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Helix: Sedition
What do you do when you wake up and realize you have been the villain all along?
After years of working for CIRCE, Dr. Holly Eva Foster is beginning to realize why her patients have been dying off: she’s killing them, but she doesn’t know why.
Meanwhile, following a devastating ambush and life-or-death surgery, the Padre discovers that his Packmates and colleagues suddenly revile and distrust him. Watching their behaviour degrade from bizarre to brutal, the Padre escapes, only to run into the arms of his least likely allies: enemies of CIRCE.
For the sake of all humanity and other-kind, Eva and the Padre must risk their lives—and their minds—to rebel against one creature’s well-intended quest: the annihilation of her own kind.
After years of working for CIRCE, Dr. Holly Eva Foster is beginning to realize why her patients have been dying off: she’s killing them, but she doesn’t know why.
Meanwhile, following a devastating ambush and life-or-death surgery, the Padre discovers that his Packmates and colleagues suddenly revile and distrust him. Watching their behaviour degrade from bizarre to brutal, the Padre escapes, only to run into the arms of his least likely allies: enemies of CIRCE.
For the sake of all humanity and other-kind, Eva and the Padre must risk their lives—and their minds—to rebel against one creature’s well-intended quest: the annihilation of her own kind.
354 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2019
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September 6, 2019Tl;dr: a competent novel that knows what it's doing; a sequel that took a different direction than I anticipated, and that's okay. If there ever is another book in this world, I will surely be reading it and I do recommend this series to just about everyone.
One of the millions of things I appreciated about the original trilogy, was how each new book was different from the previous ones. I liked the variety, it helped keep things fresh. It's true for his book as well - it's different from the others in both the main topic (hello cool 'scientific' take on vampires) and how action-focused it is instead of character- and relationship-focused. It takes an interesting plot point and sticks with it, lets it slowly unravel in a thought-provoking though not exactly subtle way.
Unfortunately, the focus on plot and action did not work for me in the same way that the first three books did. Still, to this day, I can't explain what it was exactly in book 2 Plague of Ghouls that made me fall so madly in love with that book, only that I did and that my feelings about the series have not changed in the year since I read them. But I do know that the characters and their relationships were a mammoth-huge part of it. Sedition lacked those. Intentionally, I may add. This should not be treated as a fault, unless you're an extremely character-driven reader like myself who doesn't really care for action sequences, because then it gets frustrating.
There were many really interesting and thought-provoking scenes, of course. Holly's past flashbacks, Ferox and Padre, Jay #2, the diner, chapter 31, to name a few. And some fun ones. (The lichen-thrope pun was incredible.) I can't say I liked the villain and found her mostly annoying, but I did like how the whole situation tied back to some of the mysteries from book 3. If something seems too good to be true, it probably has a lot of strings attached. Or, you know, radulae (heh).
Particular highlights in my eyes:
- Holly's backstory!! I'd waited for this since the original trilogy and finally got it. And Holly's POV, too?? I found out this book was going to have her and Foster as narrators when I was visiting my best friend in Austria, and she had to deal with my hyped up reaction, poor girl. But seeing Holly and Foster from the inside was really cool, and just about how I imagined it would work.
- The villain might have not been my favourite, but I did like the question she posed: is world peace worth losing free will. Similarly to the Panacea dilemma from the trilogy that continued into this book: if you could cure every disease in the world, would the cost of itand the mistakes that led to it be worth it?
- The Ferox and Padre scenes, especially in the beginning with him trying to study, were really nice and wholesome.
- Ferox' storyline hit some really raw points there. It actually reminded me of the beginning of book 3, when Ferox told Ishmael to stop whining because everyone's had it bad.
- I liked Blue 'a wall is just a very stubborn door' Bettinger. Kind of wish we got to see more of her, but definitely a good addition to the cast.
- A cameo of the true OTP a.k.a. Ishmael and his coffee.
- Every time Bridget was mentioned, or something that happened in the original trilogy, I died a little inside. Holly being protective of her Pack? Epic, 10/10.
My biggest disappointments:
- Mirai.
- Helen.
Regarding Chapter 31 and the way certain 'things' ended: I was mostly okay with it? I could mostly see where it came from, in both cases. That said, as a character-obsessed trash who thrives on fictional angst I would have liked to see more on-page because I love both pairings so much.
So, next stop "Helix 5: Everyone Goes to Therapy and Also Has a Generally Lovely Time"? They've deserved it. We've deserved it.
One of the millions of things I appreciated about the original trilogy, was how each new book was different from the previous ones. I liked the variety, it helped keep things fresh. It's true for his book as well - it's different from the others in both the main topic (hello cool 'scientific' take on vampires) and how action-focused it is instead of character- and relationship-focused. It takes an interesting plot point and sticks with it, lets it slowly unravel in a thought-provoking though not exactly subtle way.
Unfortunately, the focus on plot and action did not work for me in the same way that the first three books did. Still, to this day, I can't explain what it was exactly in book 2 Plague of Ghouls that made me fall so madly in love with that book, only that I did and that my feelings about the series have not changed in the year since I read them. But I do know that the characters and their relationships were a mammoth-huge part of it. Sedition lacked those. Intentionally, I may add. This should not be treated as a fault, unless you're an extremely character-driven reader like myself who doesn't really care for action sequences, because then it gets frustrating.
There were many really interesting and thought-provoking scenes, of course. Holly's past flashbacks, Ferox and Padre, Jay #2, the diner, chapter 31, to name a few. And some fun ones. (The lichen-thrope pun was incredible.) I can't say I liked the villain and found her mostly annoying, but I did like how the whole situation tied back to some of the mysteries from book 3. If something seems too good to be true, it probably has a lot of strings attached. Or, you know, radulae (heh).
Particular highlights in my eyes:
- Holly's backstory!! I'd waited for this since the original trilogy and finally got it. And Holly's POV, too?? I found out this book was going to have her and Foster as narrators when I was visiting my best friend in Austria, and she had to deal with my hyped up reaction, poor girl. But seeing Holly and Foster from the inside was really cool, and just about how I imagined it would work.
- The villain might have not been my favourite, but I did like the question she posed: is world peace worth losing free will. Similarly to the Panacea dilemma from the trilogy that continued into this book: if you could cure every disease in the world, would the cost of itand the mistakes that led to it be worth it?
- The Ferox and Padre scenes, especially in the beginning with him trying to study, were really nice and wholesome.
- Ferox' storyline hit some really raw points there. It actually reminded me of the beginning of book 3, when Ferox told Ishmael to stop whining because everyone's had it bad.
- I liked Blue 'a wall is just a very stubborn door' Bettinger. Kind of wish we got to see more of her, but definitely a good addition to the cast.
- A cameo of the true OTP a.k.a. Ishmael and his coffee.
- Every time Bridget was mentioned, or something that happened in the original trilogy, I died a little inside. Holly being protective of her Pack? Epic, 10/10.
My biggest disappointments:
- Mirai.
- Helen.
Regarding Chapter 31 and the way certain 'things' ended: I was mostly okay with it? I could mostly see where it came from, in both cases. That said, as a character-obsessed trash who thrives on fictional angst I would have liked to see more on-page because I love both pairings so much.
So, next stop "Helix 5: Everyone Goes to Therapy and Also Has a Generally Lovely Time"? They've deserved it. We've deserved it.
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