Review The Hollows Insider (The Hollows, #9.5) Portrayed By Kim Harrison Format Printed Matter
purchased this book as a reference, and it is quality construction as a reference book should be, The jacket cover illustration is repeated on the hard cover, It is about the size of a textbook, As you may know, the Hollows is a series fantasy in an alternate reality, It is one of my favorite series, The back story and the rules under which this world operates are complex, The length of time between books makes points, spells, species particulars and events hard to remember,
The OUTLANDER COMPANION by Diana Gabaldon, is a reference work for her series, It has synopses of the books written up to its printing and an index, It is organized as reference tool, I was expecting that, which is my own fault, I could have looked more closely at the particulars,
Quite readable, THE HOLLOWS INSIDER is written in a series of purloined files, letters, clipping and journal entries of a blogger turned newspaper reporter named Devin Crossman.
In DEAD WITCH WALKING, the time period but not necessarily the book, Devin was hit by a misdirected spell Rachel threw as an Inderland Security runner.
Unable to file a complaint with I, S. due to stonewalling, he gets a bug up his you know what and makes stalking her a priority,
He gets hold of a bunch of Federal Inderland Bureau files scheduled for shredding and he is off.
Eventually everyone and everything catches his eye, including Trent Kallamack, It's a mistake to tick him off,
Eventually, he writes dossiers on Rachel, Ivy et al, and, while the information is good I did not like the illustrations used to depict the characters, I don't know if they are intended to be amateurish to demonstrate Devin's sub rosa
behavior in stalking Rachel and his unlikeable nature, I just didn't like the pictures.
The Table of Contents is detailed, but every reference work needs an index and this doesn't have one.
And, it's less of a reference than it is a fictional background in the form of a epistolary narrative.
For example, I was reading A PERFECT BLOOD and wanted to see precisely what had been meant when Trent says he is Rachel's Sa'han.
The only others I had seen use this term were Jonathan Trent's former HR director and Quen his Security Director.
I took it to be an honorific placing them in his sphere of protection and under obligation to him, like a servant would use master inth century England or how the doggens in J.
R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood address the vampires and humans who they serve as sire, It is not explained in THE HOLLOWS INSIDER at all and could easily have gone in the species description of elf, or under Trent's dossier as part of some weird linguistic foible.
The upshot: An entertaining read that accompanies the series but which does not give us all the back story or a glossary.
If you are looking for a encyclopedic reference to The Hollows world, this is probably not it, If you want to learn about the Hollows in a storyish format it may be a great choice, It's not that I didn't enjoy the book, I did, it is just not what I was expecting,
Original post:
sitelink blogspo To say I was disappointed in this addition to the Hollows series is a gross understatement, Ms. Harrison is quite forthcoming when it comes to giving her followers glimpses into her characters' inner thoughts and struggles.
Her personal blog provides a forum where you can ask her questions about her upcoming books anddiscuss character motivation in depth, and Ms.
Harrison will often give glimpses of what the future may hold in the Hollows,
I expected this book to provide more of Ms, Harrison's world building background and insights, Instead, all I received was a recap of obvious factual information with a few pages hinting of hidden depths and a high degree of caring in Trent Kalamack.
For those who read Pale Demon, this is old news, All of the information in this book can easily be gleaned from reading the books and Ms, Harrison's blog.
I think Ms, Harrison should have instead focused on side stories involving the main characters, Her world is alreadry richly detailed in her many books, and characters undergo complex development and growth through their actions, experiences and reflection.
I didn't think I could regret buying a Kim Harrison book, until now. Nevertheless, I look forward to her upcoming Hollows novel in, Just not what I was hoping for, I wanted it so bad, . it was tedious, filled with detailed spells and how to do them supernatural guides, IS files, Newspaper articles, song verses, maps, all stuffed in a reporter journal.
Really I got nothing out of it that I did not already know, There was so correspondences from/to Trent that I expected to be interesting but they really did not give anymore away.
The books had mush more exciting details, I am just not interested in how to do the spells or the detailed write ups on the paranormal crowd.
This would be a great book for those people who love the little details, I loved this book! I first read it between Augustth andth but not at all on Augustthth of.
By far the majority of this story was read on theth andth, And it was so great that I'm really kicking myself for not reading it as book,in the Hollows series when I was doing my series read from Fallthrough Winter!
As it was, though, I was really grateful for this chance to meet up again with my favorite witch, vampire, elf, and pixy!
That Devin Crossman who put together so many articles about and against! Rachel was really not a nice guy.
I was glad that Trent was aware and foiled Devin's plans to drag Rachel through the mud so many times.
But I was shocked to learn that it was Absolutely shocked, I tell you!
Again, I love this book.
Even though it didn't make me cry, and I don't think I laughed at anything, either although I might have snickered a bit when reading Jenks' favorite curses!.
This was still a fabulous story with a shocking ending, I haven't ever really read a "world book" before, but once I heard Kim Harrison was working on one for her Hollows series, I knew I had to have it! Since she was one of the first authors I read when I crossed over from the YA section and before going back!! The Hollows Insider was truly a mustread for all Kim Harrison fans!!
There's no plot or storyline really, but that doesn't detract from the marvelous writing Kim did! There are tons of things to read, emails, journal entries, textbook excerpts, and other little mishmash of things.
All of it feeling and reading like the actual thing email, journal entry, textbooks, etc, You could say that this book was written by Devin Crossman, the journalist who made living hard for Rachel, and in a way it's true.
