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Crimson Angel (Ben January #13)
I got the new Ben January book, Crimson Angel, in my Amazon order yesterday, and devoured it. :D
THIS SERIES. ♥ ♥ ♥
This is my favorite book since The Shirt On His Back, and one of my all-time favorites for the series, I think. It's definitely got the best Hannibal scenes since Dead Water, if not in the entire series. Only Hannibal would run off to a place that means CERTAIN DEATH with no food or money because his friend is in peril ... and then end up charming the one person on the whole island who could protect him. And as if that wasn't enough, he rescued Rose in the final battle by being, basically, THE AWESOMEST. (Especially knowing from Dead Water how profoundly it hurts him to cause physical harm to people. That bit where he shoots Rose's captor is such a *hearteyes* moment and yet there's also that lingering "ouch" because you know he's going to suffer for it later. And yet at the same time as that, there's also the fact that Hannibal's been able to retain that fundamental innocence he's got whereas, say, Ben and Rose have not, by virtue of his skin color and wealthy upbringing. And the series is, I think, meta-aware of this.)
This book managed to bundle quite a few of my favorite tropes into one nonstop adventure of awesome, because I am a huuuuuge sucker for hidden treasure and secret maps and dark family secrets and all that fun gothic stuff, as well as characters risking it all for each other, which this book has LIKE WHOA. As well as Hannibal being basically the best, this book gave excellent Rose (I think the last book in which Rose got to swash her buckle was back in Dead Water too, wasn't it?) and, oh, Ben. The whole sequence when he first arrives on Haiti where he's all "Rose kidnapped by killers! But Hannibal hurt and lost and doomed! ... WHAT DO? D:" .... still breaks my heart. BENNNNNN! ;___;
Even Shaw, who isn't in the book very much due to sheer necessary plot mechanics (much like Rose not being in more than a couple of scenes of The Shirt On His Back) gets a few good bits at the beginning. (Now that we've had a bunch of awesome Rose and Hannibal, I think we're about due for another Shaw book, yes? Maybe? :D? Come on, Hambly, all I want is one scene with Shaw and Baby John. JUST ONE!)
Anyway, as always, I felt like Hambly did a really good job with the serious and heartbreaking side of this period in history -- drawing you into the characters' world and bringing home with a series of hammer-blows how unspeakably awful their world actually was, and how disconnected white society was from its awfulness. (I think my favorite thing about Good Man Friday was that she resisted what had to have been temptation to have the white brother genuinely repent for the way he treated his slave half-brother, especially after it turns out that he is, or at least had the potential to be, fundamentally decent underneath it all -- but he never does, because the society in which he lives has rendered him utterly incapable of seeing his brother as a human being or loving him in a way that's not horribly pathological, and so he stays awful to the last.) All I really knew about this book going in was that it was "the Haiti book", and I wasn't sure how that would be handled, but it seemed to me that the whole thing, including the voodoo and the island's mix of political fucked-upedness layered on top of the fundamental decency of the ordinary people who live there, was really well done. And, Ben, I feel your dilemma with the notebooks at the end there (saving a life for every one that was taken) -- but I support his decision to burn them.
I think my one regret about these books is that they don't come with appendixes and bibliographies, because I end up wanting about a million notes on the actual historical sources that Hambly used to write them -- she's an historian/historical professor in real life, I believe -- and the background that went into putting the book together. I want ALL the behind-the-scenes on these!
In conclusion: A+++, absolutely loved it, definitely up there with my favorites from the entire series. :D
THIS SERIES. ♥ ♥ ♥
This is my favorite book since The Shirt On His Back, and one of my all-time favorites for the series, I think. It's definitely got the best Hannibal scenes since Dead Water, if not in the entire series. Only Hannibal would run off to a place that means CERTAIN DEATH with no food or money because his friend is in peril ... and then end up charming the one person on the whole island who could protect him. And as if that wasn't enough, he rescued Rose in the final battle by being, basically, THE AWESOMEST. (Especially knowing from Dead Water how profoundly it hurts him to cause physical harm to people. That bit where he shoots Rose's captor is such a *hearteyes* moment and yet there's also that lingering "ouch" because you know he's going to suffer for it later. And yet at the same time as that, there's also the fact that Hannibal's been able to retain that fundamental innocence he's got whereas, say, Ben and Rose have not, by virtue of his skin color and wealthy upbringing. And the series is, I think, meta-aware of this.)
