MARKED IN FLESH is book 4 in The Others series by the marvelous Anne Bishop. This amazing series is one of my favorites that I am currently hawking everywhere I go. My goal is to get everyone around me to pick up these books and find out for themselves what an entrancing and utterly compelling world Bishop is crafting. Bishop is a master at fantasy, and The Others showcases a glorious mix of humans trying to coexist with shifters, vampires, and very powerful fae-like Elders of the terra indigene, who are very primal and magical beings who definitely don't play by any rules that humans would appreciate!

A series meant to be read in order, MARKED IN FLESH may slightly frustrate those of us who are rooting for the frustratingly slow blooming romance between Simon Wolfgard (leader of the Lakeside Courtyard community of Others) and Meg (an escaped blood prophet). I laughed when I saw someone's comment on Goodreads saying, "come on, just let them kiss already!" Meg stumbled into the Courtyard after fleeing her captivity by humans who hold cassandra sangue, or blood prophets, imprisoned to sell their prophesies. Meg finds a place of safety where she is slowly growing into herself and figuring out how to rescue herself and other cassandra sangue from the need to cut themselves in order to see prophesies. Having grown up sequestered from the real world so nothing interrupts her valuable prophesies, everything around her is still new and frightening. As Meg learns about the world around her, we do too, and it's such an innocent yet brilliant way to experience the worldbuilding Bishop leads us through.

Tensions are continuing to build between the Others and a group called Humans First and Last or HFL. As one should expect, the bigoted HFL foments fear of the Others and attempts to stir up dissent to eject the Others from the shared land. Stupidly, HFL does not realize the power the terra indigene have, especially the shadowy Elders who do not interact with humans normally. In book 4, the Elders unleash a little of the fury the Humans First and Last right deserve, and the chaos is glorious to see. My favorite part of this series continues to be the excellent job Bishop does in making one sense the absolute Otherness or nonhuman-ness of the terra indigene's thoughts. They think of Meg as "Sweet Blood;" one who retains the sweetness of a child and whose blood swims with visions, and she is "not prey." The Others call humans "clever meat." I love the very foreign sense these stories are imbued with.

The childlike sensibilities of many of the wolves and the cassandra sangue provide a great contrast to the world- weary and suspicious outlook of many of the older Others. Meg's naiveté and Simon's lack of recognition that he and Meg are slowly falling in love provide a light counterpart to the tension that continues to build in the series as the hostilities between human and Other escalate. Excellently paced and wonderfully diverting, MARKED IN FLESH is yet another resounding winner from Anne Bishop. I will eagerly read anything the brilliant Bishop writes, and I can't wait to see where The Others will take us next.

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