Book 21.5, 2022
I bought an anthology called Shadowed Souls because it contained a short story by Rob Thurman in her "Cal Leandros" series. I read the story, 'Impossible Monsters' last night. Since it was a short, I'm not counting it among my books read, but I did want to review it.
The story was told in Cal's first-person point of view, as is much of the series. Here we have Cal thinking back about a human predator he encountered when he was a teen, as he's hunting the man down to eliminate him. The only other familiar character the reader encounters is Ishiah. I was disappointed that Niko only put in an appearance in Cal's memories, and Robin not at all.
I was so excited to have something new in the Cal verse to read, even just a short story, that I bought that entire book. Unfortunately, I found the story disappointing. Cal's "voice" seemed...off, almost as if someone other than Thurman wrote the story. Cal seemed colder, his trademark snarky sense of humor was all but missing, and he was utterly vicious in meting out what he perceived to be justice. Now, Cal is a killer, through and through, but he doesn't typically torture anyone or anything. He tortured this guy, and I didn't like it.
I've read the entire series through #9 - Downfall, and I thought that Rafferty had "re-set" Cal so that he was back to being half-and-half (half human, half Auphe). The caveat being Cal would be able to Gate, and his eyes would still turn red from time to time, but in this story, he still had his Auphe teeth. I may have missed something by shying away from reading the 10th (and final) book in the series, but I'm still bitter that what was MEANT to be the final book in the series was never published. I'm reluctant to read Nevermore, knowing it ends without any overall resolution. Le sigh. However, this short story was copyrighted in 2016, while Nevermore was published in 2015. Dare I hope that means Thurman wrote 'Impossible Monsters' after she'd written Everwar (the unpublished 11th book)? Hmmm...
Favorite line: Sometimes it worked and sometimes it failed. Other times it failed spectacularly.
Again, this didn't seem like the Cal I've come to know and love, and I was disheartened reading the story. Giving it two stars. I may read the rest of the stories in the book some day, but not today.
Banner found on Pinterest; will credit artist if I find out who it is
The story was told in Cal's first-person point of view, as is much of the series. Here we have Cal thinking back about a human predator he encountered when he was a teen, as he's hunting the man down to eliminate him. The only other familiar character the reader encounters is Ishiah. I was disappointed that Niko only put in an appearance in Cal's memories, and Robin not at all.
I was so excited to have something new in the Cal verse to read, even just a short story, that I bought that entire book. Unfortunately, I found the story disappointing. Cal's "voice" seemed...off, almost as if someone other than Thurman wrote the story. Cal seemed colder, his trademark snarky sense of humor was all but missing, and he was utterly vicious in meting out what he perceived to be justice. Now, Cal is a killer, through and through, but he doesn't typically torture anyone or anything. He tortured this guy, and I didn't like it.
I've read the entire series through #9 - Downfall, and I thought that Rafferty had "re-set" Cal so that he was back to being half-and-half (half human, half Auphe). The caveat being Cal would be able to Gate, and his eyes would still turn red from time to time, but in this story, he still had his Auphe teeth. I may have missed something by shying away from reading the 10th (and final) book in the series, but I'm still bitter that what was MEANT to be the final book in the series was never published. I'm reluctant to read Nevermore, knowing it ends without any overall resolution. Le sigh. However, this short story was copyrighted in 2016, while Nevermore was published in 2015. Dare I hope that means Thurman wrote 'Impossible Monsters' after she'd written Everwar (the unpublished 11th book)? Hmmm...
Favorite line: Sometimes it worked and sometimes it failed. Other times it failed spectacularly.
Again, this didn't seem like the Cal I've come to know and love, and I was disheartened reading the story. Giving it two stars. I may read the rest of the stories in the book some day, but not today.
Banner found on Pinterest; will credit artist if I find out who it is