Wild country

Review by Booklist Review

Paralleling the time line of Etched in Bone (2017), the latest World of the Others novel focuses on the challenges Tolya Sanguinati and the rest of Bennett's population face in rebuilding a workable alliance between the terra indigene and the humans they're allowing to settle in the city. Among the new human inhabitants is a sheriff's deputy on her first assignment; she has to navigate not only an unfamiliar role but the unfamiliar social structures of the Wolfgard sheriff. Alongside the (relatively) simple logistics of getting people to live and work together despite radical differences, there are the outside threats. The leader of a human outlaw family has set his sights on Bennett as the ideal place to settle down and make his grift a legitimate business. He is also under the delusion that he can take control of the city, leading to a dramatic final showdown. This is kind of a cozy thriller, but the characters and the details of Bennett's regrowth make it a pleasing read on its own.--Regina Schroeder Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Following the first-person experiment of 2018's Lake Silence, the first book in the World of the Others continuation of the paranormal Others series, Bishop reverts to form, using multiple third-person perspectives to tell an unsatisfying story that doesn't quite stand alone. Bennett, a Midwest town, was previously a secondary location in the series, which focused on Upstate New York. Tolya Sanguinati, a vampiric Other, becomes mayor of Bennett after the human population is nearly wiped out by the Elders, an unimaginably powerful form of Other. The handful who survive are Intuits, a marginal group of precognitives. If Bennett is to endure as more than a train stop, it needs more people. Can Tolya and his Intuit partner, Jesse Walker, organize the immigration of enough desirable residents before grifters like the Blackstone Clan slip in and subvert the new order? Bishop overtly frames this as a wild west showdown, complete with a gun battle in the town square, but such trappings do little to spruce up the now-tired premise of greedy, foolish humans underestimating the Others and getting spectacularly demolished. With no character innovation and a stronger-than-usual whiff of eugenics, this installment suggests the series has lost its visionary spark. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

When the humans decided to strike against the terra indigene, they were hit with a force that decimated all the people living in towns in Thaisia. Now both humans and Others-those who survived-attempt to revive some of the ruined areas for cooperative living. In Bennett, Jana -Paniccia becomes deputy to a Wolfgard sheriff who holds bitter memories of the humans' actions. Tolya Sanguinati attempts to build relationships with the town of Prairie Gold, and Inuit shopkeeper Jesse Walker, while restoring Bennett and monitoring the area's train service. As humans slowly come into Bennett, so do Others, all looking for a place of their own. But trust takes time, and when the Blackstone clan tries to take over, everyone in Bennett will need to work together. VERDICT Bishop's sequel to Lake Silence presents captivating characters and rich detail, resulting in a satisfying urban fantasy.-Kristi -Chadwick, -Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Excited to start her first job in law enforcement, Deputy Jana Paniccia first meets Sheriff Wolfgard as he sniffs her when she steps off the train. She answered the call for humans to help settle the frontier town of Bennett and must now learn to live with the terra indigene like Wolfgard who are in charge of the town. It's trickier than one might think-the war that decimated the human population of Thaisia may have ended, but humans are still meat to the shape-shifters of the terra indigene. Nothing forces cooperation like a common enemy, and when the evil Blackstone Clan targets Bennett, the townsfolk and terra indigene unite to save their town. Bishop's world-building is tight. Teens who aren't familiar with Lake Silence will easily understand this sequel, but it will leave them wanting to read the earlier book, as well as the other titles in the companion series, "The Others." Paranormal devotees will love the vampires, werewolves, blood prophets, shape-shifters, elementals, and mind readers, and lovers of Westerns won't be disappointed, either. Bishop focuses on the struggle between good and evil but also injects humor and explores social justice issues and consent. VERDICT A solid purchase for transitioning paranormal readers, even those who aren't Western fans, into a new realm.-Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Anne Bishop / WILD COUNTRY Chapter 1 Windsday, Sumor 25 Jana Paniccia followed the gravel paths through the memorial park. There were no cemeteries on the continent of Thaisia, no individual gravestones, no family mausoleums unless you were very rich. Cities couldn't afford to waste land on the dead when the living needed every acre that they were grudgingly permitted to lease from the terra indigene who ruled the continent. Who ruled the world. They had smashed and torn that harsh truth into humans around the world, and only fools or the blindly optimistic thought there was any chance of things going back to the way they had been before the Humans First and Last movement had started the war against the terra indigene here in Thaisia and in Cel-­Romano on the other side of the Atlantik Ocean. Instead of gaining anything from the war, humans had lost ground--­literally. Cities had been destroyed or were no longer under human control. People were running to anyplace they thought could provide safety, thinking that the larger cities were less vulnerable to what the Others could do. In that, too, humans were wrong. The destruction of so much of ­Toland, a large human-­controlled city on the East Coast, should have taught people that much. But this wasn't a day to think about those things. Jana found the large flower bed with the tall granite marker in the center. There were no graveyards, no gravestones, in Thaisia, but there were memorial parks full of flower beds and small ponds, with benches positioned so the living could visit with the dead. She looked down the double column of names carved into the granite until she found the two she'd come to see. Martha Chase. Wilbur Chase. The foster parents who had taken her from the foundling home and raised her as their own. There hadn't been even a birth certificate left with her when the Universal Temple priests had found her on the temple doorstep. Just a printed note with her name and birth date. All bodies were cremated and the ashes mixed with the soil in these flower beds, the names carved in the granite the only acknowledgment of who was there. Martha had loved growing flowers, and Pops had always tended a small vegetable garden in their backyard. Jana was the one who had no skill with the soil, no matter how hard she tried. She knew a rose from a daisy, understood the difference between annual and perennial, and, most of the time, had dug up weeds instead of flowers when she tried to help Martha tidy the beds. You have other talents, Pops used to say with a laugh. Other talents. Gods, she hoped so. They had died in a car accident just a week after she'd been accepted into the police academy--­one of only three women to be accepted. She'd spent the first few months struggling with her classwork and the hostility of her classmates while traveling from Hubb NE to a village near the Addirondak Mountains to meet with the Chases' attorney and take care of her foster parents' estate. There wasn't much. Martha and Pops had never been interested in things, but the sale of the house and furnishings was enough to pay off the school loans she'd taken out to attend a community college while she tried to get accepted into the police academy. It was enough to pay for the academy and living expenses. She'd been frugal, but if she didn't get a job soon . . . "Hey, Martha," Jana said softly after looking around to make sure she was alone. "Hey, Pops." She sat on the bench, her hands folded in her lap. "I graduated from the academy. The only woman who stuck it out. ­Martha, you always said I was stubborn, and I guess you were right. I have a meeting with the academy administrator next week. Hopefully it will be about a job offer. The gods know, every human community needs cops right now, and everyone else in my class has already been hired by towns in the Northeast Region, which lost officers last month because of the war. But I know there are positions that haven't been filled yet because no one wants to take a job in a village stuck in the middle of the wild country. They say that's just delayed suicide. Maybe they're right, but I'd take that chance." She looked at the flowers growing in the bed and wished she could remember the names of some of them. "I came to say good-­bye. It's getting harder and harder to purchase a bus ticket, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get back here again. And if I'm hired--­when I'm hired--­I may be leaving in a hurry." She paused. "Thanks for everything. When I get to wherever I'm going, I'll light a candle in remembrance." Jana hurried through the park, gauging that she had just enough time to reach the bus stop near the park gates and catch the bus back to Hubb NE. She hoped that by this time next week she'd be heading to another town to do the only job she'd ever wanted to do. Excerpted from Wild Country by Anne Bishop All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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