Various Thoughts

The fourteenth entry in Michelle Sagara‘s Elantra series resolves the long-simmering subplot regarding the Barrani’s Test of Name and, far more importantly, gives indication that Kaylin is finally ready to research how to consciously use the powers at her disposal for more than healing. There are many directions the series can go from here, but I hope it continues to advance the ‘main’ storyline involving the Dragon outcast.

Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series is one that I initially loved, but which eventually fell out of favor as the books became more episodic and overly similar to her Psy-Changling series in content. Picking the series back up on a whim turned out to be a good idea:

• Archangel’s Legion – While the number of sex scenes is certainly overwhelming and/or gratuitous, the character interactions and notable advancement of the central Cascade-related plotline makes it all worthwhile.
• Archangel’s Shadows – The seventh book slips back into episodic territory… but not completely; though primarily focused on the development of the secondary pairing it does not forget about Elena/Raphael. The number of sex scenes being drastically reduced is a happy bonus.
• Archangel’s Enigma – Continues the trend of the previous entry fairly seamlessly. It does feel uncomfortably similar to the aforementioned Psy-Changling novels though.
• Archangel’s Heart – The focus shifts back to Elena/Raphael and the Cascade here, going well out of its way to tie in Elena’s family history. Putting the highly questionable level of contrivance aside the mix of content manages to almost fully recapture the spark of series’ early entries. It unfortunately does nothing to allay my growing concern over the increasing number of lifebond pairings though.
• Archangel’s Viper – A massive step backward, this book is basically everything that made me drop the series in the first place. Being almost wholly episodic (taking place during the same time period as the previous novel) is bad enough, worse is that the relationship does not develop in even a remotely believable manner. At least the Uram-corruption subplot is finally resolved.
• Archangel’s Prophecy – Such whiplash. Completely different from Viper, Prophecy goes all-in on the Cascade and ends up perfectly recreating the feeling of Angels’ Blood. I’m now more than a little annoyed the next book won’t be released until September.