Ill Wind
Rachel Caine
Roc, 352 pages
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In the world of Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden
series, Mother Nature is out to get us. If she isn’t attempting to blow us
all away with hurricanes or drown us with monsoons, she’s tossing us around
with earthquakes and trying to burn us to a crisp with forest fires. The
only force capable of opposing this awesome angry power is the Wardens Association,
a shadowy organization whose operatives, capable of commanding fire, earth,
water, and wind, keep nature just barely under control, and the human race
a hairs-breadth from destruction.
Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden, with power over wind and water.
Her Warden supervisors consider her something of a wild card, not just because
of her power’s unusual strength but because she’s undisciplined and impulsive,
inclined to act first and think later. Some of her supervisors, in fact,
are downright hostile: Bad Bob Biringanine, for instance, who didn’t want
Joanne to become a Warden at all. If Bad Bob--a legend among the Wardens
for his intolerance and ferocious temper--had had his druthers, she’d have
been packed off to the Wardens’ secret clinic for a power-ectomy.
Still, Joanne has done pretty well for herself, even managing to earn
a commendation or two...that is, until the day she and Bad Bob finally have
a showdown. Now she’s on the run for murder, pursued by the Wardens Association--and
that’s not even her biggest problem. Somehow, she has acquired a Demon Mark.
Her only hope of getting rid of it before it entirely corrupts her is Lewis
Orwell, the world’s most powerful Warden. But Lewis vanished years ago, and
no one has any idea where he may have gone--except for one very slim clue
he shared with Joanne just before he disappeared. Racing against time, the
Wardens, and assorted Djinns, Joanne sets out to find him, while the mother
of all storms builds up behind her.
The author blurb on the front of Ill Wind is from Jim Butcher--an appropriate choice, since the basic premise does recall Butcher’s popular Harry Dresden
series: a wisecracking protagonist with a genius for getting into trouble,
working magic in a slightly alternate contemporary world. There the similarities
end, however. Caine makes this story very much her own, with crisp characterizations,
snappy dialogue, an interestingly different magic system, some sexy romance,
and lots of thrilling encounters with storms and heavy weather. Fast-paced
action propels the present-time story, while Joanne’s past unfolds suspensefully
in flashbacks, so that the reason for her current plight only slowly becomes
clear. Joanne herself is an appealing heroine, with a wry sense of humor
that enlivens even the darkest encounters.
Some things don’t quite add up. The Wardens don’t seem to be a secret
society (their training program is conducted at Princeton University), but
it’s not really clear how much the mundane world knows about what they do,
or how aware ordinary people are of their supernatural powers. The logic
of natural disasters vs. the Wardens’ control of the elements is murky--why,
for instance, if there’s a group of people who can command the rain, are
there droughts that last for decades? And the plot twist at the end, which
jogs the series in an unexpected direction, feels a bit too arbitrary. But
it’s all so entertaining, and you’re rooting so hard for Joanne to resolve
her dilemma, that you don’t really mind. It’s a fun start to a new series.
The next installment, Heat Stroke, is due in 2004.
Copyright © 2003 Victoria Strauss
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