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Blue Sky and Elfhome
The Elfhome series has two previous novels, Tinker and Wolf Who Rules, both of which I reviewed earlier. Actually, there's a $.99 short story Blue Sky that happens between books two and three; a character introduced in it appears repeatedly in Elfhome. Another short story, Wyvern, looks like it's taking place pre-series, but I haven't read it yet.
Blue Sky is an interesting attempt to show events from a totally different protagonist's viewpoint. Seeing the lead characters of the main series through another person's eyes is interesting, and I think a successful experiment. Beyond that, the story is short, makes no sense whatsoever if you're not familiar with the setting and is proficiently written. Three out of five stars.
Plot-wise Elfhome stands on its own, but no pretense is made to explain the rather unique mash-up of a setting; I'll follow suit and refer you back to my original reviews. Cover-wise, the 80s camp continues — as mini-spoilers I can point out that the main character's skin color is wrong, and the entire scene is pretty non-representative of anything happening in the book, so don't let it put you off.
Aside from Tinker, the protagonist through the first two books, a lot more page-time is given to some other characters. This clearly helps in deepening the setting and reducing the Mary Sue aspects of the story. I found it apparent that Ms. Spencer loves her characters and world, perhaps a bit too much. That being said, while generally you can expect good things to happen to good people, there are some rather gruesome scenes and settings and violence, probably solidly knocking Elfhome out of any kind of running for a YA category. The follow-up on the trauma from the events is pretty lacking, however.
The prose and pacing are good, for me this was one of those books that was going to get finished, sleep and food be damned. Whatever magic Ms. Spencer puts in her words still gripped me, even though the fractured perspective made for a less straightward plot. Elfhome wraps up some ends, but largely leaves the overarching conflict going, introduces some new inter-character complications, and certainly doesn't preclude sequels.
In short, Elfhome is not quite the same as the previous two books due to the shifting perspective, but it's better for it. If you liked the world and characters of the previous works in the series, you'll like this one. Subjective four out of five, because I really liked it.
Bitter Waters
Book three in the Ukiah Oregon series. Bitter Waters continues directly from where Tainted Trail left off. I'll avoid spoilers, just pointing out that the series starts as your standard detective/werewolf urban fantasy romp, and quickly goes off the rails. Bitter Waters reminds the reader of all the things that were left unfinished at the end if Tainted Trail and goes on its way, putting no less than the fate of the world on the table.
There's little point in picking up this book unless you've read the rest of the series. The writing is good, and the plot proceeds at a good clip. The protagonists and familiar characters are explored a bit more, but not enough for my liking. In essence, it's exactly what you'd expect. However, relatively little gets resolved, so you're pretty much looking to also pick up Dog Warrior.
Three and a half out of five; The book really kept my interest and never got boring.
Dog Warrior
The title is interesting, because it doesn't really describe the protagonist. With little warning, where I expected to pick up where Bitter Waters left off, we're introduced to a brand new protagonist and fairly major plot twist. Ukiah, Max, Indigo and the rest of the crew certainly feature prominently as well, but our new protagonist and some familiar supporting characters end up playing a much greater role in advancing the plot from the previous book.
Similarly to Elfhome the switch in perspective allows Ms. Spencer to show familiar characters from an outsider's view, which helps to explore their personalities and put events into context. Marty Stu is a valid criticism here as well, but Spencer has a lot if interesting ideas and won't slow down running around touching on them. Consequently, a lot of hooks for future events and character development are left laying around. While the plot arch that started in Bitter Waters largely concludes here, a lot of plot is left open for sequels.
A familiar three and a half out of five.
General Comments
All of the books would be a lot better with the TLC of a good editor. Generally, some things could probably be tightened up, some repetitive exposition could be culled, and factual errors could be fixed. While it never rose to the level of real annoyance, seeing gun bunnies run around with Heckler and Hochs seemed sloppy, and referring to an Asian person's elliptical fold apparently has taken genetic engineering to entirely new lengths. Self publishing and fanfiction are one thing, but when I'm paying full price for a real publisher's book, I expect better. At least one of the books also had some digital hash, with random bookmarks sprinkled about.
I don't know what it is about Ms. Spencer's books that makes me love them as much as I do. In many ways they strike me as stories written by someone in a hurry to go through their world, and leaving all these interesting themes and plot points unexplored, leaving their characters as more two-dimensional than strictly necessary. They clearly suffer from "nothing truly bad happens to the beloved protagonist" syndrome and arguably many of the characters remain very shallow. On the other hand, I find the books very attractive and eminently readable and I find myself frequently stopping and considering the morality of various aspects of the setting; whether some of the issues in fact were intentionally analogous to the real world, and what kind of a long-term effect some experience would leave on the character. Whatever it is, she's solidly in my list of authors to buy without hesitation.
