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A review by katyanaish
The Phoenix Illusion by Lisa Shearin
2.0
***2.5***
Honestly, there was a lot I didn't like about this one. But let me start with this: I love Lisa Shearin's books, and the Raine Benares series is one of my all-time favorites (the Raine books, not the Raine Benaraes World books) ... and I'm super excited that she said in her newsletter that she's going to write another book with Raine and Mycheal. Yes, I subscribe to her newsletter, because as I said, I love her books.
But I didn't like a main character from that series - Tam - rolling into this one. I thought I would, but I didn't. Look, I love that the worlds are connected, and I love the intersection, the easter eggs dropped about events happening over there. It is freaking awesome. But having a main character pop in ... well, I felt like it undercut the SPI team. By which I mean, honestly, the SPI team became background characters in this book. It felt more like the Tam / Rake adventure that Mac tagged along on (and they treated her like a tag-along, more on this in a moment). Even Ian was barely present (though when he was, he pissed me off ... that's part of the "more on this in a moment" though).
This series has a great cast - with Mac and Ian as the leads - and a rich secondary cast, and I love them ... and resent that they were largely sidelined. And I'm also confused, because Ian seems to not be a lead anymore. He was present, somewhat, in a token way. And Mac mentioned he was her partner, or called him her partner, probably a dozen times. But they didn't work together. They'd split up at incident locations, and when Mac gets jumped by the ever-present baddie who wants to kill the seer (a constant goal of theirs, for good reason), Ian is nowhere near ... and comes running when things are over. That happens twice in this book, but more than that, I was struck that they are literally never side-by-side working. They're not partners. They call each other that, but it's stupid. And it is even more stupid because of what happened at the end.
I was furious at what Ian pulled at the end. This is the "more on that later" bit, in case it wasn't clear. Here's the more.
I was even more furious that Mac completely let it go. She doesn't rip them a new one - after she makes her way back inside, ALONE, and saves their bacon, AGAIN. She doesn't even underscore that not only were they assholes, but she's actually the only one who handled the mission because they were all caught flat-footed. She got the goddamn crystal and got it away. While doing that, she caught the high-level baddie to interrogate. As far as I can tell, Ian was just standing on the sidelines with his thumb up his butt, because he literally contributed nothing to this mission, other than showing his "partner" how very little he thinks of her as an agent.
This was so infuriating to me that I am undecided whether I'll read more in this series.
Aside from that inexplicable bullshit, this series is stuck in a weird place that it now needs to solve. We used to have Mac and Ian. And while they weren't romantically involved, they were damn good partners - and they used to respect each other - that worked well together. I was cool with them not being romantically involved, I thought it was an interesting change of pace. Then Rake enters, and over the course of the last few books, he and Mac have gotten seriously involved. That's cool, I like Rake. I have a couple problems with their relationship, though. One, he treats her like a child who needs to be coddled. She's a freaking agent, dammit! Further, the coddling seems to have grown some kind of crappy self-esteem issue for her, as several times in this book she laments that she's not sure she can handle this. Dude, this woman, until now, has always rolled up her sleeves, jumped into the fray, and done what needed doing. Where did this wishy-washy crap come from? Is it because of Rake?
But now the book seems to be rolling Rake into the lead, with Ian contributing nothing (that's not an exaggeration) and being out of character. The bit in the spoiler tags above, that's way out of character imo - Ian has never been that stupid. Further, Ian was always Mac's shadow, because he was going to keep his partner safe (given that seers tend to have a short lifespan in SPI, since they are major targets for the bad guys). Now, he seems to have dropped out of that role entirely, and I don't understand why. I get that we need to have Rake there as her romantic partner, but he doesn't work for SPI and this is still an SPI series, right? Can we please have Ian actually BEING Mac's partner again? I like Rake being there, but it should be Ian alongside Mac when we get down to business or are handling an incident. Either that, or just freaking have Rake join SPI and be Mac's damn partner, because this currently feels like a mess.
Honestly, there was a lot I didn't like about this one. But let me start with this: I love Lisa Shearin's books, and the Raine Benares series is one of my all-time favorites (the Raine books, not the Raine Benaraes World books) ... and I'm super excited that she said in her newsletter that she's going to write another book with Raine and Mycheal. Yes, I subscribe to her newsletter, because as I said, I love her books.
