Caine, Rachel: Ill Wind
Ill Wind
Writer: Rachel Caine
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 337
This is a series that never got my attention until I heard it constantly recommended on the Seton Hill WPF boards. And then I started noticing the covers in the store, and you know me and covers, it's like moths to a flame. So I took a chance and bought book one, just to see what all the talk was about.
The premise: Joanne Baldwin is on the run. She's been accused of murder, is suffering from a Demon Mark inside, and there's only one person she can turn to, her former lover, Lewis. But there's one problem. He's the most powerful Warden on Earth, and he's missing. And all of Jo's power to control the weather may not be enough to stop the storm that's coming.
Spoilers ahead.
This is, beyond a doubt, one of the most unique premises for urban fantasy I have ever read. At first, I couldn't help but giggle: Wardens usually have one kind of power: Earth, Fire, Water/Air (aka Weather). Kind of makes you think of The Power Rangers and hell, even a joke is made to that expense, but the more you learn about the Wardens, particularly the Weather Wardens, the more fascinating the world becomes. Joanne and her colleagues do everything they can to control the most violent outbreaks. In this world, Mother Nature is no mother, she's a beast trying to throw humanity off the face of the planet, so it makes sense to have Weather Wardens calming the most violent of storms. Even better, the author uses real-life disasters (as of 2003, at least) to weave into the story, making what used to be old news have a new life, like Hurricane Andrew (notable to my memory, as my grandmother and I were driving out of Florida when it hit and got stuck outside of Macon, Georgia).
What's funny about this book is how many superficial parallels there are to Jim Butcher's Storm Front: the actual storms, of course, but also the very powerful character whose been misunderstood and also has a MARK that essentially blackballs them in the magic community.
But Caine's world and her story run much deeper than that. All of the magic is centered on the elements. You also have storms that can become sentient (which is AWESOME), as well as Djinn who try to help humans to the best of their ability. Of course, to a Djinn, helping humans to the best of their ability means tricking the shit out of them to achieve a desired result.
The beginning threw me for a bit. Caine jumps in with no preamble, and to be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to make it after the first few pages. I took a break, and reminded myself that I'd literally JUST FINISHED Jeanne C. Stein's The Becoming, and whatever backlash I felt was coming from going from one first-person narrator to another. And that works, mostly, though I would've liked to be grounded a LITTLE more at the start, and there are times in the narrative where Jo sounds a little immature, especially at the start.
But while the story and the narrative is pulled together with delicate threads, the whole thing is pretty damn tight by the end. With the exception of guessing who David really was (well, the first time), I was pretty much in the dark about what was happening and how the story would end. And I have to say, I'm impressed: Caine killed her first person narrator, only to have Jo survive as a Djinn. That part's a little iffy, and I hope it's gone into a little bit more in the next book, because while there's one line to explain how it happened, I'm not quite sure I completely believe it. There's a sense that Jo was always meant to become a Djinn somehow (after all, Rahel's nickname for her was "Snow White," and the Djinn constantly talked about paths and making choices, and acted in the end as if Jo's path was the right choice all along), but I'm still having a wee bit of trouble swallowing it.
Still, it's a great read. The action scenes were vivid, the romantic tension was just right and it didn't go overboard, and quite frankly, I just can't get enough of this amazing world Caine's developed. There's also so much potential for future conflict that it's ridiculous, and I'm curious just where Caine goes with it all. There's like, seven?, books in the series, so it'll be interesting to see just how Caine develops, and whether the series as a whole sinks or swims.
My Rating
Must Have: If you're looking for something different in urban fantasy, but you still want the modern, punchy narrator, look no further. You've got elemental magic with a focus on WEATHER (and it's all handled very matter-of-factually, which I appreciate), and there's Djinn's too. No fangs, fur, or fae, and for once, I'm grateful. I've already bought books two and three in the series, and I'm very much looking forward to them.
Next up: hell, this is hard. I've started Caitlin R. Kiernan's Threshold, but Greg also wants me to read Alan Moore's The Watchmen, so who knows what review you'll get next. Watchmen will take a little while though, so we'll see. :)