Warning: this book contains some torture. Although I didn't consider the physical aspects to be very graphic, the emotional aspects are awful, and the book ends without giving readers a chance to see how well the character manages to recover.

Although most of Fletcher's Celaeno series could be read in any order, I would advise newbies not to start with Shadow of the Knife, even though it's chronologically the first book (it takes place 14 years before Rangers at Roadsend). While the overall story would probably make sense, I think this is the only book in the series that doesn't explain why there are no men on Celaeno, and how reproduction works there.

This was my last unread Celaeno book. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it, because, once I finished it, that would be it – I haven't been able to find any signs that Fletcher is still writing, much less that she plans to write more in this series. Okay, so the world-building has serious problems, the pacing often isn't very good, and the books tend to end too suddenly. I know all of that, and yet something about this series really works well for me. Rangers at Roadsend and The Walls of Westernfort were my favorites, and I was hoping Shadow of the Knife would be as good or better.

Shadow of the Knife stars Ellen Mittal, a rookie in the Roadsend Militia. Farmers in the area have had hundreds of sheep stolen from them, and the Militia hasn't managed to find a single one. Ellen, increasingly frustrated with the uselessness of the Militia's efforts, talks to a Ranger friend of hers and ends up becoming involved in a deeper investigation into the thefts, which may have something to do with a gang in Eastford led by a woman known as the Mad Butcher. Ellen's life is further complicated by Hal, a new farmer in Roadsend who is either genuinely interested in her or somehow involved in the sheep thefts.

I'll start by saying that I think this might be the best-written Celaeno book. There were still some issues with the pacing, but thankfully they were due more to Fletcher's choice of protagonist than to world-building infodumping. Ellen's status as a rookie meant that she missed out on a lot of the action and strategic planning in the first half of the book, which in turn made me feel like I was missing out on the most exciting parts of the story. Things got better later on, after Ellen was promoted and given more freedom to investigate on her own. It made me wish Fletcher had chosen to write her as an older and more experienced member of the Militia.

Of course, if Fletcher had done that she would have also had to rework a few of her other choices. Not that I would have minded. Ellen seemed painfully young compared to Hal, and their romance rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. I couldn't quite get a handle on Hal, who seemed like she should have had her pick of potential lovers and yet for some reason was drawn to easily flustered Ellen. I ignored my misgivings, however, because I figured that this would be a fantasy with romantic aspects, like the other Celaeno books. Ellen would doubt Hal's intentions and suspect her of being involved in the thefts, Hal would prove her trustworthiness, and together they'd foil the villains and find love.

Sometimes when things go the way you expect them to, it's boring. It can be nice when a story shakes things up a bit. It can also be horrible. My review is going to include some spoilers from here on out, because I can't figure out how to write about this without revealing too much.

Of all the Celaeno books, this one is hands down the darkest and most depressing. After four books worth of SFF with romantic aspects, I don't think it was out of line to expect that this one would give me something similar. I'm incredibly sad and upset that my last unread Celaeno book turned out to be such an enormous betrayal of expectations.

Rating Note:

How am I supposed to rate something like this? On the one hand, part of me regrets reading this book, and I doubt I'll ever want to reread it. Just putting my thoughts in order so that I could write this review was draining enough. On the other hand, I really do think Fletcher's writing has gotten better, and Ellen's confused emotions during and after her captivity felt believable. Horrible, but believable.

I'm so deeply disappointed in this book that part of me thinks it deserves a half-star rating. Another part of me thinks I should rate it a bit higher than I am, because it packed such a serious emotional punch, even if those emotions were not the ones I wanted or expected. I settled on 1.5-stars. I feel like I might as well have thrown a dart at the entire 3-stars-and-less range.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I love Fletcher's Celaeno series, despite the world-building issues and sometimes bad pacing. Unfortunately, although I devoured this book just as quickly as I did the others and liked it well enough, I didn't think it was one of Fletcher's better works.

This book takes place seven years after The Walls of Westernfort. The heretics' ideas still haven't been accepted by the general population, so they continue to live in Westernfort and Ginasberg and keep an eye out for the Guards. Tanya Coppelli, one of Chip's daughters, is now a corporal in the Westernfort Rangers. Everyone tells her she deserves the position, but she can't help but wonder if nepotism was involved. It's one of the reasons why she reacts so badly when Riki, a known troublemaker, is assigned to her patrol.

Because she was angry at her mother, Riki acted out a lot when she was younger. She's still a bit of a troublemaker, but she hasn't done anything really bad for several years. Not that anybody seems to realize this. All anyone remembers is the trouble Riki used to cause, so she gets into even worse trouble if she steps out of line even a little. Riki's most recent incident results in both a demotion and a transfer to the Rangers at Westernfort. She's supposed to start with a clean slate, except her superiors there judge her the same way everyone back at Ginasberg did. This makes Riki an ideal scapegoat when Tanya is betrayed and captured by the Guards.

