Review: WRITTEN IN RED

Written In Red by Anne Bishop
Read by Alexandra Harris
Book 1 of the The Others series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: hardback & audiobook

About Written In Red:

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.

Source: Info in the About Written In Red was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15711341-written-in-red on 08/04/2013.

Review:

This is how I imagined Sam, the wolf pup, looked like when he was howling like his little puppy heart is breaking when Meg left him with Grandfather Erebus.

I'm not sure if it is Alexandra Harris' reading style which made me like this book a little less than I think I ought to. Or Anne Bishop's writing style in this particular book which did not translate well into an audiobook. Or a lack in the audiobook director's part in the skills and talent department. Or maybe it's me as a reader, or a combination of factors... Either way, I find Alexandra Harris' narration hard to follow that I bought a printed copy to read-along with the audiobook format. Don't get me wrong, the words are clear and distinct. The quality of her voice is pleasing to the ears. But Alexandra Harris does not give any indication when the scene changes. No pauses. No change in tone nor diction. Nothing. And that confuses me like hell. It is only after a sentence or two when the story lines no longer make sense that I realised that the people talking has changed. That the scene has changed. And I rewind to see if I missed anything. This made the pace slow that eventually I gave up on the audiobook about halfway through and proceeded reading the hardback without the audio. So I would not count the narration into rating this book because I did not really finish listening to the audio format. And I don't think I would be listening to Alexandra Harris again.

I've always been Anne Bishop's fan since I read her book, Sebastian. I like this author's voice! The main reason why this book got bought in the first place. Secondly, I like the cover art. I don't know what Anne Bishop did to please the Cover Art Goddess, but she sure was blessed with this book! Another thing I like about this book is the beautiful world building. But then again, this is Anne Bishop we're talking about here. So of course the world building is masterful! This book was slow going for me at the start mainly due to the audiobook but once I decided to abandon the audio this book just whizzed through and the next thing I knew, I was on the last page... And craving Murder Of Crows (Book 2)!! March come around already!!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 5
Pace = 4.5(18hours & 33minutes listening time)
Plot = 4.5
(Narration = 2)

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Others Series: