Karen Chance Fans discussion

Cassie Palmer is the Pythia, chief seer of the supernatural world. John Pritkin is a half demon and a legendary war mage. Mircea Basarab is a first-level master vampire and the general of the World Vampire Senate. Each is formidable enough alone. But they recently discovered that, together, they are far more than the sum of their parts. With their power combined through a perilous spell, they are the closest thing left on Earth to one of the ancient gods.

That comes in handy considering that the old gods are exactly what the supernatural community is currently fighting. But now, their triumvirate has been torn apart. Mircea and Pritkin are lost in Faerie, with Mircea pursuing a personal mission five hundred years in the making. Meanwhile Cassie finds herself facing down an ancient adversary on her own. To survive, the three must find a way to come together, even worlds apart, and take their union to a new level.

I just finished the book! my brain is literally reeling from the roller coaster. Still a lot of action and a lot of craziness, but wow! worth the wait

So what do you think about the book? Did you like it?

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been awol for a good long while - life you know.

It's been a while since i read it, and i definitely need to re-read it again soon. I remember I liked it, but I have very mixed feelings about THAT scene with Pritkin and Mircea.

I needed to reread it, too.

About the scene:
I really disliked it. I wish she would settle for Pritkin and just leave Mircea alone.....

That scene was uncomfortable. It really bothered me that the loop had to be completed in that particular way.

Unfortunately, that might have been the "jump the shark" point for me. The series has gone on for too long as it is.

I haven't read it yet - too many life happenings on my end too, but I can assume what you guys could possibly be referring to, because I had a sense even from previous books that CassiexPritkin was definitely not as set in stone and as monogamous I would have liked it to be.
It's probably why I haven't started on this book too. Not really a priority when it feels like everything I loved about the world and the stories is just unraveling senselessly.

I think the idea of Cassie and Pritkin was good, the actual relationship was not so much. Just like Mircea chasing his lost wife is not a good idea with all the war going on and him being a key part of the story now. I liked Cassie with Mircea because it showcased some of Mircea's humanity. He isn't the arse everyone puts him out to be. I know Cassie had to grow in her job to do it, however, I feel the books were so much better when she was bumbling around and making things happen by accident and chance. Even Dory's books have taken on a serious tone. Sighs. I miss the laughs.

As anyone can tell from my earlier comment, I am fast losing my enjoyment in the series.

That said, I love the way Dorina's character is progressing, I wonder if we are seeing the beginning of a romance with Marlowe? That would be interesting to implement on Earth. Her separation from Dory woukd end when they return from Faerie, probably. We don't know the effect of the machine that separated the two halves of the Dory Basarab's personalities. It may not be automatic that the return to Earth reintegrated the separate halves......

Rosezetta wrote: "I think the idea of Cassie and Pritkin was good, the actual relationship was not so much. Just like Mircea chasing his lost wife is not a good idea with all the war going on and him being a key par..."

I agree. The reality of their relationship was "who gets to protect whom more," and that got old pretty soon.
And I agree about Mircea too. It is a good idea to have this master vampire chase Pythias to save his wife, but the reality and execution of it is lacking.

I am on the opposite side about Cassie making things happen by accident. It's been more than 10 years for me since I read the first 4 Cassie books, with book 5 coming out soon after. In those ten years, I realized that I do not enjoy a reactive protagonist like Cassie, nor do I enjoy what she does when she does take action.
And I went ahead in my copy of the book and saw a conversation between Cassie and Pritkin's demon self, and Cassie was, to be honest, pretty much the same as she had always been, deflecting blame and responsibility for her actions, and not even actually acknowledging the fact that she and Mircea and Pritkin's demon essentially raped Pritkin (because he was unconscious apparently and did not even know it happened).

Yeah, I'm out. Strike one, magic necessary threesome like I'm reading Anita Blake. Strike two, magic necessary threesome was (kind of?) a rape. Strike three, Cassie has not really actually changed since book 5 (maybe even book 1?). Strike four, the last five books have had way too much action while the plot has been sluggish. There is no enjoyment left, and except for human Pritkin and Dory and Dorina and LC, I don't like any of the characters anymore, not even Cassie.
She was relatable and understandable when I was 18, now that I'm nearly 30, I just find myself really unable to relate to her or even like her anymore. It's sad, but it is what it is.

