City of Souls by Vicki Pettersson (eng)

"Memories are just silent promises you once made to yourself. The moment is all that matters.”
-p.142-

Actually the release date of the book is around the end of June 2009; yet, knowing I have became attached to the series, May of Mostly Romance kindly did lend me the Advance Uncorrected Proof/ Not For Sale copy she got from RT. Mega, mega big thank you to her, and of course, to Vicki Pettersson and RT for such a happy, early reading!!

Genre : Urban Fantasy / Epic / Superheroes
Series : Sign of the Zodiac, Book 4
Publisher : Eos (June 30, 2009)
No of page : 368

Here comes the fourth in the Sign of the Zodiac series, City Of Souls. As from the former book, upon returning the borrowed aura back to her changeling, Joanna accidentally transferred that of her own as well. And such a seemingly small error made everything went all wrong. Scariest of all, the Light Manuals could not be recorded; their superheroes power became weak, where at the same time the Shadows grew stronger.

The Light power decreased at alarming rate when the safe zones were no longer safe zones and one member of the troops got seriously attacked. Everyone started either suggesting or forcing Jo to put her priority in fixing her broken changeling. Yet, no one knew how to do that and her only solution seemed to lie in a guy named Jaden Jacks, the only one said to also break and yet fix his changeling. This meant the next question came, no one, again, knew about the location of the guy. Since he was somewhat rumored to be in the mythical world of Midheaven. Jo had no choice but to enter that place, where she led a journey no less dangerous and life-risking than in the battle with the Shadows!

In my view, this book is rather different from the first three. Perhaps fewer pages (where the other three are all with 400-something pages.) made the story went more compact, more fast-pacing and more direct to the point than ever. This means the former in the series saw her unknowingly made mistakes and had to take time to remedy and correct her action, but in City Of Souls, Jo herself hardly acted wrong as often as she did in other books, which cut off all her diverted action and detour and therefore save her time. As for Finding a way to fix her changeling by getting a clue from entering Midheaven, her so-called mission was quite clear, thought not the means.

The best thing I love and makes me hold Vicki Pettersson (or VP from now) dear is her ability to create the great path of development for Joanna while she encountering countless series of situations. Although the aim of each book was to meet with the sign already foretold, the author never fails to emphasis the growing, maturing aspect of Joanne; which automatically makes the books themselves both situation driven and character driven. The first book, she learnt to accept herself as who she was, and stop internally hating herself and the world around. The second she understood being and working as a part of the team as well as trusting them, rather than just acting alone on her own as she had been doing for all her life. The third book came the lesson of letting go of the past and moving to the future (The sense came clearest when she let go of her ex-lover, Ben.), and an importance of sharing life with someone in the fourth. All of this proves how well-structured and well-written books VH has been doing for both main plot (s) and sub details. As for the latter in the fourth book, I truly like the bizarre world structure and crazy set of rules applied to Midheaven, which seems both familiar and mysterious at the same time. Such a detail makes me wonder whether there will be more on that world, especially after Jo left parts of hers there. (Spoiler) [She somewhat lost poker chips with her superpower in the game, and so lost her ability according to the chips.]

Another thing I felt for Joanna here is she seems to be a bit less bitter and gentler. This might came from the fact that she hated herself less and loved herself more. I like the part of the book when Felix, another troop member, talked to Jo about the significance of having someone to rely on and to go back to, which helped her to realize her feelings towards Hunter, and consequently make a move towards him. (Spoiler) [Even though the situation between them turned oh-so upside down in the end.]

I must confess my hatred for Warren is going stronger and stronger with each book. (Sorry for all his fans, if there is any! Although he’s the troop leader, he is the very reason I can not finish the novella in Holidays Are Hell. Can't read it when he's moving around in there!) Too much focusing on big picture, the man himself became rather so cold-blooded that he reached the word selfish. (If we consider selfish in terms of choosing side and do everything for the sake and interest of the side without caring enough about others.) He may be labeled as a Machiavellian man, yet he treated others too much as a pawn and a weapon, but not a person. The guy was also so possessed with 'owning' the Kairos that he tried to eliminate everything and everyone that ever became influential or important to Joanne. It is also strange that Warren's purpose for fighting with Shadows was for protecting the innocent. But then, he held no hesitation or reservation if he had to kill any of that obstructing in his way and his aims. And Jo? She made it clear in the early books that her sole purpose was to survive, a purpose for her very self, but then she hardly thought of killing or even harming anyone. Her notion on this was obviously shown in the last page of the book. “One person, I thought, as the neon blurred before me was an entire world.” Seeing people as a number through Warren's eyes was totally different from seeing people as a person through Joanne's eyes!

