Wild Country by Anne Bishop
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Anne Bishop has created an amazing world in her Others series. The consistency and depth of detail bring the world to life, while the fascinating "others" who populate it give it character.

Wild Country explores life in a border town that is perched on the brink of collapse. The town's previous residents were exterminated during the events of previous books in the series, and it is now an experiment in whether humans and others can find a new balance that will allow them to live together. Both sides have a vested interest in the outcome.

Probably my favorite part of this book, and this series in general, is the skill with which Bishop writes from the perspective of the others. She is able to create characters that are at once totally alien in their thinking and yet completely relatable. One thing I will mention is that people who don't like large casts probably won't enjoy this story as it is populated with dozens of secondary characters that pop up and disappear at a somewhat confounding rate.

My one complaint about the book is that there wasn't much in the way of plot driving the story. I one hundred percent enjoyed reading about the characters and the world, but I didn't find the thread of the strangers who come to town and disrupt the peace to be very compelling. The antagonist "Balckstone family" felt secondary to the more "slice of life" story of just characters trying to build a community, and the way the story wrapped up left me a little . . . meh. So if you're a very plot-driven reader, be warned. That said, the character and world exploration coupled with the compelling prose was quite enough to keep me engaged.

View all my reviews