Cape Storm: A Weather Warden Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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When you think of the coast of Florida, one thing comes to mind: hurricanes. Well, also cockroaches, swamps and old people, but hurricanes are in the top five.

But the storms are unnaturally strong in the eighth volume of the Weather Warden series, "Cape Storm." And Rachel Caine's penultimate Weather Warden novel takes a dramatically dark turn with plenty of fatalities, some shocking twists and a trip to the dark side for her weather-warping heroine. Its a good climax to the series, and Caine literally keeps the plot twisting like a waterspout right to the end.

Joanne Baldwin has just sort-of-married her Djinn lover David, but they aren't getting a nice normal honeymoon -- a deadly storm is forming off of Florida. So the Weather Wardens and the Djinn end up taking over a vast luxury liner and heading out to sea (along with whiny celebrities and rich jerks who refused to get off the boat). Then they find a Djinn whose existence has been erased -- meaning the malignant Bad Bob is involved.

Of course, Bad Bob is stirring up the storm with antimatter, turning it into a potentially universe-destroying maelstrom that threatens to destroy them all. Also, the ship has some "skin"-wearing creatures that can erase Djinn. Worst of all, Joanne's demon mark is breaking loose of its constraints and swamping her true personality -- and even Lewis and David may not be able to save her.

Killer crystal skeletons, demonic storms, luxurious cruise liners filled with powerful Wardens and an evil tattoo -- I have to admit, Rachel Caine can manage some pretty interesting ideas. And the first chapters of "Cape Storm" are fairly lighthearted (including Celine Dion jokes -- "my heart would not go on, not if this voyage went badly"), but with some lurking flickers of darkness.

But it doesn't take long for Caine's story to blaze with black fire, especially when Jo is overwhelmed with her magical tattoo, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of it. It's made all the more breathlessly horrible because of Caine's vivid writing ("the approaching black arms of the hurricane sweeping in like scythes") and warped sense of humor, which becomes downright twisted as Jo suddenly turns into a sneering, sniping, skanky monster. And it's even worse because the story is in first-person narrative.

And expect quite a few shocking changes in this book, especially for Jo and David. While some of these changes are merely entertaining (they get properly married on a pirate ship by the randy captain), others will have sweeping effects in the next book. BIIIIG effects.

Jo herself manages to maintain a fun sense of humor despite the ups and downs of her life (and her dubious fashion sense), but Caine succeeds in making her SCARY during the middle of the book, where her conscience gets switched off and she starts feeding off aggression and fear. And her constant battle against her mark -- even to the point of swimming in shark-infested waters -- is a powerful and seemingly doomed one.

David remains her deliciously sexy, adorably devoted Djinn lover, and Cherise serves as the snappy-tongued, clever blonde sidekick. And poor Lewis is forced to take some terrible actions to protect the world from Bad Bob and Jo, including a psychic "kill switch." The one downside is that it seems rather contrived when Lewis' thoughts on Jo are revealed.

"Cape Storm" is a sometimes shocking, intensely written urban fantasy, with plenty of plot twists and a heroine who gets more than her fair share of horrible wounds. An excellent next-to-last book.

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