No longer mostly dead thanks to the combined efforts of Mab and
Demonreach, Harry's back in the material world in time to save it, again.
Now Mab's Winter Knight thanks to the deal he made back in Changes, his
first mission is an ugly one - going after Mab's own daughter. But Maeve's a
slippery customer, and may have some compelling reasons up her sleeve (I guess
that would be her Wizard's Sleeve, as she spends the book mostly naked) for
Harry to take out Mab instead.
To make things even simpler, he has an awesomely deadly new assistant for
his mission (the Cat Sith) who isn't best pleased to be serving him, and most
of the Winter Court is out for his blood. Oh, and Demonreach is about to blow,
which doesn't bode well for the world considering that the island's purpose is
to serve as a demonic Oz - a maximum security prison for the most nightmarish
beasties to have ever been unleashed on the world.
Bursting to the seams with action, sometimes I felt there was a little too
much this time around, with wave after wave of assault sometimes disorienting me
and making me forget just who was after Harry now and why it was
important.
I was also a little nonplussed by his friends reactions to his reappearance
in their lives. Considering how fucked up we found them all in Ghost Story, and
the hoops they made him jump through to prove his really was Harry, I was
expecting a bigger reaction than the collective shrug that came from everyone
bar Thomas and Mouse.
And finally in my list of niggles, whilst I'm aware that Harry has always
been a bit of a dick when it comes to women, I am really not keen on the new,
rapey Harry that's been wrought by the mantle of Winter, nor the reactions of the
ladies he'd quite like to rape (or the fact that women everywhere are constantly either
oozing sex or defined by the lack of sex they ooze). Harry is, in fact,
getting dangerously close to me wanting everyone to punch him in the throat.
With the set-up for the next book that came at the book's climax, it's a
situation that will probably only get worse as he works out the dynamics of his
relationship with the new Winter Lady.
Still, I do love the fantastic flourishes we get whenever dealing with the
fae, and with Toot still around and managing to not want to rape everyone he meets,
there's still someone at least for me to wholeheartedly throw my support behind.
But Harry - consider yourself warned...
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