Marked in Flesh

< Do you know what the Sharkgard call humans on a ship? >
< No, what? >
< Meat in a can. >

Tensions between the Others and Humans First and Last movement have been ramping up. It all comes to a head in Marked in Flesh, the fourth book in The Others series by Anne Bishop. Caught in the middle are the Others and humans of Lakeside Courtyard, where Simon Wolfgard has taken on the task of protecting their own in the war to come.

I blew through this book in two days. This story kept me on the edge of my seat! It also made me sad as I knew going in approximately where this would go and yet held out hope that the HFL movement would come to it's senses. Simon had a rough choice to make and make it he did for the benefit of the entire Courtyard. show more It's nice to see Meg continuing to work through how to help the other cassandra sangue. The prophecy cards seem to be working so I hope this is explored more in book five. If I had one disappointment it is that I wanted to spend more time with the Elders. The scene with the Elders at the the police precinct was terrifying and I needed more like that! That was awesome. The other scenes with our main characters were good and tense but I wasn't really worried they'd pull through. Also very amusing that the Elders have a sense of humor.

While there are a few dangling story threads this did sort of feel like it could have been the end of the series. I'm curious what's going to happen in book 5. Rebuilding maybe? show less

Anne Bishop’s series about an alternative world where Humans are in the food chain rather than at the top of it, keeps delivering a wonderful mix of page-turning tension, moments of amusement as races misunderstand one another (the agony aunt letter from a wolf who was confused by a woman who wants foreplay but doesn’t invite another couple to join them, had me laughing out loud), and a strong sense of revulsion at human greed and… well… inhumanity.

“Marked In Flesh” pulls together the themes from the previous three books to create a huge confrontation between The Others and the Humans First & Last movement.

The strength of the books comes partly from the contrasting characters of Meg: innocent, ignorant, vulnerable, carrying show more the scars of long abuse and yet always willing to risk herself to save others and Simon, strong, fierce, leader of the Wolfguard and the Courtyard who despises humans yet helps those who behave well and partly from the fact that Anne Bishop has created a world where the humans seem more monstrous than the shapeshifters and vampires who surround them.

I read this book in two days, showing all the classic signs of a high-functioning addict: changing my schedule to be alone with my book, losing more time than I meant to spend, covering my work quickly so I could get back to what I really wanted to be doing.

If you’ve read the other books in the series, then you’ll need no convincing to read this one. If you haven’t read any of them yet, then the good news is you can now read all four in a row (wow, that would be good), starting with “Written In Red”. show less

Oink, oink!



For those who follow my reviews, I'm unable to stop myself from comparing this series to candy. As I learned in [b:Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us|15797397|Salt Sugar Fat How the Food Giants Hooked Us|Michael Moss|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361919312s/15797397.jpg|21520265], food companies spend hundreds of thousands engineering taste to hit that optimal flavor point where taste buds light up without making us feel something is too sugary, salty or rich. It's the reason we can eat handfuls of M&Ms or Doritos, ostensibly with enjoyment, without feeling satiated. Like its predecessors, Marked in Flesh hits my taste bud sweet spot, giving me the feeling that I'm consuming something delicious without ever show more filling me up. And, much like candy, I have to say the calories are largely empty; as they say in the nutrition world, these are not nutrient-dense calories.

It's hard to keep it all the books and subplots straight, but in short, this is The One Where The Chickens Come Home to Roost. In a barely-veiled allegory of our time, the rampant consumerism and selfish ego of the HumansFirst! movement is causing the world to go out of balance and the Powers to be pissed off. Meg, our foretelling Cassandra, is troubled with images of dead Wolves, but in a move familiar to young adult readers everywhere, decides to Lie About Problems to People Who Care.

Meanwhile, the Intuits (get it? Like intuition as Inuit?) are reaching out to the Others in their own communities and another Cassandra being cared for by the Others is also drawing bloody prophecies. It is apparently a race to be the Slowest To Interpret Prophecy ever, because we all already know HumansFirst! are pissing off the natural powers and they're gonna fuck something up somehow. It doesn't make it any less shocking or tragic when it occurs, which is a tribute to Bishop.

