One of the long going series I’ve always been a fan of
was the Otherworld Series by Kelley
Armstrong and was pretty sad when the series seemed to come to a close and not
just in the same way I am when any series I like ends – because I felt there
was a lot of stories left in this world and a lot of characters I’d like to see
develop more – so this anthology of short stories seemed to be ideal
In particular I loved Demonology
and Twilight because they expanded
the stories of two very intriguing characters that have always intrigued me. Demonology takes the story of Talia, the
human mother of Adam the half-demon who actively sought out help for her
fire-starting son and eventually found Dr. Vasic, another half demon.
Throughout the series she hasn’t really been a character but we’ve often heard
of her strength and determination in not accepting the simple answers for
Adam’s condition. It was great to finally see that story, to meet this woman
and see the steel we’ve often heard referred to.
Twilight took
on Cassandra, the ancient vampire representative of the Council who we see as
harsh, acerbic and generally unpleasant through much of the series. This story
is the lead up to her final death, for even vampires are not immortal, and
seeing through her eyes we understand a lot more about her. She’s not pleasant,
not at all – she’s harsh, judgemental, completely undiplomatic and unable to be
even slightly kind or soft or mushy at all – but she applies that internally as
well. She has harsh, exacting standards and a brutal outlook on life, on what
she wants and on weakness and general sillness. Seeing her being equally
unimpressed with her own behaviour (even with that underlying fear and complete
inability to admit her affection for Aaron) did a really good job of casting a
new lens on her.
I also liked Chivalrous
because it helped fill out some of the information about the Pack. In the last
few books in the series the Pack expanded by three new members and it felt a
little like they just popped out of nowhere – three new werewolves! Behold!
This stopped one of them, Reese, just being a random name at the back of the
crowd and gave him some excellent backstory and development about his
experiences in Australia, how other Packs outside the North American Pack work
– and how they can also be terrible. This was especially important because he
does feature with some prominence in later stories in the book and they
wouldn’t have worked without him getting some growth and background behind him.
I think my favourites were Hidden and From Russia With
Love because they tackled the story I missed the most when the series ended
– the expanding pack and Elena and Clay’s kids. We saw many new members of the
pack in Frostbitten and Logan and Kate promised to raise all kinds of questions
– and then the story veered towards Savannah and we didn’t get to see any more.
Hidden was great at showing Elena
continuing to step into the role of Alpha and the excellent family dynamics
with her and Clay and the kids – I loved them parenting; a combination of
reasonable parental panic throwing in some werewolf issues but, at the same
time, maintaining their general confidence and capacity of parents. They
worried, but they didn’t panic. I also really like the evolution of the Alpha
role – both from Jeremy to Elena (with Elena expecting a less dictatorial role –
or wanting one even while everyone expects her to be a dictator) and also
looking back at how the Pack has operated for generations – and how broken that
was, how it made working with the Mutts so much harder and, finally, overtly
blaming the past Alphas for the conflict in
Bitten. It’s a great feel of what
Elena will be like as Alpha
Similarly, From Russia With Love is great without any huge plot, just to see the Pack in their down time. I think it’s something that has been missing from the series for a long time – the Pack together without some crisis or distraction or Elena and Clay’s problems – we needed to see it as a support network. Also Logan and Kate are evil and awesome children – if Kelley Armstrong decides to restart this series with these as the protagonists when they’re older that should be truly excellent to read. Again, it also let us see the three new wolves of the pack find their place and be part of the pack rather than just names.
I was disappointed that we got to Vanishing Act with a story that hit on the Nast cabal a lot –
especially since a huge amount has been happening in that cabal that we don’t
know about – and that story, especially Sean’s story, has been washed over.
Sean is one of only two LGBT characters in the entire series and he’s
vanishingly minor – only ever showing up when his sister Savannah wants
something – which is an annoying trope for any minority (especially one who is
supposed to hold such an important position) which is exactly what he does
here. I had hoped for more about him. Instead we had Savannah and Adam hashing
over the age gap in their relationship and Savannah agonising about what she
wants to do in her life – issues which have already been chewed over in the
last two books of the series.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Stalked or Lucifer’s Daughter
either because I didn’t feel either added over much to the series. Stalked continued Elena and Clary’s
relationship with Clay’s usual “protectiveness” being irritating but balanced
by Elena doing something very similar and her emerging Alphaness. In a way I
think it’s a kind of foreshadowing to Hidden
and From Russia with Love to show a
leap from where we last saw Elena to her definitely being eased into the role
of Alpha. Lucifer’s Daughter gives us
a story about Faith, but I don’t feel it added anything. There was a look at
her family but it was so brief before they went haring off chasing a demon
around that I don’t think it actually developed a great deal.
In terms of marginalised people, we don’t have great
inclusion. The only memorable POC in the book is Hope and that’s for only one
story even if she is the protagonist of that story. The only LGBT character is
Sean – but you wouldn’t know that from reading this story, which is a problem
because it wasn’t always obvious when this minor supporting character appeared
before.
Chivalry had a
lot of great messages about consent and active consent, which especially a
relief in a series about werewolves (which, in the genre, is sadly almost
synonymous with werewolves) and especially since we have a lot of raping
werewolves in this series as well. If I have one quibble, it’s that it took
Reese’s family history of rape to be presented as a reason for that rather than
being basic humanity, but it’s still a great message. In terms of women, Elena
is definitely going to be a pretty awesome Alpha (and managed to get through
all these short stories without being kidnapped once. This may be a record for
her).
This collection was great fun, reminded me of why I loved
this series so much and makes me hopeful that Kelley Armstrong isn’t as done
with them as I once thought – if I didn’t want more before, this collection
would certainly rekindle my interest.
