Warning for possible SPOILERS below.
Still enjoying this series, though this one didn’t impress me quite as much as the others. I had to wait for it to come in on hold at the library, so there’s a gap in my continuation, and I was a bit thrown off at first. It jumps continually back and forth between the different groups of characters, sometimes every few pages, so I had trouble keeping track: wait, what’s going on now?
There’s more details about how the Wings and Horns have dragged all the other sentient worlds into their war. Hazel’s family is in pieces. The parents are separated, and Hazel herself has taken hostage by that knobber TV-head insurgent. Alana and her mother-in-law are desperately trying to get her back safely. The bounty hunter is still on his deathbed, while his sister is now with Lying Cat, Sophie and Gwen trying to find him a cure. This entails going to a planet populated by giant salamander-like dragons and involves nasty bodily fluids from said creatures. I thought it was hilarious when they got a translator device to work and the beasts started talking. Marko is panged about missing his daughter and wife, and struggling to control his violent urges when confronting the bad guys. But who, really are the bad guys here? Part of what I find fascinating about these books, is how you start to see the gray areas on every side. When you’re reading Sophie’s storyline, you get convinced that her viewpoint is valid: Marko is a creep. When you’re reading the mixed-couple’s panels, you feel certain the TV-head guys are the enemy. But then on their pages, you start to wonder if they don’t have good reasons for their actions, too. And now a new group shows up: a mixed lot of weird aliens (does this artist/writer duo never run out of crazy new ideas?) who are against the entire war, period, and trying to end it any way they can, no matter what side they face. We see the TV-head guy’s flashbacks, Marko nearly dies of overdosing an illicit substance, the cute little seal-dude saves the day, and one of the major side characters gives the ultimate sacrifice. There’s spaceships made of dragon skulls, too. And another spider-person (brother to the Stalk) which really creeped me out.
My favorite lines in the book: Every relationship is an education. Each new person we welcome into our hearts is a chance to evolve into something radically different than we used to be. Which sums it up: this story isn’t really about a huge interplanetary space battle between a bunch of bizarre aliens. It’s about a family trying to keep things together, and about friends trying to do the right thing for each other, even when everything is falling apart around them.
Borrowed from the public library. Previous book in this series. Next book.