BETWEEN TWO THORNS.
By Emma Newman.
Angry Robot
Books.
On a night out
after work Sam’s had one too many beers and all he wants is to get home.
Unfortunately his bladder is interfering and a detour into the grounds of a
museum leads Sam into the middle of something his alcohol-addled brain can’t
quite understand. Two strange beings and one faerie later, Sam is under a
Fool’s Curse with his memories bound in chains and one hell of a hangover.
Cathy is in
hiding from her family and the Shadow Charm has been keeping her well concealed
in the mundane world. After all this time she has become used to living among
humans, but the knowledge that her family would not have given up the search
stays with her. Now, a visit from a Lord of the Fae Court can only signal
danger, and Cathy finds herself unceremoniously forced into making three wishes
with the express purpose of impressing the Fae Lord.
Max, Arbiter and
dislocated soul, is investigating missing women in London – technically not his
patch but he’s choosing to temporarily ignore that little detail – when he
stumbles across a much larger problem. Something is wrong, and Max will soon be
fighting for his life, dealing with sorcerers and forced into an entirely new
mission. The Master of Ceremonies has gone missing and Max has to make sense of
the clues.
Newman paints a
beautiful, magical world in this, the first of a trilogy about The Split Worlds and the colourful cast
of characters that inhabit them. The characters are a great strength, all
likeable and suitably interesting, each with their own foibles and desperate
desires. They are well drawn, with depth enough to endear them to the reader.
Between Two Thorns follows
the stories of each character as they deal with their individual missions and
challenges, and the eventual intertwining of the various sub plots adds great
depth to the writing and works flawlessly to deliver a well-rounded story. That
said, this is definitely the beginning of a trilogy so many plot elements are
left unexplained in this volume.
Nonetheless this
book has a fantastic ending and marks a solid start to a great new fantasy
trilogy that will be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys urban fantasy, stories about
the Fae and detective stories. There are also some underlying themes in here,
such as Cathy’s growing up in an old fashioned world where women are oppressed,
that provide a good contrast to the modern day problems she and Sam encounter
in the mundane world.
Elloise Hopkins.
No comments:
Post a Comment