There's a few more viewpoints in this fourth book, which by some accounts is irritating Bishop's fan base. I didn't think it was done any differently than the last book, and I admit is was interesting to see something other than Meg driving around the compound in her BOW. Although, never fear--there is a discussion about that.

When it comes, the Great Apocalypse is fairly underwhelming to the apocalypse reader. Everyone knows the writer is supposed to draw the damage out so that we can vicariously compare our preparations and reactions to that of the heroes. Bishop apparently doesn't; although there are lots of veiled warnings about how terrible it will be, apparently laying in a six month supply of toilet paper (P.S., apparently girls need more than boys do) and buying your romance reads ahead of time is adequate. The devastation is over in a blip, but we aren't sure exactly what happened because communication systems are down. Although the Powers don't understand satellites and cell phones, so maybe they aren't completely down. We're not entirely sure yet. There's also a super-cutsey moment when one of the Elders is Amused by Meg howling (sigh, must we repeat this storyline again?), and a super-stupid moment when Tess is hurt despite being The Reaper That Sucks the Life Out of Everything.

Things I hate: the sexism. Oh, the sexism. There's a lot of "human females do..." followed by amusement/puzzlement on the part of the males. The human men are protectors and leaders; the human women nurturers. Apparently, there are no female Hawks, Bears, Cats or Wolves (all predators), although there are female Crows (because Shiny!). Apparently, females can be Weather because we're all capricious and temperamental. Other things that continue to annoy include this surprising integration of 21st century technology like email into the same world-building where Others need to be taught how to make a cash transaction. Apparently delivery trucks, cell phones and computers will be whittled by Henry out of wood in the future. And, how can I forget--in a nod to Stereotype 101, we have an elderly black woman with a no-nonsense approach brought in to control the human children and clean the office.

Things I love: the environmental theme. Meg's continued sweetness. The idea that the Others are questioning how much human metaphorically, within themselves--as well as practically. The idea that there will be payback for misdeeds. The glacially-moving relationship between Meg and Simon is a rare romance treat and appropriate given their newness to human experience. The idea that humans are not the dominant life forms.

Yep, this is just a literary One Pound Bag of M&Ms; a little embarrassing and a lot of mmmm-good. show less

TFW you're like "wait, everyone's ignoring the pogroms and genocide to yell 'Kiss Kiss Kiss' at Meg and Simon? Man, I guess...."

Also, not sure how a 5th book works when the Elders basically kill what? Most of humanity? I mean, if we're being charitable, I guess just 80% of White Colonizing Humanity, which isn't weirdly racist at all, especially not now that Monty has a Strong Black Mama who will Fix the Kids and just...so many bad tropes!, but that's never stopped these series before nor my weird popcorn inhaling reading of them. It just seems like there was a lot more potential in this series when it was the basic premise of yes, some bad humans, rather than "I can't be bothered to care about anyone who doesn't personally love my Mary show more Sue, so they're all just Evil as Fuck". I mean, also the weird hatred of loud kids. We get it, Anne Bishop, you hate when kids start screaming for stuff in the store, but seriously, most of your child characters are victims of forced migration, genocide of their species, various forms of abuse and parental neglect, but their real crimes are like "playing in stupid places because no one is watching them?" Maybe don't include child characters if you're unable to have any sympathy for them. Like, I totally get character torture is fun, I'm not hating on that, but for example, Lizzy has her mother murdered in front of her after being forcibly separated from her father, is basically neglected, all this other Actually Traumatic shit, but she gets no sympathy because she wanted to ride a damn pony? Yes, I get the ponies are not for riding, but given no one explains "hey, these ponies are actually forces of nature wearing pony suits, they hate humans", maybe everyone should stop hating on the 7 year old for not knowing the ponies aren't ancient beings who embody physical forces of nature who sometimes like to fuck up human property for funsies?