This book managed to bundle quite a few of my favorite tropes into one nonstop adventure of awesome, because I am a huuuuuge sucker for hidden treasure and secret maps and dark family secrets and all that fun gothic stuff, as well as characters risking it all for each other, which this book has LIKE WHOA. As well as Hannibal being basically the best, this book gave excellent Rose (I think the last book in which Rose got to swash her buckle was back in Dead Water too, wasn't it?) and, oh, Ben. The whole sequence when he first arrives on Haiti where he's all "Rose kidnapped by killers! But Hannibal hurt and lost and doomed! ... WHAT DO? D:" .... still breaks my heart. BENNNNNN! ;___;
Even Shaw, who isn't in the book very much due to sheer necessary plot mechanics (much like Rose not being in more than a couple of scenes of The Shirt On His Back) gets a few good bits at the beginning. (Now that we've had a bunch of awesome Rose and Hannibal, I think we're about due for another Shaw book, yes? Maybe? :D? Come on, Hambly, all I want is one scene with Shaw and Baby John. JUST ONE!)
Anyway, as always, I felt like Hambly did a really good job with the serious and heartbreaking side of this period in history -- drawing you into the characters' world and bringing home with a series of hammer-blows how unspeakably awful their world actually was, and how disconnected white society was from its awfulness. (I think my favorite thing about Good Man Friday was that she resisted what had to have been temptation to have the white brother genuinely repent for the way he treated his slave half-brother, especially after it turns out that he is, or at least had the potential to be, fundamentally decent underneath it all -- but he never does, because the society in which he lives has rendered him utterly incapable of seeing his brother as a human being or loving him in a way that's not horribly pathological, and so he stays awful to the last.) All I really knew about this book going in was that it was "the Haiti book", and I wasn't sure how that would be handled, but it seemed to me that the whole thing, including the voodoo and the island's mix of political fucked-upedness layered on top of the fundamental decency of the ordinary people who live there, was really well done. And, Ben, I feel your dilemma with the notebooks at the end there (saving a life for every one that was taken) -- but I support his decision to burn them.
I think my one regret about these books is that they don't come with appendixes and bibliographies, because I end up wanting about a million notes on the actual historical sources that Hambly used to write them -- she's an historian/historical professor in real life, I believe -- and the background that went into putting the book together. I want ALL the behind-the-scenes on these!
In conclusion: A+++, absolutely loved it, definitely up there with my favorites from the entire series. :D
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I hope you enjoy this and the previous book when you read them! :)
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I always end up reading all night when there's a new Benjamin January book.
--LastScorpion--
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I also wonder if they're going to spend another book or two getting back to New Orleans, due to the reference early on in this book that it would be "years" before Ben found out if Zizi-Marie went to the dance or not.
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1) I totally failed as a librarian.
2) I tried so hard to get a hard copy from the independent bookstore, but alas 'twas closed. Ah Christmas. Kindle it was.
3) THANK YOU. My Christmas Eve was suddenly even better (don't celebrate, so it was gonna be quiet anyway. But these I devour.)
It was awesome, wasn't it! I admit I mostly just passed over the family details of the actual plot (which happens a lot. I had to reread several of the series a few times to get the one-offs/plot people straight.) Doesn't matter of course; not what I read them for. I read for the fantastic main cast and the history/atmosphere.
God I love that power trio. And adored Hannibal's moment of badassery, and the fact that we had Rose the entire time. Made total sense that she couldn't be in the DC one or the Shaw family one, but I miss her when she's not there. Tiny moment I found touching - Cora, Rose's best friend, sitting up the night with her to keep her safe.
We are totally due a Shaw book. I wouldn't mind another Rose focused one too, although I suppose this sort of was one. I'm also mentally going, "how long does the panic last again? I worry about their finances." Answer is 1844 BTW. Ack.
Oh you know? Shaw doesn't know about the underground rail space yet, does he. I can see an intense "shit or get off the pot" moment if/when he finds out for him, and a possible "oh god god please I don't want to kill him but I may have to" moment for Ben.
(So much Philia, storge and agape among the 3 of them. And some lovely Eros for Ben & Rose.)
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I kept having to refer back to the family tree in the beginning of the book to figure out who the heck everyone was (which is admittedly a whole lot easier to do in a paper copy than in a Kindle book).
But yesssss, the Rose-Ben-Hannibal triad are AMAZING, and this book was full of wonderfulness with them! Right down to stuff like Rose and Hannibal sharing a (very tiny) bed, and Ben being entirely confident nothing was going to happen, because he trusts them both that much.
I liked the Cora bit, too! It's nice to have a reminder that Rose has a life apart from Ben, and friends and relatives and a whole world; her world isn't entirely centered on him.
Shaw doesn't know about the underground rail space yet, does he. I can see an intense "shit or get off the pot" moment if/when he finds out for him, and a possible "oh god god please I don't want to kill him but I may have to" moment for Ben.
Oh man, YES. Shaw being Shaw, I'm pretty sure he'd do the right thing in the end, but ... yeah. It's also possible that he's actually figured it out and is doing the same "I didn't see anything illegal, what do you mean?" thing he does all of the many OTHER times that Ben breaks the law directly in front of him. But I think I'll be a little disappointed if we don't ever come to some sort of confrontation and/or moment of truth about it.