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jaceyI missed this one first time round and managed to read Book 4 before Book 3, so this filled in a lot of gaps for me. It takes yet another member of the Mar family, Kaldar Mar, conman, thief, trickster and spy and pits him against Audrey Callahan, daughter of a grifter family, magical lock-opener and safecracker without equal. It's a partnership made in heaven, or maybe hell, since they are not on the same side, to begin with, at least.
Mix in some characters from the first and second Edge books and you get Gaston, only ¾ human and after going up against the evil Hand in Book 2, not quite right in the head. George the teenage necromancer and Jack his shapechanging younger brother. It's a hell of a combination for a spy caper as these five try to retrieve something Audrey should never have let her grifter father steal in the first place. Barely one step ahead of the ruthless, bio-engineered agents of the Hand and desperately trying to keep stowaways Jack and George from getting into any more trouble until he can get them back to their sister, Rose, (from Book 1) Kaldar finds himself hopelessly attracted to Auidrey, which puts his mind in his pants instead of in the very dangerous game.
There's a lot of wisecracking backchat between Kaldar and Audrey and ramped up sibling rivalry between George and Jack while the action tears from the Weird (the magical world), the Broken (our world where magic doesn't work) and the Edge, the hard-scrabble, lawless buffer between the two.
Kaldar and Audrey are excellent characters, each with flaws, but both competent and compelling heroes of their own story. Seeing all the other characters who've been lead characters in previous books is a bonus, Rose and Declan from Book 1, and Cerise and William from Book 2. This is a lot of fun. Recommended, but read them in the right order if you can.
Mix in some characters from the first and second Edge books and you get Gaston, only ¾ human and after going up against the evil Hand in Book 2, not quite right in the head. George the teenage necromancer and Jack his shapechanging younger brother. It's a hell of a combination for a spy caper as these five try to retrieve something Audrey should never have let her grifter father steal in the first place. Barely one step ahead of the ruthless, bio-engineered agents of the Hand and desperately trying to keep stowaways Jack and George from getting into any more trouble until he can get them back to their sister, Rose, (from Book 1) Kaldar finds himself hopelessly attracted to Auidrey, which puts his mind in his pants instead of in the very dangerous game.
There's a lot of wisecracking backchat between Kaldar and Audrey and ramped up sibling rivalry between George and Jack while the action tears from the Weird (the magical world), the Broken (our world where magic doesn't work) and the Edge, the hard-scrabble, lawless buffer between the two.
Kaldar and Audrey are excellent characters, each with flaws, but both competent and compelling heroes of their own story. Seeing all the other characters who've been lead characters in previous books is a bonus, Rose and Declan from Book 1, and Cerise and William from Book 2. This is a lot of fun. Recommended, but read them in the right order if you can.
