Written in Red

Remember how I said Half-Off Ragnarok was like sugary breakfast cereal? This is sheer milk chocolate candy addictiveness–the M&M kind–where you think “sure, I’ll have a couple,” and then it’s a couple more, and then just a few more, and suddenly the bag is half gone. Written in Red is melt-in-your-mouth goodness targeted squarely at the urban fantasy-paranormal fan whose appeal is intensified by a couple of surprising features. It was so very readable, going down exactly like those M&Ms; before I knew it, it was 3 am and I was almost done. Kudos, Bishop, kudos.

A brief prologue orients the reader to the history of the Others, the indigenous spirits of the world, and of humans. At creation, humans were given isolation to learn show more and grow, but as they spread throughout the world, they encountered the Others. Humans and Others skirmished, with humans largely on the losing side as the Others control natural resources. Currently, they have forged an uneasy peace, with the Others maintaining compounds in some larger human towns and cities, much like diplomatic enclaves.

The first chapter starts in the city of Lakeland, with Meg on the run during a snowy night. She sees a sign at the Other compound requesting applications for a human liaison, and realizes this could mean freedom from her prior life, as human law doesn’t apply in Other territory. Samuel, dominant wolf and leader of the compound, is vaguely troubled by Meg but gives her the job–after all, they could always eat her. Quickly installed in the Liaison’s apartment, Meg soon begins learning about the Others…as well as herself. Interwoven with Meg’s story, the narrative also follows Asia, a human woman scheming to learn more about Samuel and the Others; and Lt. Montgomery, a recently transferred police officer who takes on the role of ambassador for the department with the Others.

The creation of a supernatural/mystical creature dominant world is one of the most interesting aspects of Bishop’s world-building. I found myself fascinated by the idea of an alternate-history universe where we have many of the same things (cars, sneakers, bagels, chick-flicks), the same rough geographic layout (the Atlantik Ocean, the Great Lakes) but with the threat of the Others looming in the everyday background. For instance, it isn’t long before Monty learns that the the legend of the Drowned City is actually true–a human uprising in the area was punished by a massive flood.

Characterization was acceptable, if rather standard for the genre. Because of Meg’s ability to make predictions through cutting herself, she had a heavily circumscribed upbringing that prevented exposure to the outside world. Thus we have the standard naive young woman who possesses ‘book’ knowledge without ‘street’ knowledge with a highly valuable (magical) skill-set. Bishop’s choice to use blood prophecy was inspired, particularly as ‘cutting’ is a taboo real-world issue. Meg does develop as she struggles with agency, particularly as she starts to understand more about her own abilities. Likewise, the elemental spirits were well conceptualized, with a sense of indifference to consequences and a selfish focus on their own interests. Tess was one of my favorites of the Others, with her moody hair and mysterious identity. However, Samuel mostly seemed angry and conflicted, and rarely gave the sense of a confident, focused personality that one might expect as leader of a large, dynamic group. Likewise, while the vampires initially gave a feel of spine-chilling fearfulness, any efforts in that direction were completely undermined when one of them asked Meg is it was “that time of the month?” Truly, by the end, they did seem a little like television vampires, perhaps because of their own obsession watching it. The two other narrative viewpoints of Monty and Asia were also very straightforward. The police officer might as well have been called Trueheart, and Asia was a one-note scheming narcissist.

Actually, what has been perplexing me is that in the wrong mood, I might have easily hated this book. The language is relatively unsophisticated and dialogue-focused. The plot turned out to be predictable–my tension reading was out of concern that Bishop, as a writer new to me, might come up with unpleasant surprises, but there weren’t any. I could probably make a couple of educated guesses at the next book as well. There’s also the larger issue of Samuel’s tendency towards violence, anger and possessiveness. I think he comes off as more combative narcissist than ‘wolf,’ and more disturbed human than ‘Other,’ no matter how many times he mentions the need to be in his “other skin.” Gender, identity and sexuality are all very straight (literally), with Meg and Tess the only unknowns in the story. Plotwise, Bishop is clearly setting up the beginnings of a romance, but not until Meg learns her own dominance. And Meg is one marvelous, Speshul Snowflake. To meet her is to love her, apparently. For a lot of reasons, this could have gone the other way.