Hello.

I haven't read it yet because of lack of time but to tell the truth I am afraid of your reactions, especially on this scene. Seems like the magic is not there anymore.
It may be my opinion but the series is too long. This is unfortunately already seen on other series as soon as they were no longer published., It is no longer the same or they stop it.
The problem is that we wait too much between the books (you lost interest and are deconected from the plot). I don't doubt that she has to live on something other than writting but the problem is the announcements and then nothing for 6 months. Anyway this two books was already a problem she said it does not satisfy her. Quite simply that the story may not suit her anymore and that now we felt it
So it's why we are waiting too long. In 10 years a lot of things can changed, especially if it is no longer published.
She maybe might have shortened the story to have a proper ending and start something else. I sincerely hope that the next book will be released, but I can hardly believe it because of the turn it takes. Sad I still have a lot of questions.

We will meet again when I have read it (if you are still here).

Have a nice day.

Wauw harsh words people!
I get what you're saying, but keep in mind that even though it's been ten years for us, in the cassie verse only about 6 MONTHS have passed, of course there's not gonna be amazing growth to young cassie in such a short time span.
I'm in my early thirties too and I still really enjoy reading Cassie, she makes me feel young and headstrong - although that may just be my own personality trait.
So yeah, KC has never in her life been able to stick to a deadline, so that shouldn't really surprise any of us. I just hope that now that she publishes the books herself, she gets to tell the story she wanted to from the beginning.

That said, I agree that now Cassie and Pritkin are together and hellbent on protecting each other to death, the spark between them have grown stale. I really loved them in the beginning where the tension was thick as molasses, I hope KC finds away to bring that magic back in to their relationship - because I didn't like her being with mircea and I really hope she can cut ties with him soon, especially magic ones.

And yeah, that scene is just... No. It's wrong on so many levels and like you said, is too reminiscent of Anita Blake. No thank you. We enjoy the smut but it does NOT need to go to that level. But I do look forward to cassie having to have that conversation with Mircea and Pritkin. I have a feeling Pritkin is not going to be happy - maybe that will bring some fire back into their relationship.

Regardless, small issues and that scene are tiny blunders compared to Anita Blake, so I shall remain excited for the next book and re-read incendiary soon, because I have already forgotten what the hell happen in that book, because that scene stole all the attention.

I have been trying for several minutes to write a coherent reply that would somehow encompass my whole disillusionment of the series, but I realize that it is impossible.

The thing is, I am a prude when it comes to love. For me, true love is when two people are in a monogamous relationship. I understand, on a theoretical level, that two people can have that type of true love in an open relationship where they have multiple partners, together or on the side, if both people enjoy that and are on the same page. But I am not like that; I can imagine having a threesome if I am not in love with either of the two people involved, and I wouldn't even be picky about the gender. But, if I am in a relationship with someone I love, then I cannot imagine ever wanting to bring another person in.

I could sense in the last book, when all three of them got involved in the Lover's Knot spell (I hate that spell! I wish KC never decided to use it as a plot device!) that something like this might be in the works. I remember that KC wanted to make the geis solution a threesome between Cassie and past-Mircea and present-Mircea, but her editor nixed the idea. I like that she is going in a direction she wants to go and has no one to nix or censor anything she wants to write, and I respect her for that. It's her choice.
But, I still do not wish to continue reading. It's definitely a case of "it's not you, it's me."

That's just from the Cassie/Pritkin angle.
The thing about it is that I've already been feeling disillusioned from many things. I understand that the scope of the series is huge, that there are many races and worlds involved here, which is actually amazing, I understand that the series blends urban fantasy and epic fantasy in a masterpiece, but at the same time, the books are too long, the plot is lackluster and all over the place, and there are too many parts that I always feel are unnecessary. Characters are introduced, then forgotten, while others are overused (Johnathan, the previous acolytes, motherfucking Efridis, etc). Was dying for Cassie and Dory to meet and interact and go on a mission together, but that's not happening, and even Dragon's Claw and Siren Song did not satisfy my crossover desires, with too little of Pritkin and Dory in each part respectively.