I dunno, the original concept is kind of in tatters and instead we have this world that is so virulently anti-human that you get how humans are resentful and distrustful of Others while the author herself is oddly ignorant of how humans could get sucked into the HFL movement so it's...rough...to view this as a dark urban fantasy, you know? show less

After the ending of the last book I couldn’t wait to get my paws on Marked In Flesh. The wait between books is just too long, but it was oh so worth it in the end. As soon as I started this book I was sucked back into the world of The Others and the human pack like no time had passed between the release of Vision In Silver and Marked In Flesh.

Anne Bishop really has a way with words and this story in no different. There is just something so captivating about the characters she creates and the world that she builds around them. As a reader, I feel as if I’m really there with the characters going through everything that they are going through at the same time.

Marked in Flesh starts out a little differently to the rest of the books in show more the series so far. There are a lot of POVs to consider and while it may be a little confusing as to who is say what and when, but it all makes sense the more you read. I loved reading about how different characters were reacting to the events around them. It really opened my eyes the world that Ms Bishop has created for The Others.

“We will give you some time to decide how much human the terra indigene will keep”

This books also focuses more heavily on The Others and Humans First and Last movement. The struggle between the two has hit an ultimate peak and the consequence from the actions of the HFL were felt by both sides when the Elders decided to take matters into their own hands.

After the way the last book ended I was really excited to see where Meg and Simon’s relationship would go. However with everything else that was going on, I felt that they had very little on page time together. I really wanted to see more of them. Just when I thought something major was going to happen and it didn’t, I think my heart gave out. You can do this to me. It is so unfair. I’m living for the next book. Please hurry I must find out what happens next.

PS. For some strange reason when I finished reading Marked in Flesh the first thing that came to mind was the song ‘Colours of the Wind’ from Disney’s Pocahontas. As strange as it may seem, there are lyrics in there that relate very well to this story. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

Anne Bishop offers a lot to like in this book. It’s shifters, but they aren’t humans who sometimes wear fur. They are wolves first and humans second, but they’re more than simply wolves as well. The humans as a whole are very human with the same variety and criminal stupidity found in real life. These people are set against a world that has its own teeth and claws and is uninterested in any human need for dominance.

This uneasy balance, and the efforts of both Others and humans who attempt to keep the balance, makes for an interesting read.

My only quibble may be because I started with this book, one that is late in the series. As far as I can tell, this is Earth with the serial numbers show more rubbed out. The days and months are all different words but similar to the English names, and for the most part, the geographical names follow the same patterns. There is even reference to old map traditions in our history. This makes the book sound more alt-history than urban fantasy. The tech level is near perfect to our modern times, only because the abundance of humanity is missing, the infrastructure that led to those developments is absent as well and doesn’t appear to have ever been there. This is jarring because one minute it’s my world and the next it is absolutely not.

That’s a pretty big quibble, especially since her world building in another book drew me to this one, but despite that issue, the rest of the world setup is intriguing. Had I read the series from the beginning, this might already be explained anyway. I enjoyed the culture clash elements and even how the flaws of humanity are so carefully revealed, such as willful ignorance and forgetting the past when it’s inconvenient to the narrative of human dominance.

The characters are different in logical ways whether from the same group or not. Meg’s difficulties are well drawn so you understand the internal battles she’s facing, and her relationship with Simon is wonderful, as is her connection to Sam. Among the humans, there are good people, bad people, and neutral people. There’s a bit of cultural idealism, but because the people are distinct, it didn’t push my buttons as much as it might.

The pacing jerks a little when the overall crisis begins, but it largely smooths out. I liked the variety of perspectives and solutions offered.

There is nothing sweet and cuddly about the Human First and Last movement. The terra indigene learned how to be better predators from watching the movement’s actions, but the retaliations are both deserved and treated well.

This is a strong novel looking at some important questions that underlie philosophies even when the proponents would reject that possibility. Sometimes it’s valuable to look outside ourselves to see the impact of our actions, and Marked in Flesh provides a fertile environment to explore those questions. show less