But I didn't like a main character from that series - Tam - rolling into this one. I thought I would, but I didn't. Look, I love that the worlds are connected, and I love the intersection, the easter eggs dropped about events happening over there. It is freaking awesome. But having a main character pop in ... well, I felt like it undercut the SPI team. By which I mean, honestly, the SPI team became background characters in this book. It felt more like the Tam / Rake adventure that Mac tagged along on (and they treated her like a tag-along, more on this in a moment). Even Ian was barely present (though when he was, he pissed me off ... that's part of the "more on this in a moment" though).
This series has a great cast - with Mac and Ian as the leads - and a rich secondary cast, and I love them ... and resent that they were largely sidelined. And I'm also confused, because Ian seems to not be a lead anymore. He was present, somewhat, in a token way. And Mac mentioned he was her partner, or called him her partner, probably a dozen times. But they didn't work together. They'd split up at incident locations, and when Mac gets jumped by the ever-present baddie who wants to kill the seer (a constant goal of theirs, for good reason), Ian is nowhere near ... and comes running when things are over. That happens twice in this book, but more than that, I was struck that they are literally never side-by-side working. They're not partners. They call each other that, but it's stupid. And it is even more stupid because of what happened at the end.
I was furious at what Ian pulled at the end. This is the "more on that later" bit, in case it wasn't clear. Here's the more.
Spoiler
As they are about to go into the big confrontation, Ian inexplicably sends Mac out on a stupid errand. And when I say inexplicable, what I mean is that the whole group was working in pairs at the hotel, for safety, and Ian sends her off alone. Then we find out he was just sending her out of the hotel to keep her safe. WHAT THE FUCK? Mac has been a part of this team, on the front lines, over and over since this series started. She has saved their bacon more than once. For him to undermine and disrespect her so horribly ... I was stunned. Not just at the treatment of her, but also the stupidity, because as the seer, she's their goddamn eyes when the unexpected happens. How does this bullshit action even make sense?I was even more furious that Mac completely let it go. She doesn't rip them a new one - after she makes her way back inside, ALONE, and saves their bacon, AGAIN. She doesn't even underscore that not only were they assholes, but she's actually the only one who handled the mission because they were all caught flat-footed. She got the goddamn crystal and got it away. While doing that, she caught the high-level baddie to interrogate. As far as I can tell, Ian was just standing on the sidelines with his thumb up his butt, because he literally contributed nothing to this mission, other than showing his "partner" how very little he thinks of her as an agent.
This was so infuriating to me that I am undecided whether I'll read more in this series.
Aside from that inexplicable bullshit, this series is stuck in a weird place that it now needs to solve. We used to have Mac and Ian. And while they weren't romantically involved, they were damn good partners - and they used to respect each other - that worked well together. I was cool with them not being romantically involved, I thought it was an interesting change of pace. Then Rake enters, and over the course of the last few books, he and Mac have gotten seriously involved. That's cool, I like Rake. I have a couple problems with their relationship, though. One, he treats her like a child who needs to be coddled. She's a freaking agent, dammit! Further, the coddling seems to have grown some kind of crappy self-esteem issue for her, as several times in this book she laments that she's not sure she can handle this. Dude, this woman, until now, has always rolled up her sleeves, jumped into the fray, and done what needed doing. Where did this wishy-washy crap come from? Is it because of Rake?
But now the book seems to be rolling Rake into the lead, with Ian contributing nothing (that's not an exaggeration) and being out of character. The bit in the spoiler tags above, that's way out of character imo - Ian has never been that stupid. Further, Ian was always Mac's shadow, because he was going to keep his partner safe (given that seers tend to have a short lifespan in SPI, since they are major targets for the bad guys). Now, he seems to have dropped out of that role entirely, and I don't understand why. I get that we need to have Rake there as her romantic partner, but he doesn't work for SPI and this is still an SPI series, right? Can we please have Ian actually BEING Mac's partner again? I like Rake being there, but it should be Ian alongside Mac when we get down to business or are handling an incident. Either that, or just freaking have Rake join SPI and be Mac's damn partner, because this currently feels like a mess.