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Monday, 28 December 2009

CHASING THE DRAGON


For ten years now mankind has lived in Otopia - our world, but our world changed. Ever since the Quantum Bomb our dimension and realms of faerie, demonia, of the elementals and of death have been intermingled. We live alongside creatures from our myths, dreams and nightmares.

Lila Black, half-robot, all attitude works for Otopia's secret service. In love with a half-elf, half demon and carrying the spirit of another elf inside her, her life is quite complicated enough already. But other complications, other loves, other fears, other deaths wait just around the next dimensional corner.

After the Quantum Bomb, the world changed forever. Even the name changed, Earth is now known as Otopia. But more importantly, the fabric between the dimensions was torn, opening up the way to five other realities. Humans can live alongside creatures from other realms. Demons, elves, elementals, and all types of faery live amongst us in a world now deep in magic and technology.

Lila Black is a woman, but she's also a machine with an AI.

It wasn't until I was already into the thick of things that I realised this was actually the fourth book in the series, not the third. But after finishing Selling Out, I wanted to find out what was going to happen next and since I received this one before the Christmas break... Anyway, Justina Robson does a great job at sneaking in the events of the previous book/s, so I didn't feel lost. I just kept reading. :)

In this installment, Lila returns to a very different Otopia. Fifty years have passed and she's now married to Teazle, the heir to Demonia. Zal's dead, but she doesn't want to let him go and believes she can bring him back. Oh, and she has to find her missing husband and kill him because he's responsible for some mass killings in Demonia.

Chasing the Dragon has the now familiar level of action and interesting plot that the other two books I've read in this series had, but there was something different about this book. It didn't have the same sense of intensity that the others had, and I don't know why. And even though it was well written, I found myself skimming forward in a few areas. Once again, it was mainly in the POV of others.

Having said that, I still can't help but wonder where else Lila's headed.

Chasing the Dragon, January 2010, ISBN 978-057-508562-6, Gollancz Paperback

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