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For a Few Demons More (Rachel Morgan 5)

Author: Kim Harrison
Publisher: Voyager
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

9 reviews
Sales Rank: 3682

Media: Paperback
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.3 x 1.5

ISBN: 0007247796
EAN: 9780007247790
ASIN: 0007247796

Publication Date: March 19, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

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Showing reviews 6-9 of 9

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It's Never Enough--More, Please! April 18, 2007
29 out of 30 found this review helpful

In many ways, Rachel Morgan's problems come full circle in this fifth installment of the Hallows series. With enemies drawing closer than they ever have before, her palette of choices is fast becoming slim to none. In one power play after the next, Rachel's about to fall behind enemy lines, instead of the one step ahead we've been seeing.

It's back to Cincinnati after her desperate attempt to save her pixie partner's son and her ex-boyfriend, Nick. Rachel harbors a rather nasty curse trapped in a bone prison, the focus, which threatens to twist the realities of Weres and vampires alike, both of wom squabble over it like children. With Trent vying for it, someone killing for it and our favorite demon Al lusting after it, Rachel once again has to find a way to undo another problem forced upon her. As the delicate balance between her and Ivy begins to come to a roiling boil, it's all the earth witch can do to stay this side of good, acceptable magic. With her special blood and desire to help others though, it's near impossible for her to deflect the trouble that comes looking for her with a vengeance. Unable to unload the focus on just anyone, she'll have to decide who's the best choice...and none of them are looking particularly stellar.

The first of Harrison's series to be offered in hardback, it's a worthy installment for it, tipping the scales even further towards excellent. For a Few Demons More wraps up some of the problems that Rachel has been having over the course of the other books while of course unraveling others even further. Trent comes back into play and it's a totally different side of him than readers have read before. Ceri, the powerful ex-demon familiar, shows Rachel just how much she respects her and Rachel's pack mate David takes on a major role. The demon Newt is back and we get some interesting information and insights into that character too, though whether they help or hinder the outlook on Newt is the reader's choice. Ivy's dilemma with Piscary is excruciatingly dealt with and it was a struggle at certain points to get past the powerful emotions Harrison has written surrounding Ivy and Rachel. As always, Harrison manages to insert a shocking twist, one I never saw coming, involving Rachel and another of her closest friends. For a Few Demons More is inundated with its fair share of pain, angst and utter despair and readers most certainly may feel closer to Rachel than ever before because of it. It's not without it's glimmer of hope though and some very interesting new characters are introduced that I hope will continue to make appearances in the next book, most notably a mysterious organization of demon practitioners and Dr. Ford Miller, a psychiatrist for the FIB (Federal Inderlander Bureau, the human division to deal with Inderlanders). In the end, as much as Rachel has had to deal with, she's never appeared stronger to me. As always, the once-a-year release of Harrison's Hallows series just can't come fast enough and I only hope that there will be many, many more to come.

4 out of 5 stars

Supernatural action: a really witchy romp April 4, 2007
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Kim Harrison's series about Rachel Morgan is leaping along, and this volume is probably the best of the bunch.

It's set in an alternative universe where fairies, vampire, werewolves and witches have come out from the shadows and exist in uneasy harmony with humanity.

Rachel is a witch -- and like all good modern heroines she is feisty and up for it (whether it is a spot of fisticuffs or frolics between the sheets). Her supporting cast includes a female vampire flatmate (who's a lot in love with Rachel but that love is unrequited -- maybe!); a frisky pixie and his entire family; a werewolf who choose Rachel to be his pack alpha; a vampire boyfriend, a human ex-boyfriend thief, an evil (maybe) elf; a good (maybe) elf, and a bunch of demons who are all out for her blood.

The series have really broadened and developed in the five books, and it is clear that there is plenty of Rachel's history which has yet to be revealed.

This genre is a tricky one to manage. It's part soap-opera and part supernatural thriller. I have given up on a few other series because they end up being excuses for soft-porn or childish girly fantasies. Kim Harrison doesn't make that mistake and so far she's balancing the demands of plot and character in a believable yet fantastic universe very well.

It's not flawless, which is why it doesn't get the 5-star rating. Kim tends to find a favourite phrase ('pity party' or 'my blood pressure spiked') and rely on it too much. She deserves better editing to make her prose flow without such interruptions to the reader's concentration.

But otherwise this is a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and uplifting book. You need to read the others in the series first (and they get better, so if you're not keen on the first one then try the second as well before you opt out).

