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Sidhe-Devil | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Aaron Allston | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | Doc Sidhe, Sidhe-Devil | ||
It's six months after the first book, and Harris is finally marrying Gaby. But some thugs from the fair world put a crim in the ceremony by trying to abduct the bride and groom. They hastily leave to rejoin their friends in Neckerdam, with a new cross-world traveler: Harris' old fight manager, Zeb. It seems this was an attempt to kidnap Doc, not the Greenes, and a major plot is underway.
It's hard to say what I didn't like about this to give it a worse grade than its predecessor. Technically, I can find little wrong with it. Harris seems more of a boss than the actual boss in certain spots, but that can be excused by his role in the Foundation of co-ordinator. But that's only in parts. Perhaps it is the almost constant mentions of prejudice against "duskies", which is essentially any race not from Europe. The Sidhe Foundation isn't racist, and the novel does a good job of portraying the instances as something not to be tolerated, but... I don't know. Since Zeb is black, and since it's mostly from his point of view, maybe it's not too much of that. But sometimes I wish we could get away from it for a little.
Still, the book is very good, even if I can't quite tell you why it's not great. The "fish out of water" aspect is back, briefly, since this mostly follows another newcomer to Neckerdam, but I like it when it's done well, and it's done well here. The simple one-liners that speckle the story are back, adding smiles and occasional guffaws. The mystery of what's going on and how is fairly compelling, even if it's reasonably obvious, given the theme of the book, who is ultimately behind it all. It's good. But, somehow, only good.
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