But the marvel was it didn’t. I devoured the book in one sitting, expected plot, Speshul Snowflakes, anger issues and all. I can only conclude that Bishop is meeting my genre expectations so well, with that flair of intriguing difference, that it was irresistible. In fact, when I finished, I was seriously spent a couple of minutes debating whether I should download the next book on Kindle and keep reading. It was only discovering that only the first and second books are out, with book three not expected until March 2015 (and four and five in the works) that kept me from an all-night reading binge. So I re-read this one instead.

Hook me up and pass the M&Ms, please.



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Re-read October 30, 2015. Additional thoughts: maybe part of the appeal is that it fails to hit my annoyance buttons. Meg has agency, imperfectly realized. She is kind, a quality I value more and more in my old age. She also generally fails to display TSTL traits. Simon, while over-aggressive, is at least consistent within his species/race/whatever, and shows a great deal of internal conflict. And, as cheesy as it sounds, the themes of the book are tolerance and friendship

Re-read April 2016. Why? Because it's distracting, entertaining and delicious and I've been feeling cruddy. show less

The minute I read the last line of this book I shut it and said to DH, "Yeah, I have to read the second book right now."

When I came here to mark the book as read, I commented again to DH, "I just don't even know what I'm going to write..." and he suggested that I write (and he was laughing when he said this, understand), "sorry everyone, but f*ck off, I'm sitting down to read the second book, and I'll update this review when I have time."

Tempting only because I absolutely have to go crack open the second book. I wasn't ready for this one to end and I need more. But if I actually say that, I'll end up mixing up what happened in which book, and possibly lose a couple of BL friends in the process. ;) So I'm going to write this as quickly show more as I can, probably not proofread it right away as I always do and get back to the Others.

I'm only going to say what most everyone else is saying about this book. It's excellent. There wasn't a thing I didn't thoroughly enjoy about it. The writing is crisp, clear, descriptively vivid - the only thing I had a hard time seeing clearly was the Liaison office. Everything else was perfectly laid out.

I liked Meg, and that the author gave us enough information without dumping, and at a pace that mimicked getting to know a new friend. I liked all the Others too although my favorites were the Elementals, Tess and Henry. I know someone who reminds me of Henry. I was very unhappy about Hurricane.

There isn't just one plot running through the book. The one meant to wrap up in this book did so spectacularly and heaven help me I really liked the Others sense of justice (in a fictional world where all the bad guys are clearly bad guys). I really enjoyed the bursts of humour sprinkled throughout the book too - I found myself laughing out loud more than a couple of times.

Now my need to go read "Murder of Crows" is overcoming my desire to write a coherent review. I'll come back and edit this later; but as Meg must cut, I must read. show less

I really enjoyed this Urban Fantasy novel and for a lot of reasons. The book didn't pull punches! The Others were not humanized, as other books about shifters and other creatures sometimes do. They saw humans as meat and the way Ann Bishop has created these characters is genuine. Simon and the other shifters aren't sexy, they aren't interested in humans as sex objects, just as meat. So when "The Meg" shows up on their doorstep during a Winter Storm, Simon immediately see's something different in her and offers her the job as Human Liaison. Initially, he see's her like he see's any other human...as monkeys... as meat. They eat them. And they make no apologies about it. Meg is the one woman that comes into their world, though, that makes show more them see that all humans are not created equal. Some, like Meg Corbyn, may be worthy of their protection and friendship.

