The Others - Anne Bishop

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Fantasy
Subgenre: Others vs. humans, magic, blood
Age Appropriate: Teen
Recommended for my sister: Yep (She's already reading them!)

"I'll ask her for one cut." - Simon

In an Other Courtyard, "Human Laws Do Not Apply." After fighting, trading and tragedy, the humans and Others have come to an uneasy truce with Others in tentative power. What the humans don't understand is that there are other Others with more power than imaginable and the ones seen are the most benign. It is mostly a case of whatever happens in the Courtyard stays in the Courtyard, and that includes the mysterious deaths of humans trespassing where they're not allowed. The Lakeside Courtyard is unique in its toleration of humans in their Market areas, even allowing a select few humans to work in those areas.

As a cassandra sangue, Meg Corbyn is invaluable to the institution she's escaped from. She is a blood prophet, and every cut made on her skin pulls a prophecy out of her. In the compound where she, and other like her, were kept, they were strapped to chairs and used for prophecy and money. Each cut could range from 1,000-10,000 dollars depending on who was being cut.  She stumbles into Lakeside Courtyard and walks her freezing feet into a story with a Help Wanted sign. The sign is for a Liaison, a person who runs a post office that interacts between the Others and the humans. Now that she's in Lakeside Courtyard, she has to come clean about who she is and where she's from in order to keep her place. The wide community of Others may decide that she's one of their own, and then there will be no going back for her. The Others protect their own.

-----

I've been a huge fan of Anne Bishop for a long time. It started with her Black Jewels trilogy in high school but each time I've started a new series, I've fallen into it completely. I appreciate that her series don't intersect, and always have a completely different world, without losing anything of her style and story. Written in Blood and Murder of Crows are no different. I had to reread Written in Blood to catch up, and it was still a great story. There are societal issues, supernatural elements and a teeny tiny bit of possible romance.

Obviously, I recommend it. I can't really recommend it to my sister, specifically, because she's waiting for Book 2 already. I'll recommend it to everyone else, though! I actually think that Bishop could probably stop with book 2, if she really wanted, but I hope she doesn't. There are still some great possibilities for the greater battle ahead, and how knows what will happen to Meg's potential love life? Will she actually have one? She's probably not ready, yet. I've heard nothing yet about another book, but I'm crossing my fingers!

-----

Moar Books: Sorcerer's Ring series