Anne Bishop, My New Love

Well, my debit card has been, and will continue to, take a beating. I have discovered a new-to-me author and I have been inhaling her books.

Ms Bishop writes dark fantasy, some of it very dark. I discovered her when I bought Written in Red. Don't remember how I found it but I'm so glad I did. This is the first book of a new trilogy - The Others. The last book of the trilogy is coming soon, but her website says she's signed a contract for three more books in this world, to which I say yay.

In these books, humans are the weaker race and only survive because the Others let them. There's a parallel with our world in that humans came to the Other's land and, of course, tried the same shit they tried with the Native Americans. Only this time they were very badly beaten and at best are tolerated. The wilder Others don't want them around period, so there is a very delicate balance.

The blurb:

 No one creates realms like New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop. Now in a thrilling new fantasy series, enter a world inhabited by the Others, unearthly entities—vampires and shape-shifters among them—who rule the Earth and whose prey are humans. 

As a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut—a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg’s Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard—a business district operated by the Others.

Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she’s keeping a secret, and second, she doesn’t smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she’s wanted by the government, he’ll have to decide if she’s worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

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The next two (I think the covers suck, but you know the saying ...):

Sorry, can't make the images get on the same line.

So, after reading the first two in the Other series, I looked for more Anne Bishop stories and I hit the mother lode.  I'd heard people saying how good the Black Jewel trilogy was but for some reason never tried it. So, now that I knew the woman could write and build worlds and create characters I care about, I bought the Black Jewel trilogy.

The world building is intricately layered and detailed, and so, so original. There is everything in these books: humor, pain, love; there is torture and abuse but not detailed, at least not as much as it could have been. It is an epic battle of Good vs Evil and I couldn't put the books down.

The first part of the first book was a little confusing until I sorted out the class levels and names. I'm glad I didn't give up. I closed the third book with a happy sigh.

There are other stories of this world. I loved the duology, The Shadow Queen and Shalador's Lady, a rags to riches story - sorta - and there are collections of novellas and short stories.

Best of all, there are at least two other series I'm going to check out.  I'm in reader heaven.