Meg is a Cassandra Sangue, a blood prophet. Women of her kind spend their entire lives imprisoned and bled for prophecy. But she uses her gifts to escape. She seeks refuge in the Courtyard, the exclusive domain of the Others, and takes a job as their human liaison. As I said, Simon, the Courtyard leader, senses something different about her. His wolf senses categorize her as "not-prey," though he doesn't understand why. It isn't until after Meg has wound her way into the affections of those who live in the community, that her true nature is exposed. Then, they must all band together to protect her from the humans who want to get her back, what ever it takes.

Meg, is a sweet blood as Erebus Sanguinati , the head Vampire, calls her and offers her his protection. She's innocent,she's good and caring and really doesn't know anything about life except what she's seen in training films. Simon is the male lead, and an antihero. You can clearly see a bond forming between him and Meg, true, but this isn't a romance, at least not in this book. Meg is the human who plants the seeds of change in the Courtyard community because of her goodness,her simple kindness and her positive outlook. She manages to break down the prejudice the Others feel toward humanity, including Winter, one of the powerful Elementals. As the story unfolds, we see the characters among the Others become richer and more developed through their interactions with her. Yet they don't lose their edge and they never lose their hunter and killer aspects. Simply put, Meg becomes theirs, as much as they become hers.

I enjoyed Anne Bishops secondary characters in this book. They are plentiful and add so much to the storyline. By the time I finished the book, I felt like I knew the beings who inhabit the Courtyard. I cheered for them as they defeated these human monsters, including Asia Crane. The Others became characters that I learned to care for in the book.
The tone of "Written in Red" is dark and intense and there's plenty of tension and action. I literally couldn't put the book down and I am certainly looking forward to the next book in the series.
Jack Murphy show less

I've been a huge fan of Anne Bishop for years, starting from when I read the first three books in her Black Jewels series. Written in Blood, the first in her new Others series, has only deepened my love for her writing and storytelling.

All of the other books I've read by Bishop have had a fantasy vibe to them, but Written in Blood stands out, at least for me, as distinctly paranormal. Admittedly, I haven't read very much paranormal fiction - and most of that experience was with novels by Laurell K. Hamilton - but to me, paranormal fiction has always been synonymous with paranormal romance/erotica. While Written in Blood feels like it the series will eventually have some sexy bits, the reader never sees any and I never it never felt that show more the romantic threads were forced or overdone like I sometimes felt happened in other paranormal fiction I've read. Instead, the relationships in Bishop's novel - romantic or otherwise - develop organically and are quite refreshing.

I loved the variety of paranormal elements in Written in Blood. There are the standard shapeshifters and vampires, plus many more. I was especially intrigued by the characters that were "elemental." As their name implies, these characters control the elements... and turn out to be just as terrifying as the paranormal individuals that readers would traditionally assume should be feared. It was also great to see that the "standard" paranormal creatures in this book, like werewolves and vampires, were refreshed and had some interesting and unique abilities.

Adding to this book's charm is the main character and her mythology. The main character, Meg, is a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet. Simply put, blood prophets have prophetic visions when their skin is cut. Early on, the reader learns that Meg, like many other blood prophets, is considered property and her ability is used for profit. Meg, having escaped from her captors, has sought safety with the Others, who consider her in ways, kin and in others, human (and therefore untrustworthy). I loved the interactions between Meg and the Others. It was interesting to see who accepted her right away and who did not (and, in addition, why the did or didn't).

I thoroughly enjoyed this paranormal offering from Bishop. The next book, Murder of Crows, isn't due out until 2014 (too long!!), so I'll have to get my Bishop writing and character fix by rereading other books (something I'm definitely looking forward to)!( show less

I listened to the audiobook version of "Written In Red" in December 2013. I didn't write a review because I was so blown away all I'd have been able to say was: "Best fantasy novel I've read in a long, long time." I needed a bit of distance to get some perspective on what I enjoyed and why. Last weekend, I was in "Forbidden Planet" in Liverpool and saw that the third book in the series, " Vision In Silver" had just been released in hardback. It was an instant and joyful buy. So I figured it was time to review the books that have brought me so much pleasure.

