A review by pjonsson
Blood of the Earth by Faith Hunter
3.0
I have quite enjoyed Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series so I had some hopes that I would like this one as well. Well, it is not at all a bad book. The writing is as good as one has come to expect from this author. Unfortunately I found the story to not really be my cup of tea.
The book introduces a new character in the Jane Yellowrock universe. Well, kind of new at least. She was briefly mentioned in one of the Yellowrock books. This new character is a bit of a hermit and woefully uneducated about life outside of her own little bubble.
I think this is were the story starts to disagree with me. Nell starts off being next to brainwashed by the church she was more or less born into. This church seems to be pretty much a parody of Christianity filled with a bunch of rasist and chauvinist assholes treating women like slaves good for nothing but house chores and giving birth. Unfortunately the entire book circles around these asswipes and it became way too much for me rather quickly.
Also, the main protagonist is not only pretty much the opposite of Jane Yellowrock. She does speak up for herself occasionally but, to me, there was a definite lack of spunk. Her powers is quite unique but I found them fairly uninteresting and, for lack of a better word, useless. At least when more offensive tactics were required. I guess it is just the first book so I would suppose both Nell and her powers might grow.
Obviously these are quite personal objections and other people may, and probably will, like the book a lot more. After all, the writing itself is very good and the accompanying characters, the werecats, are quite likable. I didn’t like LaFleur much in the Yellowrock series and do not like him much now either though.
I guess the bottom line for me is that it is a good book but it didn’t work that well for me. I might try having a go at the second one but I do not really feel like I am in a hurry to do so.
The book introduces a new character in the Jane Yellowrock universe. Well, kind of new at least. She was briefly mentioned in one of the Yellowrock books. This new character is a bit of a hermit and woefully uneducated about life outside of her own little bubble.
I think this is were the story starts to disagree with me. Nell starts off being next to brainwashed by the church she was more or less born into. This church seems to be pretty much a parody of Christianity filled with a bunch of rasist and chauvinist assholes treating women like slaves good for nothing but house chores and giving birth. Unfortunately the entire book circles around these asswipes and it became way too much for me rather quickly.
Also, the main protagonist is not only pretty much the opposite of Jane Yellowrock. She does speak up for herself occasionally but, to me, there was a definite lack of spunk. Her powers is quite unique but I found them fairly uninteresting and, for lack of a better word, useless. At least when more offensive tactics were required. I guess it is just the first book so I would suppose both Nell and her powers might grow.
Obviously these are quite personal objections and other people may, and probably will, like the book a lot more. After all, the writing itself is very good and the accompanying characters, the werecats, are quite likable. I didn’t like LaFleur much in the Yellowrock series and do not like him much now either though.
I guess the bottom line for me is that it is a good book but it didn’t work that well for me. I might try having a go at the second one but I do not really feel like I am in a hurry to do so.