If Kim Harrison can keep up the tension, keep Rachel's soul in the grey zone and always in danger, keep the sexuality as part of the thrill but not the focus of the story, then she'll keep me as a reader.

Recommended -- from age 14 to 40 and beyond...

4 out of 5 stars

If only... March 21, 2007
7 out of 20 found this review helpful

If only is something that kept popping into my head throughout reading this book, always it was in regard to how poorly edited and proofread this book is. Every page contains errors in grammar along with sentence construction. While this isn't Harrison's fault, it is the fault of the editing staff, it's high time they were replaced if this is their new standard of excellence.

The stroy itself is superior to those before it, a trend that continues while Harrison appears to be on a learning curve, getting better as she goes along. It starts off by gragging you in and keeps you there, but a few chapters can seem a little slow here and there, they are important, so don't skim them or you'll miss something and regret it later.

Rachel's life grows evermore complex and absurd, how the hell she's still alive is anyones guess, but she's still kicking butt (anyones really, regardless of whether they're 4" or 6' tall, living, undead or demon). Ivy continues to interest me greatly, her guarded self slowly unravelling as she grows closer to Rachel and Jenks (the latter appears to piss her off alot less in this book also it seems). There are a great many twists and turns that will surprise readers to say the least, I know I wasn't expecting them. It also introduces a great many mysteries for later installments in the series.

Definately a great read, but I onlt grant it 4 stars due to the poor editing involved, it would have got 5, but I was to distracted and annoyed by all lazy attempt to edit this one. Hell, I could've edited it better while blindfolded!

Okay, enough nit-picking about the editing, just go buy it, read it, enjoy it and see what I mean about the editing, heh.

5 out of 5 stars

She's certainly not slipping, not a bit! March 4, 2007
73 out of 73 found this review helpful

This is the 5th book in a series I strongly recommend you read in order, both because of the personality development that takes place across the books, and because old, presumed solved, issues raise their ugly heads in later books and it won't be half as much fun. The first four are 'Dead Witch Walking', 'The Good, The Bad and The Undead', 'Every Which Way But Dead', 'A Fistful of Charms' and now, of course, 'For A Few Demons More'.

Rachel Morgan started out going 'on the run' in the first book and despite soon physically settling in one place, she's still running. She lives in a society where humans are frightened of tomatoes because a genetically modified strain killed many of 'us' off, thereby making every supernatural creature unable to hide in the mass of humanity anymore. So you have everything, vampires, demons, pixies, werewolves and so on - collectively known as 'Inderlanders'. Rachel is one too, because Witches aren't just talented or learned humans, they're as otherworldly as vampires and perhaps because they aren't as obvious, trusted the less for it.

Rachel started out as a kind of supernatural policewoman, a 'runner', making sure humans aren't preyed upon (unless they want to be) and generally trying to keep the supernatural species from each other's throats. I don't like giving away plot developments, so look away here if you've not read the first book - she quickly loses this job, and sets up on her own with a not-quite-vampire (she was born that way, and has to die to become a vampire), Ivy.

What drove me to write this review - apart from the fact that she's keeping me hooked into book 5 - is that the paperback edition I have says on the front 'action packed chicklit with a supernatural twist' - the Times. I could kick the person who wrote that in the knee. Chicklit? Yes, Rachel ends up with boyfriend troubles, but the books don't revolve around them, nor do they revolve around the fact that Ivy, apart from being her friend, partner and housemate (churchmate?), is gay and in love with Rachel. These books have created a now highly detailed alternative society, just slightly skewed from our own, and Rachel is trying to survive in it and keep the people she cares about alive. If that's chick-lit, then so was Lord of the Rings! (I exaggerate for effect, in case you're wondering).

They're adult books, because sex does come into it, but Harrison uses sex as just one part of the plot, not THE plot, as Laurell K Hamilton's later books began to do.

This book is darker than the previous four. Rachel has been constantly getting in over her head ever since the 1st book, but up until now she's managed to just about squeak her way out of everything that's happened. I can't tell you more without giving away the plot, but Harrison is deepening her characters, as she has done all the way along - and this book ends with a shock, for us and for Rachel. I can't wait for the next.

Comparisons are invidious, but we all do it. I think Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' are brilliant, and though his and Harrison's worlds are different, they are both in the same sub-genre - and no-one would call Butcher's books 'chick lit'! So if you went off Laurell K Hamilton because it became sex sex sex, Harrison is for you - she's a much more imaginative writer.

Also, if you like fantasy of any stripe, even if you've not tried 'set in the "present" day' fantasy, try 'Dead Witch Walking'. You won't be disappointed.