And this just makes me wonder, since Dorina seems to be developing a thing with Marlowe, is another threesome in the works or a three-way relationship, when/if Dory and Dorina unite in one body again?

I don't know, and I guess, I won't be around to find out.

Oh @Scarlet I'm so sorry to hear you have lost all hope for the series!
I agree with you on most of what you wrote, but thankfully I don't feel the disillussion that you do. I will definitely read the next book, and I hope you will stick around in the threads so we can give you an update if any of the issues are getting better.

(BTW I completely agree with you about Lover's knot, I fucking hate that spell AND Mirceas misuse of it - like so many other things. I wasn't a fan of the geis either, that made her whole relationship with Mircea feel wrong on so many levels - I only liked the tension it brought to Cassie and Pritkins relationship and the ZAP they would get whenever they touched in a more than friendly manner ^^).

Sorry, people.

I just lost a lengthy comment when everything flipped out on me, back to the home site.

Sadly, I expect the spell to continue until the war is over. This has ruined the books for me, but I will continue to buy them to the end.

I still enjoy the Dory/Dorina books very much. Dory is likeable, as well as Louis-Caesar and Mircea (as he appears in these books).

Ms Chance is creative and a gifted writer pursuing her vision of an exciting world-building experience. Although I obviously don't care for all aspects of the world(s) she has created, I have enjoyed all her writings since Book One.

Best wishes to a great author!

Ignite the Fire: Inferno is now available as well.

This is the thread for the book:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Does anyone know if she has any plans to make this an audible???

Since she's talking about the audiobook creators in this post, I think she will.

https://karenchance.com/audiobook-que...

Karen did two Q&As about Incendiary and Inferno.

https://karenchance.com/q-and-a-72

https://karenchance.com/q-and-a-73

Is anyone else disappointed in the new reader on the Audible version? She started with this book. Her reading is awful! It’s very nasal sounding, stilted, halting and sometimes robotic. I listened to samples of several other books that she has read and most of them are excellent. Im not sure what she was trying to capture or who she is trying to emulate, but I’m done. I can’t continue; I’m about an hour in. Maybe it’s just as well, I’m hearing about this rape scene of an unconscious Pritkin. That’s a hard NO. I’ve really enjoyed the series and I’ll miss Cassie. KC has been a favorite of mine since I discovered Audible a decade ago.
Donna Bell

I read Incendiary and really enjoyed it for the half-a-story it was, and, yeah, the magical threesome was on the wrong side of fan service, but I definitely didn't read it as rape because Pritkin was unconscious. They're still soul bonded because of Lover's Knot, and I just assumed it was Pritkin's incubus side taking over, like it did when Cassie got him to feed from her in the limo, several books back. Consent becomes harder to parse out when you have basically two separate yet identical entities inside one body, and that's not even accounting for the fact that Pritkin would absolutely have done it if he were conscious.

Also, I've read all of the Dory Basarab books and I have no idea where these comments are getting the Dorina and Marlowe pairing. What did I miss?

I read the Dorina books a long time ago and I do vaguely remember the Marlowe chemistry, but no specific recollection. I like your take on the lovers knot threesome scene, perhaps rape is a bit harsh.

To me, it's like saying every time Dory had sex with Louis-Cesare, Dorina was being raped. Both the incubus and vampire aspect of these characters are just repressed aspects that have (because fantasy) developed their own identity. But the metaphysical gymnastics it takes to call it rape is a lot.

I get not liking Incendiary: it's an incomplete story that suffers from simultaneously an ever-expanding and interchangeable cast. I just happen to like the Pythias all banding together, so the fact that Pritkin is unconscious for the majority of it wasn't a problem for me.

Also, the pains Chance has to take to continue this series by herself while also serving her bottom line sounds exhausting.