Though somewhat annoyed by her decision and action, I enjoy Joanne's characteristic from the very first book. As for being the Kairos, there was so much expectation placed upon her, for her to do the right thing, for her to do NO wrong. Still, our lady was no different from anyone. She could be right, she could be wrong. She could do right, she could do wrong. When she entered the world of Superpower and Superheroes she had no acquaintance with, it was natural for her to make a mistake, and therefore live and learn. This, when VP wrote her so, it greatly reflects Jo as an ordinary person who just happened to have a super power and super ability, which also makes a perfect sense for me.

As much as I have loved the books, the point I do not know whether I should praise VP or scream at her is her bold creativity in writing two major twists in City Of Souls. The first was (Spoiler) [Jo giving her power to her broken changeling in order to save the child's life, and in return becoming a mere mortal at the end of the book.], which went according to the Forth Sign (Spoiler) [which was stated, too, at the very end that‘The Kairos will sacrifice herself for a mere mortal. (p. 351)]. Also, the Second was (Spoiler) [Eventually, Jaden Jacks was Hunter!!! And everything he did was for returning to his wife in Midheaven. *screaming me*]. Actually, although the former got more effect on her, I can not (yes, can not, NOT could not) stop myself from being too speechless, stunned, and even shocked for the latter – I guess I have become too fond of a particular character, especially when I see the possibility in the early books and put my mind into that.

And so, as a reader who reads through VP's twisting storylines, City of Souls is graded as B+/A; but as a reader who follows the life of Joanna Archer, the grade is B+. My sum-up is“a hard reality, yet appealing life of Joanna Archer. One of my bestest, most favorite on-going UF series with details and attitude ... still!” Though I did believe I would finally see her happily-ever-after in this book, the cold/ugly reality aspect is still on. And I just wonder what will become of her in the fifth book, since what happened to her, and turned it back on her was what she had been struggling and fighting for, and she so deserved it all. (Well, the only best thing happened to her here was finally eliminating of Regan.)

Joanna and Hunter Actually, one of the reasons I keep reading the series is Hunter and his possibility with Jo. There seemed to be a possibility, but the couple never at all reached beyond that. Although, as a reader, I was somewhat grown tried of pushing them together, City of Souls made me enjoy the prolonged period. I found the importance of giving Joanna time to considering her life and going slowly on being attached to someone. (If she had found her way with Hunter in the very first books, that could have been too early, considering that she had too many things running in her mind and yet had to adjust to a new life before her.) I like the way she became so certain of her slowly-built feeling that she was bold enough to act and 'chase' Hunter in the middle of the book. And for that, it reminded me of the song In The End by Kat De Luna.

I'm the textbook definition of a rebel
I see the crowd movin' left and I gotta go right
I'm always in some trouble
To me life ain't fun unless you're in a good fight

So the more you're good to me
The more I try to get you to leave

All my life I've made excuses
Pushing you away, saying that you're not for me
All my life I've ran from you, babe
I tried everything
In the end it was you..
(Spoiler) [Still, as mentioned before that finally the most desired person for Hunter was NOT Joanna but his Shadow wife in Midheaven. For that, he had gone so far even to betray Joanna and the troop by conspiring with Shadow like Regan.] This, considered all the things in the first three and more than half of the fourth book, was more than an unexpected ending. Although I saw before the possibility of (Spoiler) [Hunter's betrayal], I only saw that with Jo for a reason. And I'm eventually sad and sorry for my over-confidence.
And, as usual and again, I found a song for this too! Here is I Don't Believe You by Pink, the sad and heart-breaking ballad is just right here!
I don't mind it
I don't mind at all
It's like you're the swing set and I'm the kid that falls
It's like the way we fight, the times I've cried, we come to blows
And every night the passion's there so it's gotta be right, right?

I don't mind it
I still don't mind at all
It's like one of those bad dreams when you can't wake up
Looks like you've given up, you've had enough
But I want more no I won't stop
'cause I just know you'll come around... right?
And here, already yearning for the coming book!!!
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