In my view "Written In Red" is closer to classic science fiction than it is to urban fantasy. Anne Bishop isn't writing about supernatural creatures roaming city streets. She's show more created an alternative reality, imagined the way good science fiction should be: starting with two small changes to our familiar reality - humans are not at the top of the food chain and shapeshifters are not only real but dominant - while keeping everything else the same and then working through the consequences. She then delivers complex, credible, I'm-hungry-to-know-more world-buidling in simple prose. But what makes this book unmissable is that she made that world real to me by creating characters I cared about and putting them in peril.

The back story to Anne Bishop's alternative reality is that humans evolved and developed their civilization away from the wilderness that covers most of the planet. Then they came into contact with The Others - predatory shapeshifters and fierce elementals - who dominate the planet and to whom humans are "clever meat". The two cultures clashed. The humans lost. Again and again, over centuries, during which humans negotiated the right to specific pieces of land in exchange for services rendered.

At the time of the events of "Written In Red", humans are thriving on their "reservations" and are being supervised by Others living in Courtyards from which they observe what the clever meat is up to.

The Others in "Written In Red" can be described as werewolves or vampires or even werecrows but Anne Bishop only uses the familiar tropes to twist away from them. The Others are not humans who shift into wolves. They are wolves who occasionally choose to put on human skin. The Others are fundamentally alien. They literally eat humans that displease them. They are fiercely loyal to each other. They have a strong sense of pack or flock or hierarchy. They are civilized but they are not at all like us.

Into this world comes Meg Corbyn, a homeless waif with a secret. A Courtyard takes her in as their "Human Liaison" and the history of the world starts to pivot. Meg is engaging vulnerable, empathetic, curious, kind, and dutiful. Her innocence is explained byf her sequestered life as a cassandra sangue, a woman who can see the future if her is skin is sliced. That she is kind and extremely likable is explained only by the fact that she is Meg.

The interaction between Meg and the Others is one of the most enjoyable things about the book. They laugh at her and puzzle over her but they also give her shelter. They declare her to "Our Meg" and protect her even though they are unaware of her background. She becomes, in effect, a valued pet human.

The treatment of the cassandra sangue by humans is far more monstrous than anything the Others do. When the Others sell human flesh as "Special Meat" it is an honest, malice-free act. When humans exploit the cassandra sangue their actions are both fundamentaly inhumane and realistically human.

Anne Bishop's alternative reality is a dark and threatening as an ancient forest. Immediately after reading the book, I might have said that the darkness came from the constant threat the Others pose to humans, but the darkest image lingering in my imagination is Meg's razor: the one with her number on it, the one that was used to slice her skin to force her visions, the only thing she carried with her to her new freedom. The razor is a source pain and pleasure, a sign of slavery and a badge of honour, a bone-deep fear and a heart-felt desire. The razor and all it means, makes Meg Corbyn much darker than she first appears to be. In many ways it brings her closer to being one of the Others and makes her disturbing as well as engaging.

In "Written in Red", most humans who have power or are seeking it, are not mentally equipped to accept a status quo in which they are not at the top of the food chain. They are constantly plotting, looking for an edge that will enable them to become the apex predators. This seemed realistic to me, although I think the human evil-doers would have been more interesting if they had been a little less irredeemably venal.

"Written In Red" is original, rigorously thought through, passionate and written in deceptively simple prose. I believe it is the start of an outstanding series.



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Written in Red is the first book in The Others series by Anne Bishop. The story is set on an alternate Earth where the world is populated by terra indigene, the earth natives, the Others, who consider humans to be their prey.

