Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

* Received from NetGalley for review.
5/5 gnomes

This series continues to be impressive. Bishop is a real master of world building. The universes she builds feel very authentic.

This book has so much going on and really felt like the last book in a series. I really now can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.

The tension between humans and the others is at an all-time high. You know something very bad is going to happen, you just don’t know when. Then everything kind of goes crazy all at once.

Letters and notes are used well here. They show just how interconnected everything is.

I really love the many different points of view presented here. It’s so easy to get invested in each part of the story and characters.

Simon and Meg continue to have an extremely interesting/unconventional relationship. Can’t wait to see what it means for the world of the Others.

Everything with the Elders was surprising and added another dimension to the story. The wild really showed itself here.

The ending was pretty life changing for this world. Now I’m wondering who the big bad is going to be for the last book.

Check out this series if you love strong world building and engaging characters.

I find this series wholly unique, strange and wonderful. Looking forward to the next installment. But I gotta be real: the unresolved sexual tension is TOO MUCH.

The latest book in the Others series by Anne Bishop expands the Others universe and paves the way for the next two volumes, which have different casts of characters and locations. I've enjoyed seeing these characters grow over the course of the series, especially the relationship between Meg and Simon. ,

Relationships have been forged between a few humans and some of the Others. So, when the human rabble-rousing bigots push too far, the terra indigene are not willing to simply cleanse the world of all humans. They seek to understand what should be preserved before they take action. They ask that Simon work with Meg to give them counsel...

Really enjoyed this book and it was a great start to a new series. Purchase both print and online copies for library and purchased/read new books in this series.

I am so disappointed
The first part is, well, honestly boring
So underwhelming that I was seriously contemplating DNF
The second half pick up on action-- FINALLY- and there were a few really sad but also real sweet tidbits
Does that warrant 3stars? Sadly no

ZOMG! another book in The Others series comes to an end. This kept me on the edge of my seat as HFL created chaos for characters I have come to care for, as well as agonize over their safety. When both Hope and Meg have visions about the Wolves, I was an emotional wreak. Both of them were traumatize, and so was I! And when the Elders finally, FINALLY decided to act, I was hoping for a couple of well-deserved and gory deaths.

Meg and Simon's courtship (I don't know if that's the correct word for what they are doing) moved with the speed of glaciers, but that's okay, because I know that they care for each other, even if they are confused about their feelings and how to show them.

And now the wait is on for Book 5.

Marked in Flesh (Others, #4) by Anne Bishop
Roc, 2016
Fantasy; 399 pgs
Source: Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Considering this is the fourth book in a series I have come to love, it is sad that I kept finding reasons to put off reading it. I still have one more book to go with these characters, and I will be sad to say goodbye. I have really grown fond of the characters and the world author Anne Bishop has created.

Tensions are high in Marked in Flesh as everything comes to a head. The Humans First and Last organization has organized an all-out assault on the Others, hoping to take over their lands completely. These humans, however, seem to have forgotten the past, and the strength and power that the indigenous races wield. The leaders of the Lakeside Courtyard have been tasked with defining the value of humans—and what—or who to save.

Marked in Flesh feels very much like a final book in a series in many ways. Everything that has been building over the last three books comes to a head in this one. The day of reckoning has arrived. The focus of this book is less on Meg and Simon, although they have parts to play in the story as well. I liked that Bishop gave us more insight into some of the outer settlements and their residents. Much time is spent in describing the preparations the settlers, both Others and humans, make in anticipation of what is to come. Meg is tasked with coming up with a list of things humans need to survive—or don’t want to give up. In part to keep her busy, I think. There are two other cassandra sangues whose visions play an important role in the novel. The need to cut to see visions has always bothered me a bit given cutting is a real problem in our own society, and I worry about it being glamourized in any way. I do not feel Bishop does that at all, mind you, but the risk is there just the same.

I just love Meg and Simon. I sometimes think Meg is underestimated in her abilities to protect and take care of herself, but she definitely brings out the protectiveness in just about everyone she meets. I really like that Anne Bishop never quite lets us forget that Simon is not even part human, even though he sometimes acts and looks human. He is in a difficult place as leader of the Lakeside Courtyard, brokering peace between his own kind and that of humans. It is no wonder he sometimes questions whether he is becoming too much like a human. I like that Meg likes him just the way he is. She has suffered enough in human hands, so it really is no wonder. I know a lot of fans of the series have been disappointed by the lack of romance, when it is so obvious Meg and Simon have feelings for each other. It has not really bothered me much though—maybe because that has not been my own focus in the series.

It is hard not to talk about spoilers when writing a review of a book in a series, but I am trying. So, I apologize for the vagueness of this review. Like with its predecessors, Bishop continues to amaze me with the depth of world building she has put into this series. In some ways, it is hard, too, not to compare it to the climate of our own world today—past and present.

In a book like this, there is bound to be death—and yes, that was tough. There is plenty of action and drama. If I had one complaint about this book, it is that so much is going on and there are just so many characters . . . I would have loved to spend more time in the different settlements, getting to know the characters there a little better. Perhaps we will see more of them in the future!

Anne Bishop has an incredible world built here. It's wholly authentic, and you can see the care she put into it. The Others series all show this! I love that about the series, I really do. But just like the other books, it is maddeningly slow! Things take a step-by-step process and I just want it to hurry up and get to the action already!

This series never gets boring, I love reading it. Love the characters, love the eerie setting.. Just great.