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A review by shelleyjld
Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop
3.0
This series gives me mixed feelings.
The good:
The earth natives are truly a different species. They are complex and varied and interesting.
The suspense builds in a way that keeps you reading.
The blood prophets are interesting as they figure out their next steps and evolve
The community that emerges amongst the good guys is wonderful
The bad:
Another reviewer named Anne said that this story is about a “mentally challenged girl who falls in love with a talking dog” and that is so accurate. We have a mentally stunted woman and a man who is basically a dog. He cannot understand people and is so dog like that he’s almost funny. So the romance aspect is weird because you are kind of wanting them to be together but also kind of weird because it’s a girl and her dog kind of.
Other reviewers also pointed out the sexism of the series. The novelty of the world allowed me to ignore this but honestly it just keeps getting worse. Overall, this might as well be set in the 1950s.
The plot meanders. It’s three books of stupid humans escalating their behavior while the terra indigene and smart humans say “don’t do that or we will all be wiped out” over and over. When will the world/nature retaliate!? Finally they do but it’s over quickly and does not manage to wipe out the bad guys. I mean it feels so anticlimactic because we are told that this city was destroyed or that city was attacked but it’s over in a few pages and happens off page and then the mayor and other bad guys are left alive?! Very unsatisfactory ending.
And finally the characters are interchangeable. Jesse and Tobias are the same as Steve and Jerry. Joe and Jackson were hard to sort out because they were so alike and both J names. It just felt like the earth native types were complex and varied and interesting but the actual personalities were shallowly made.
I read the reviews for the next book and I’m going to stop here.
The good:
The earth natives are truly a different species. They are complex and varied and interesting.
The suspense builds in a way that keeps you reading.
The blood prophets are interesting as they figure out their next steps and evolve
The community that emerges amongst the good guys is wonderful
The bad:
Another reviewer named Anne said that this story is about a “mentally challenged girl who falls in love with a talking dog” and that is so accurate. We have a mentally stunted woman and a man who is basically a dog. He cannot understand people and is so dog like that he’s almost funny. So the romance aspect is weird because you are kind of wanting them to be together but also kind of weird because it’s a girl and her dog kind of.
Other reviewers also pointed out the sexism of the series. The novelty of the world allowed me to ignore this but honestly it just keeps getting worse. Overall, this might as well be set in the 1950s.
The plot meanders. It’s three books of stupid humans escalating their behavior while the terra indigene and smart humans say “don’t do that or we will all be wiped out” over and over. When will the world/nature retaliate!? Finally they do but it’s over quickly and does not manage to wipe out the bad guys. I mean it feels so anticlimactic because we are told that this city was destroyed or that city was attacked but it’s over in a few pages and happens off page and then the mayor and other bad guys are left alive?! Very unsatisfactory ending.
And finally the characters are interchangeable. Jesse and Tobias are the same as Steve and Jerry. Joe and Jackson were hard to sort out because they were so alike and both J names. It just felt like the earth native types were complex and varied and interesting but the actual personalities were shallowly made.
I read the reviews for the next book and I’m going to stop here.