting, and a little bit culty at times. I loved the instructions hidden in puzzles, and the codebreaking of the ciphers. There's nothing super technical though, so it doesn't get boring.

And the characters are great too. I liked how Lori's experience as a game developer comes up in the plot, and helps her deal with being thrown into a fantasy setting. I liked all of the side characters, although there were quite a lot to keep track of. The villains of the story are great, and at times disturbingly evil and manipulative.

Overall this is a fun, fantasy, slow burn romance novel which I found enjoyable to read. show less

I love Fletcher's Celaeno series, despite the world-building issues and sometimes bad pacing. Unfortunately, although I devoured this book just as quickly as I did the others and liked it well enough, I didn't think it was one of Fletcher's better works.

This book takes place seven years after The Walls of Westernfort. The heretics' ideas still haven't been accepted by the general population, so they continue to live in Westernfort and Ginasberg and keep an eye out for the Guards. Tanya show more Coppelli, one of Chip's daughters, is now a corporal in the Westernfort Rangers. Everyone tells her she deserves the position, but she can't help but wonder if nepotism was involved. It's one of the reasons why she reacts so badly when Riki, a known troublemaker, is assigned to her patrol.

Because she was angry at her mother, Riki acted out a lot when she was younger. She's still a bit of a troublemaker, but she hasn't done anything really bad for several years. Not that anybody seems to realize this. All anyone remembers is the trouble Riki used to cause, so she gets into even worse trouble if she steps out of line even a little. Riki's most recent incident results in both a demotion and a transfer to the Rangers at Westernfort. She's supposed to start with a clean slate, except her superiors there judge her the same way everyone back at Ginasberg did. This makes Riki an ideal scapegoat when Tanya is betrayed and captured by the Guards.

I could believe that people in Ginasberg couldn't see past the Riki of a few years ago, especially since she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. However, the Rangers' reaction to her in Westernfort seemed way out of line. Chip's reaction, in particular, struck me as being out of character. If I remember correctly, in Rangers at Roadsend, it looked a lot like Katryn was a troublemaker. However, Chip kept her head, focused on the facts, and eventually learned the truth. With Riki, she instantly believed everything she was told about her and then almost beat her to death when Tanya went missing. This wasn't the Chip I remembered. Tanya's reaction was somewhat more believable, since she was younger and new to her rank, and Riki kept pushing her buttons. Still, I had a hard time believing she'd achieved her rank so young on the basis of her own merits, considering how quickly she jumped to conclusions about Riki.

The story's pacing was pretty good, which is something I can't say about several of the other Celaeno books. I enjoyed Riki's efforts to escape Loke and Westernfort, once she realized that Loke was probably setting her up again, but Isabel's plan to free Tanya went way too smoothly. Yes, Isabel was crafty, well-connected, and well-informed, but her plan was incredibly complicated. The more complicated a plan, the more likely it is that something will go wrong, and yet every last bit of it went perfectly. Riki and Tanya easily played the parts they needed to play, and every single person reacted just as Isabel predicted they would.

All the Celaeno books have romance in them, and the romance in this one began too soon, while Tanya was still imprisoned. Tanya and Riki kept noticing how quickly their hearts beat when they were around each other, and I rolled my eyes. Tanya was in trouble, Riki was her savior, and it wasn't hard to imagine that Tanya's reaction to Riki was at least partly inspired by her situation. I enjoyed their budding relationship more after Tanya was freed – Fletcher is good at writing awkward, cute romance – but the way things began kind of ruined the rest for me. I finished the book feeling doubtful that their relationship would last long.

The ending came so suddenly that I tapped my screen twice before I realized that there weren't any more pages and my Nook wasn't just acting up. It was a little jarring, since the end came during the first quiet moment Riki and Tanya had to finally discuss their future together. I couldn't help but think, “Really? That's all?”

