Heat Stroke (Weather Warden, #2)

by Rachel Caine

Accused of murder, Weather Warden Joanne Bladwin was chased across the country - and killed - by a team charged with hunting down rogue Wardens. Five days later, Joanne had a lovely funeral and was posthumously cleared of all charges. Her human life was over, but she had been reborn into Djinnhood. Now, until she masters her enhanced powers, Joanne must avoid being 'claimed' by a human. But when a hazard that only a Djinn could sense infiltrates Earth's atmosphere, Joanne must somehow convince someone to do something about it - or the forecast will be deadly. So who said being all-powerful was going to be easy?

• ISBN10: 0451459849
• ISBN13: 9780451459848
• Publish Date: 3 August 2004 (first published 1 August 2004)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: AU
• Imprint: Roc
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jo]

After having David make her into a Djinn after she dies from having two demons tear her apart from the inside out, Joanne Baldwin has some learning to do. She now has all this power and she doesn't know how to use, and she does things, like levitate, without meaning to. David attempts to teach her, but then Jonathan, top Djinn, the most powerful, and considered their God, calls David in for his crimes. Not only did he make Jo a Djinn, but he made from himself. He is now half the Djinn he used to be, and is slowly dying from "feeding" Jo energy. Jonathan decides Jo has a week to learn how to be a Djinn, away from from previously-human-now-Djinn Patrick, the only of his kind to have survived.

But they all have bigger problems than their own lives. Humans and Djinn alike are in trouble. There is a rift in the universe, and "coldlight", blue sparklies that no-one understands, is coming through at an alarming rate. Several powerful natural disasters unnaturally occur, that Wardens and Djinn are having trouble fighting. Death is looking likely for both races and time is running out fast.

Another brilliant novel by Rachel Caine! I will never know how she is able to come up with such unique storylines, and have every second of every book one big adrenalin rush!

The Weather Wardens series is unique not just in the individual storylines, but in it's supernatural elements too. I've een a fan of fantasy for a fairly long time now, and I've never come across anything like this. The Wardens, who are able to control weather, fire, and earth through the use of magic and science, are just incredible. I'm not brilliant when it comes to science, so I never completely understand what's being said when Jo effects the weather, but it's so believable, and you know it just makes sense - it's based on science, whether I get it or not. But with Heat Stroke, we also get a look at how Djinn work, the power they have and how they use it, through Jo's life as a Djinn. The things they are able to do is practically limitless, and they are just amazing.

We get to revisit some great characters in Heat Stroke; David, the Djinn Jo fell in love with who saved her life, Lewis, the most powerful Warden going as he can control weather, fire and earth rather than just one, and Jo herself, who has such a cool sarcastic sense of humour, and makes me smile with her obsession with fashion and fast cars.

There are also some new characters to love. Jonathan, the Djinn God, is just fantastic; as powerful as he is, and as much responsibility as he has, he's quite cool when he's not being high and mighty. There's also Patrick, the once-human Djinn who is practically a pervy Santa Claus with a tough love form of teaching.

As with all of Rachel's novels, Heat Stroke is very fast paced, events or moments running head first into each other. The characters get very little breathing space, but the novel is action packed. When Jo is racing against the clock, you'll be flying through the pages as fast as she's running.

Heat Stroke has a very unpredictable plot, and at times I literally could not see any way around the problems going on in the world. You can't help but be filled with despair as everyting that could possibly go wrong for the characters you love does, when the outcome looks grim. The ending is just just unbelievable, and incredible, and just genius, because I know the next book, Chill Factor, is going to be just as amazing, if not better. I cannot recommend this series enough.