I could believe that people in Ginasberg couldn't see past the Riki of a few years ago, especially since she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. However, the Rangers' reaction to her in Westernfort seemed way out of line. Chip's reaction, in particular, struck me as being out of character. If I remember correctly, in Rangers at Roadsend, it looked a lot like Katryn was a troublemaker. However, Chip kept her head, focused on the facts, and eventually learned the truth. With Riki, she instantly believed everything she was told about her and then almost beat her to death when Tanya went missing. This wasn't the Chip I remembered. Tanya's reaction was somewhat more believable, since she was younger and new to her rank, and Riki kept pushing her buttons. Still, I had a hard time believing she'd achieved her rank so young on the basis of her own merits, considering how quickly she jumped to conclusions about Riki.

The story's pacing was pretty good, which is something I can't say about several of the other Celaeno books. I enjoyed Riki's efforts to escape Loke and Westernfort, once she realized that Loke was probably setting her up again, but Isabel's plan to free Tanya went way too smoothly. Yes, Isabel was crafty, well-connected, and well-informed, but her plan was incredibly complicated. The more complicated a plan, the more likely it is that something will go wrong, and yet every last bit of it went perfectly. Riki and Tanya easily played the parts they needed to play, and every single person reacted just as Isabel predicted they would.

All the Celaeno books have romance in them, and the romance in this one began too soon, while Tanya was still imprisoned. Tanya and Riki kept noticing how quickly their hearts beat when they were around each other, and I rolled my eyes. Tanya was in trouble, Riki was her savior, and it wasn't hard to imagine that Tanya's reaction to Riki was at least partly inspired by her situation. I enjoyed their budding relationship more after Tanya was freed – Fletcher is good at writing awkward, cute romance – but the way things began kind of ruined the rest for me. I finished the book feeling doubtful that their relationship would last long.

The ending came so suddenly that I tapped my screen twice before I realized that there weren't any more pages and my Nook wasn't just acting up. It was a little jarring, since the end came during the first quiet moment Riki and Tanya had to finally discuss their future together. I couldn't help but think, “Really? That's all?”

As seems to be usual with Bold Strokes Books e-books, there were occasional formatting issues. They weren't really that bad, but, with as much as BSB charges for their e-books, I personally think there shouldn't be any. Also, once again I found myself wishing they'd italicize characters' thoughts. Reading sentences in the third person only to suddenly come across something in the first person, with no warning, tended to throw me out of the story a bit. As far as Fletcher's writing went, this was the first time I noticed, and was irked by, her avoidance of contractions. She used them in dialogue but rarely (never?) anywhere else. I did a quick skim of The Walls of Westernfort and realized this wasn't a new thing, just something I'd somehow never noticed before. It made Riki, especially, seem even younger and more immature than she was.

I still love the Celaeno series and am sad that I only have one more book left to read, but I much preferred Rangers at Roadsend and The Walls of Westernfort to this book.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

After finishing Rangers at Roadsend, I knew I wanted to read more of Fletcher's works. When a good sale came around, I bought almost all of her stuff in one go, although it was a while before I got around to reading any of them. The Temple at Landfall turned out to be just what I needed to help get me out of a bit of a reading slump.

One of my biggest issues with Rangers at Roadsend was its pacing. I'm happy to say that the pacing of The Temple at Landfall was much better, at least during the first half of it. I loved getting to learn a little more about the world through Lynn's eyes. The decision to transfer her to another temple came fairly early on, and there was even a good bit of action when Sister Smith opted to ignore all advice and move forward, despite reports of snow lions in the area. I loved Lynn and Kim's earliest conversations – Kim assumed that Lynn was just as foolish as Sister Smith, and Lynn corrected that impression quickly. The two of them had some very cute moments together.

While I enjoyed the forbiddenness of Kim and Lynn's attraction to one another, it did lead to some moments that were difficult to read, because I liked the two of them so much. I knew, pretty much from the instant that they acted on their attraction, that things could not end well – I just hadn't expected things to go so badly so soon. I was on the edge of my seat, hoping things would turn out all right for the two of them and wondering how Fletcher was going to get them back together after they were separated.

Even though I enjoyed reading about the two of them, I must admit that Chip and Katryn's romance in Rangers at Roadsend was better and more believable. For a good chunk of the book, I couldn't get over my feeling that Lynn's feelings for Kim could easily be puppy love. Kim was basically the first non-Sister Lynn had spent much time with since she was a child. Also, Kim was the one who protected and saved Lynn during the snow lion attack – it would be perfectly understandable for Lynn to develop strong feelings for her. I wish more of the word count had been devoted to developing Kim and Lynn's relationship after they met up again.