Meg Corbyn is on the run. Having fled the facility where she was being kept by her Controller, Meg is desperate to find a safe place where she can hide for a few days. Meg is a cassandra sangue, a blood prophet, a person who can see the future when her skin is cut. This makes her very valuable to those who are chasing her. Seeing a sign at the Lakeside Courtyard for a job as Human Liaison, Meg decides that maybe hiding with the Others is the safest place she can be for a few days. Simon Wolfgard knows there's show more something different about Meg, she doesn't smell right and she's obviously hiding something, so he reluctantly gives her the job to buy himself time to solve what ever mystery it is she's hiding. Besides, the Courtyard really does need someone who can interact with the humans in the area, even if only for a few days.

Slice of life meets paranormal fantasy! I don't know how Bishop managed it but she pulled it off. The story is one beautifully written slow burn that focuses on Meg's daily life of mail delivery as she adjust to her new role as Human Liaison for the Others and learns about the world outside the compound she escaped from. I can see how this could be frustrating for some readers as the plot moves at a glacial pace. I quite enjoyed spending my time with Meg going about her day and learning about both the world and the Others right along with her.

Meg is definitely not your typical heroine. Given that she's been sheltered her whole life, only learning through training videos and other imagery, Meg retains a childlike innocence about her. In some ways her lack of a typical upbringing is a benefit as it gives her a completely different perspective of the world and the Others, allowing her think of solutions to her unique situation that most people likely wouldn't have. It also turns laugh out loud funny at times with some of the odd reactions she has to basic things we take for granted. Meg's courageous, forthright, intelligent and genuinely cares about others no matter what their species. I liked her a lot.

The Others of the Courtyard were a genuine treat to get to know. Bishop has given the standard paranormal creatures a great twist as they identify much more with their beast and elemental natures. This lends an eerie atmosphere to most of the story as these beings are definitely NOT human and barely understand the basics of humanity. Simon, Sam, Tess, the ponies, Vlad and all the rest were a lot of fun to watch how they reacted to Meg-the-not-prey and learned to care about her in their way.

Most unique is there isn't any romance. I honestly have no idea when the last time I read a paranormal fantasy that didn't have romance in it. It was a refreshing choice even if I could see something happening between Meg and Simon in future books.

Even though this is a slow burn that does not mean there isn't any action. The violence of the Others is bloody and can be disconcerting when you realize that humans are their food of choice so nothing goes to... waste.

I quite enjoyed spending my time with the Others. I look forward to continuing along with Meg and her adventures in the next book. show less

I don't give out 5 out of 5 stars very often, because there is usually something that holds me back from giving a "perfect score." (And as is often stated, nothing is perfect.) This book also is not perfect, but WOW. I surely enjoyed the reading of it so much that I am having serious withdrawal. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next one from the library.

I have been a fan of Anne Bishop's writing for years, but for some reason, I was hesitant to get into this series at first. I honestly don't know what was wrong with me. This book drew me in, from the world-building, to the plot, but especially with the characters.

Nowadays it's really hard to find a book with paranormal elements that doesn't go overboard showing off how sexy and show more misunderstood vampires/werewolves/etc. are (and I admit, those books are fun every now and again too.) Written in Red manages to take the paranormal, unapologetically show that the stereotypical monsters of old are STILL monsters, but they have come to terms (at least to an extent) with the human population. Add the paranormal and the horror with fantasy, mystery, crime, heck, even sociology... I call that a fascinating book.

I've seen other people comment that the lead female character is a Mary-Sue, because why else would everyone fall in love with her? In my opinion, if a group of beings that is usually looked upon with a mixture of fear, curiosity, distrust, and even hatred find someone who, having been kept apart from "normal" society, can simply treat those around her with decency, kindness, and respect - why wouldn't they love her? Long sentence aside, I totally get why Meg was well-loved by the Others. I kind-of want to be friends with her too.

I highly recommend this work of fiction. I'm sure it has faults, but I enjoyed reading it so much that I want to pick it up again and start over from the beginning. That is MY definition of a "good read." show less