Murder of Crows
by Anne BishopSeries: The Others #2
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
Length: 14:13
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Published on March 4th 2014
Pages: 448
Format: Audiobook Source: Audible, Owned
Return to New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s “phenomenal†(Urban Fantasy Investigations) 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.
I loved listening to the audiobook of Written in Red so I immediately started listening to A Murder of Crows. The world building in this series is amazing! When humans started to expand from their origin points around the Mediterranean, they met the Terra Indigene – shapeshifters who are the dominant species on the planet. The Terra Indigene control all the resources of the planet but allow humans to build some cities and use some materials in exchange for technology. The alliance is very fragile though and now humans are starting to push for more.
Two drugs have appeared. Gone Over Wolf causes increased aggression and Feel Good causes passivity to the point of not defending yourself if attacked. Both drugs have been used in attacks against the Terra Indigene.
Meg is a prophet and the visions are coming more often. She isn’t the only one. The other blood prophets around the continent are seeing visions of blood and destruction. War is coming.
The first book in the series was very insular. It happened in the small community that Meg found herself in. This book looks at the bigger picture. At first that was a bit distressing. I liked the insular story and wanted to know what was going on there. But, seeing how Meg’s escape from the institution where blood prophets were kept caused ripples that are affecting the whole world was interesting.
We meet the Intuits, a subset of humans who have strong reactions when something bad is about to happen. We learn how blood prophets are bred and controlled. We see how the Humans First and Last movement is growing and how some people are taking it to violent extremes.
The Lakeside Courtyard now has a few trusted humans besides Meg working with them. These people are now being attacked by other humans for being traitors to their kind. At the same time Terra Indigene leaders from other areas are starting to come to Lakeside just to see how it is possible to deal with humans on an everyday basis. Maybe there is hope for understanding after all.
I love this series so much that I had to force myself not to get the next book immediately. There are only three out right now and I want to space them out a bit. It isn’t fair to the audiobook I’m listening to now because I’m mad at it for not being this series!