The weakest parts of the book, for me, were all the philosophical/theological/world-building conversations with the heretics. Those began maybe halfway through the book, and I felt they interrupted the flow of the story (certainly the pacing), felt kind of clunky, and just generally took me out of the story. The world-building information was worked into the story better during the first half of the book. I had enjoyed recognizing the science-speak in some of the Sisters' prayers (like the one that refers to “Himoti's sacred petri dish”). The discussions with the heretics broke that stuff down in a way that I didn't feel was necessary, at least not for that many pages.

Unfortunately, the more detailed look at the world-building that the discussions with the heretics and the appendix (extracts from the diary of Peter McKay, one of the founding colonists) provided brought some glaring issues to light that I might otherwise have been able to ignore. For instance, only one in one thousand people are Cloners, and one in ten thousand are Imprinters. Saying they're rare is one thing, but these more specific numbers made it difficult to imagine how the colony was even still alive. It takes even Lynn, who is widely known as a very talented Imprinter, hours to combine genetic information and help a single woman become pregnant. If only one in ten thousand people are Imprinters, I don't see how the number of births could keep pace with the number of deaths, much less allow the population to grow. As detailed as the world-building is, it doesn't always seem to be very well thought out.

Despite the issues I had with this book, I still enjoyed it. It hit all the right soft sci-fi buttons for me, and I'm glad I already own more books in the series. I plan to continue reading in chronological order, so it looks like next up is The Walls of Westernfort, which appears to take place right after the events of this book. The main character wants to be a Temple Guard. After the way the Rangers kicked the butts of the Temple Guards in this book (the Rangers are awesome), it'll be interesting to see if I can take this new main character seriously.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Another Celaeno book! Although it has some basic world-building problems, I love this series anyway and am glad there are still a couple books in it that I haven't read. I started reading this shortly after finishing The Temple at Landfall. Although The Walls of Westernfort references many events that occurred in that book, it takes place 16 years later.

I enjoyed getting to see how several characters from The Temple at Landfall were doing. Chip, Kim, and Lynn all made appearances, as did several of their children, and a minor character reappeared as a more prominent one. Westernfort was a more established settlement, although there were still problems on the horizon that needed to be worked out, namely what would happen once Lynn, their only Imprinter, died.

I also appreciated that there were no long, infodumpy passages detailing how the world worked, at least not that I could remember. The animosity between the Guards and Rangers came up, as did cloning, imprinting, and Celaeno being a spaceship, but it was worked into the story more smoothly than in the other Celaeno books I'd read.

The biggest problem I had with this book, at least initially, was Natasha. She was a very different kind of Celaeno protagonist, which could have been a good thing, except she had a tendency to annoy me. She was very naive, to the point of seeming stupid, and overly pious. This let up a bit after she met a few Westernfort residents and began to realize that much of what she'd been told wasn't necessarily true, but it never quite went away.

If Natasha hadn't rubbed me the wrong way so much, I think this would have been my top favorite Celaeno book so far. The pacing and overall story were excellent. I loved watching the Westernfort residents try to puzzle out the secrets that Natasha/Jess and her “family” were hiding – they could sense that the women were hiding something, but they assumed that their big secret was that they were horse thieves planning on stealing from Westernfort. I loved the level of suspense as the Guards' secrets slowly unraveled, and I loved that Natasha had very good reasons for feeling torn over what she should do. Her religious beliefs were part of it, but so were her familial feelings towards the two Guards who were with her. She'd never had a loving mother, and she had a tendency to latch onto anyone who gave her the kind of motherly love she'd craved her whole life.

The romance was a bit more front-and-center in this book than in the other Celaeno books I'd read. Unfortunately, it made me a little...uncomfortable. As is usual in Fletcher's books, Dani and Natasha had many cute moments together, and I would have been completely on board with their relationship if I hadn't been so aware that Natasha was lying to Dani right from the start. Thankfully, she was uncomfortable with the situation too, and tried not to act on her feelings for Dani or to encourage Dani's feelings for her. Dani had lots of reasons to hate the real Natasha: she had a painful history with Guards, she had personal experience with practices that ran counter to the religious teachings that were so dear to Natasha, and she cared for the people Natasha had been sent to kill. Shelly, a sweet but not terribly bright Westernfort resident with a huge crush on Dani, further complicated things.

I liked that Natasha's secrets were

What I did not like was that the book ended the moment Natasha and Dani resolved things between them. I like happy endings, but that ending was way too sudden.

All in all, I enjoyed The Walls of Westernfort, even though this protagonist definitely was not one of my favorites. I've still got one more Celaeno book in my e-book collection, plus one I haven't purchased yet. I'm looking forward to them both. I'd wish for even more Celaeno books, except it looks like Fletcher may no longer be writing new works – the most recent date I can find on her site is 2010, which makes me all kinds of sad.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)