As seems to be usual with Bold Strokes Books e-books, there were occasional formatting issues. They weren't really that bad, but, with as much as BSB charges for their e-books, I personally think there shouldn't be any. Also, once again I found myself wishing they'd italicize characters' thoughts. Reading sentences in the third person only to suddenly come across something in the first person, with no warning, tended to throw me out of the story a bit. As far as Fletcher's writing went, this was the first time I noticed, and was irked by, her avoidance of contractions. She used them in dialogue but rarely (never?) anywhere else. I did a quick skim of The Walls of Westernfort and realized this wasn't a new thing, just something I'd somehow never noticed before. It made Riki, especially, seem even younger and more immature than she was.

I still love the Celaeno series and am sad that I only have one more book left to read, but I much preferred Rangers at Roadsend and The Walls of Westernfort to this book.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Another Celaeno book! Although it has some basic world-building problems, I love this series anyway and am glad there are still a couple books in it that I haven't read. I started reading this shortly after finishing The Temple at Landfall. Although The Walls of Westernfort references many events that occurred in that book, it takes place 16 years later.

I enjoyed getting to see how several characters from The Temple at Landfall were doing. Chip, Kim, and Lynn all made appearances, as did show more several of their children, and a minor character reappeared as a more prominent one. Westernfort was a more established settlement, although there were still problems on the horizon that needed to be worked out, namely what would happen once Lynn, their only Imprinter, died.

I also appreciated that there were no long, infodumpy passages detailing how the world worked, at least not that I could remember. The animosity between the Guards and Rangers came up, as did cloning, imprinting, and Celaeno being a spaceship, but it was worked into the story more smoothly than in the other Celaeno books I'd read.

The biggest problem I had with this book, at least initially, was Natasha. She was a very different kind of Celaeno protagonist, which could have been a good thing, except she had a tendency to annoy me. She was very naive, to the point of seeming stupid, and overly pious. This let up a bit after she met a few Westernfort residents and began to realize that much of what she'd been told wasn't necessarily true, but it never quite went away.

If Natasha hadn't rubbed me the wrong way so much, I think this would have been my top favorite Celaeno book so far. The pacing and overall story were excellent. I loved watching the Westernfort residents try to puzzle out the secrets that Natasha/Jess and her “family” were hiding – they could sense that the women were hiding something, but they assumed that their big secret was that they were horse thieves planning on stealing from Westernfort. I loved the level of suspense as the Guards' secrets slowly unraveled, and I loved that Natasha had very good reasons for feeling torn over what she should do. Her religious beliefs were part of it, but so were her familial feelings towards the two Guards who were with her. She'd never had a loving mother, and she had a tendency to latch onto anyone who gave her the kind of motherly love she'd craved her whole life.

The romance was a bit more front-and-center in this book than in the other Celaeno books I'd read. Unfortunately, it made me a little...uncomfortable. As is usual in Fletcher's books, Dani and Natasha had many cute moments together, and I would have been completely on board with their relationship if I hadn't been so aware that Natasha was lying to Dani right from the start. Thankfully, she was uncomfortable with the situation too, and tried not to act on her feelings for Dani or to encourage Dani's feelings for her. Dani had lots of reasons to hate the real Natasha: she had a painful history with Guards, she had personal experience with practices that ran counter to the religious teachings that were so dear to Natasha, and she cared for the people Natasha had been sent to kill. Shelly, a sweet but not terribly bright Westernfort resident with a huge crush on Dani, further complicated things.

I liked that Natasha's secrets were revealed with plenty of time for everyone, including herself, to process what she'd been about to do and why she'd changed her mind. I also liked that she had time to win back people's trust (although the heretics embraced her more quickly than I would have expected, with the result that they seemed more like a joke than anything). What I did not like was that the book ended the moment Natasha and Dani resolved things between them. I like happy endings, but that ending was way too sudden.

All in all, I enjoyed The Walls of Westernfort, even though this protagonist definitely was not one of my favorites. I've still got one more Celaeno book in my e-book collection, plus one I haven't purchased yet. I'm looking forward to them both. I'd wish for even more Celaeno books, except it looks like Fletcher may no longer be writing new works – the most recent date I can find on her site is 2010, which makes me all kinds of sad.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less