We have here all things Devin collected in order to put shame to Rachel's good name,
It was interesting reading some of his journal entries, since he was "the enemy" in some ways.
But it basically gave the reader a magnificent backstory to things, And a good history lesson in some of the other things mentioned in the Hollows books! The recipe for Brimstone cookies is even in it! Along with spells Rachel has cast and even some of the demon spells!
Overall a fabulous read! I highly recommend this to any and all Holllows fans! You will not want to miss out on this one! A word of warning to newbie fans though, you might not want to read this until you've read all the books because there are some spoiler hints dropped.
You won't get the full story naturally, but there are spoilers if you aren't up to date,
Overall rating/stars
It was kind of fun, In general this kind of thing doesn't add much to the series, but it's fun for the fans, This one was certainly done with good intentions: the book is very high quality paper and heavy!, the images really look like I imagined the characters would look unlike the graphic novel, that's the difference when the author is fully in control, the cover has a nifty glowinthe dark moon and some city lights, and it's just overall slick and nicely produced.
There isn't much new information, there aren't any new stories, but it was done from a cute perspective of a local human blogger, Devin, who had gotten accidently caught in one of Rachel's spells when she was a runner and had all of his hair fall out.
He got obsessed and spent the next few years researching her, everyone she knows, and Interlanders in general, So there are a lot of fact sheets about the characters and different species, Devin's journal entries, newspaper articles, communications between Trent and Quen about the situation, plus spells, Takata lyrics and more.
it's definitely one of those books that will only have any meaning to fans of the series though, But it would be a fun gift, and I did see it today at BampN markedoff sorry for the timely reference, I may edit that our later.
It might be one of those things that you wouldn't rationalize buying for yourself but that the fan in your life would enjoy seeing on her shelf.
If only to see the little sketches of the characters and be able to say, "I told you so!" when they look pretty much like she thought they would.
Okay, this is a tough one, I have been a Hollows fan since the first book appeared in German about bookin English and this world has grown on me ever since and unwillingly also on my family and friends who have to hear me babbling about it every chance I get, just last week I lent DWW to someone!.
When Kim announced that she was writing on a world book, I thought it would become something like Jeaniene Frost and others are doing, by writing a novel from the perspective of one of the side characters Ivy, Kisten, Jenks.
But instead, we got a big, shiny, glowing in the dark almanach of the Hollows, This is not a Hollows World Book, but a Hollows' World Book!
This guide contains maps, paper articles from the Hollows Gazette for which readers could enter pictures, so they would appear in a book by their favorite author how freaking cool is that!, background information on all the species roaming the world since the Turn, background information on almost all characters, and so much more.
But it wouldn't be Kim if she just served us a boring encyclopedia, No, she wrapped a story around the whole thing! Does everyone remember that time when Rachel was forbidden to go by bus because she had accidentally dropped a charm that made every passenger's hair fall off One of those people was Devin Crossman, blogger and columnist at the Gazette.
He now wants justice and spies on Rachel, finds out everything about her friends, family and history, But he gets into trouble when his editor is unhappy with his findings and Quen has to stop him from harming Rachel.
There is actually not that much new information concerning storyline but getting the details and all the new background information is just stunning.
It is fascinating to realize just how much Trent is doing to protect Rachel from any possible harm and getting to know all of Jenks' curses and kids is a squee moment for every fan.
Someone like me, who has been stalking her page and her blog on a daily basis, will recognize all the extra bits and bobs Kim put up there years ago that now have a new home where everyone can get to know them some of them I also put up here.
Kim also included many questions fans always ask her, like how an "After Hour Runner's Pass" or a MPL looks like or how the Maple Candy recipe works.
Not to forget lots of Rachel's spells, Ivy's recipe for Brimstone cookies !, Al's demon curses and Takata's lyrics I think "Footprints of a Ghost" would work fantastic with Amy Lee as vampire vocals.
And, as I already mentioned, the cover of the first edition GLOWS IN THE DARK!!! How awesome is that! Now go and get it, what are you doing here
PS: Burning Bunny coffee, he For a series guide, The Hollows Insider is really pretty cool.
Rather than a bunch of dry facts, Harrison gives us a bunch of dry facts AND a story AND some hilariously subjective observations.
Told from the perspective of a reporter who's investigating Rachel, The Hollows Insider documents his research, with journal entries, selections from the newspaper's files and archives, FIB and IS documents, and various other papers he's stolen or stumbled across.
It's particularly funny because while Devin the reporter gets some of his facts right, he's quite obviously way off on many things, particularly regarding Rachel's character and goals.
I'll admit I skimmed through a lot of the fact sheets, but I did enjoy seeing Takata's lyrics and Al's comments in the demon spell books.
Most of it wasn't anything particularly startling, just more detail on information that was in the books, but there were at least a couple of "holy crap, really" revelations.
I think my favorite part, though, was the list Devin compiled of Jenks's best curses, which included such gems as "damn it all to Disneyland" and "worthless as a pixy condom.
" Since the facing page is a list of the names of Jenks'schildren, the latter is apparently quite a strong one.
This is definitely not a book you want to get as an introduction to the series, It contains spoilers for everything up to Pale Demon, But if you're already a fan, definitely check this book out it has cool graphics, funny stories, and interesting facts that may just tide you over until A Perfect Blood comes out in March.
Originally published on my blog at sitelink blogspot. com/ .