Well. That was a pretty big bucket of awesome. I don't even know where to begin.
Things I liked about this book:
Kate. She's always great but this time she's forced to confront herself; to analyse what she's doing and own it without being able to snark her way out of it. It was interesting. It was also, at times, frightening. I generally don't like team writing because it's so often obvious where one writer ends and another begins. So not so here. Kate's descents into her scary place were so subtle and seamless. It was brilliant, really. I'd be reading along thinking Kate is being normal, normal, normal, wtf did she just say??
Christopher. Well, talk about two sides of the same coin. Again, brilliant. Also: yeee-ikes.
Erra. God help me I like her. She's vicious and I definitely wouldn't want her at my holiday dinners, but I enjoy her moral consistency. Her wit, too, and when she slapped Kate upside the head, I laughed.
Roland. God forgive me, but I find him fascinating. His rationalisations remain almost flawlessly logical (he argued himself into a corner on that balcony though) and it's obvious the authors have put a lot of philosophical and theological thought and research into the writing. Roland isn't justabout power and he's a beautifully cautionary tale of how morally corrupt good intentions can become.
Roman. Didn't like him before, but I love him now and his family dynamic is hilarious. So was that swamp scene with him and Aspid.
Curran, Julie and Derek were all themselves in this book, but they didn't have much of the spotlight this time around; this was truly about Kate. Although the Andrews certainly left me hanging about with saber-toothed tiger...
What I didn't like.
Nothing. I disliked nothing about this book. I was disgusted by Jim and I'm not sure Adora was all that necessary but what do I know about the plotting of a fantastic UF series? Nothing.
Bring on book 10...