The Hidden City: Oh, Rath, you are awesome

The Hidden City by Michelle West (The House War Book 1 of 5?): So I turned to the internet to find out if I could read more about the Hunter series characters, and the Internet did not disappoint.  It told me that I should read the first three books in the author's newest series (The House War), then the entire Sun Sword series, then the next books in The House War series.  And so, I steeled myself to read more complicated, interwoven narratives with multiple points of view and narrators.

Apparently, the author got over that as she aged and gained experience as a writer because the 3 points of view are clear, distinct, smooth, and never needlessly mysterious.  (The key seems to be staying out of Evayne's head, which--to be fair--might only be possible because the author established Evayne in other books.)  I read with an air of sad anticipation because several characters in this book had died or were not around later (in the Hunter books), so you knew they were doomed.  You knew they died; you just weren't sure how or when, so it was kind of like Hunter's Oath all over again (waiting for the guy to die while trying not to like him).

The author made this endeavor easier by making some of the minor doomed characters less distinctive and endearing.  (She has learned focus, oh yes, she has.)  Rath, however, came alive breathtakingly, as did a major doomed character who was both harder and easier to love the more you got to know her. If you can handle the impending, nasty doom of characters you grow interested in, you will probably love this book for the new light it sheds on some of the characters mentioned in Hunter's Death.