Gale Force: A Weather Warden Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Oh, Jo, you're sinking low.

If I had to name a favorite series, I think Caine's Weather Warden would edge out Harrison's The Hollows (Rachel Morgan), and Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld. I love the characters, I love the pace, I love the world Caine has created and the things these stories make me think about.

So it is with heavy heart that I suggest that Caine is losing her way. Gale Force is the next chapter in the saga, and we get the usual cast of characters - Joanne with her penchant for fast cars and designer shoes, her copper-eyed omniscient lover David, the best friend Cherise, the creepy-but-cool Rahel, the ever-sexy Lewis, and on and on. A few old faces have cameos in this book.

Again, Jo and friends are faced with some mysterious force that is threatening the lives of wardens, djin, and the Mother Earth herself. Again, Jo is the epicenter of the chaos, the missing piece to every puzzle. Again, there are quiet, tender, funny moments between Jo and her David, as well as some of the other characters. And again, those tender moments lead to a monumental choice that threatens to tear the fabric of their lives apart, that shakes the unity of Jo and David, and leaves us witnessing our star-crossed lovers saying goodbye... again.

See, I understand that all series are going to feel formulaic to some extent. Same author, same characters, same world, different bad guy. The problem that is happening with the Warden series is, as the reader, I am starting to feel like I'm being played. Each time something catastrophic happens, we see it through Jo's pain, and we are supposed to feel it with her. But seriously, how many times can people be killed, wiped from existence (because only in a series like this, is death considered an inconvenience compared to what ELSE can happen), turned bad, before none of it seems to matter anymore?

What, a djin has been captured and enslaved, which was NEVER SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN EVER IN THIS WORLD AGAIN? Meh. Jo will kill them.

Joanne's decision has broken the bond between her and David, and they may never speak to each other again? Meh. Jo will fix it.

Where is this going? I feel like this series has been amping up for the final act for a few books now, and if a character death is what we are being prepared for, then please, Ms. Caine, do it before it's so late in the series that nobody cares. Because if this is going where I think it is, I want to care. I want to weep. I want to curl up with my book and hurt with those characters, and flip the pages feverishly to find out what happens next, which is what I used to do... about three "deaths" ago.

I love these characters, and I want to feel their loss when they're gone, so stop giving me cardboard cutout stories and get to the meat of it. Git 'er done.

A lot has already been said well by the previous reviews. But I guess I need to add my wish that Ms. Caine consider wrapping up the storyline on the main characters here and move on. From the blurb at the end of my copy, it sounds as though the next warden/djinn book is going to focus on new players. Great idea, but some satisfying closure is still overdue for Joanne and David. Midway through Gale Force, I thought this would be the book to do it. Instead, I found myself almost irrationally ticked when I reached the end and found that indeed it was not.

I've never related well to Joanne as a character/heroine, but I love the world she inhabits and the people who surround her in it. That's why the earlier Warden novels work so well, I think. Not only are they incredibly rich in characterization, but the plots were timely -- echoing with an eerie relevance to many serious issues about nature, society, humanity, and current events and trends. (And no, not talking about fashion either.) Much of that depth and complexity seems to have been lost, and I wonder if Ms. Caine is as tired of the main players here as I am becoming. The number of negative comments about David alone in the reviews for Gale Force is an ominous sign of a breakdown not only in characterization, but in the communication between author and reader.

This series peaked for me with Chill Factor and Windfall (3&4). I felt Firestorm worked well enough, and though Thin Air required more perseverance on my part, it still had a few new things on offer. Gale Force was not what I expected, and not in a good way. The sequence where Joanne and Jerome Silverton unearth the dead djinn was the closest I came to that Old Feeling, and it was lamentably short.

Of course, there's a rhythm to good serial fiction, but the danger comes in turning too formulaic. With this series, we've already been through the obligatory pregnancy arc, the amnesia arc, the persistent love triangle arc, and now the "resurrected big-bad" arc. And with a near-total lack of resolution at the end, I might add.

Again, I'd love to hear about new characters in the old universe if that's what it takes to get back to the inspired storytelling. But it's time to give Jo and David a rest. Even Harry Potter got his HEA from Rowling after seven phenomenal installments. I've got room in my heart for one more with Joanne, but after that, no matter what Caine does, I'LL be taking the breather...

Excellent, as were the others in this series; this one was more action-packed, similar to the early books. A couple of observations:

It relies heavily on the previous novels, and if you don't know those story lines and characters you'd miss a lot. I strongly recommend that you read the whole set in order.

The number of secondary characters has reached the point where most are treated in a rather cursory manner, although Lewis, Kevin and especially Cherise have good-sized roles here.

SPOILERS:

There are (once again) major unresolved issues at the end, with Joanne (once again) infected and about to launch herself against the bad guy. This is rather frustrating, since it'll probably be a year before the next book comes out.

The whole coming out to the news media thing is kinda lame, and lamely done. Presumably this will make more sense in retrospect, in subsequent books.

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