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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Magical Manhatten's still under siege & Wren's Headed for a Fall as she plans to retrieve what the Silence has stolen., May 7, 2008
Free Fall continues three and half months after the battle in Burning Bridges, and in the aftermath most of the non-human magical 'Fatae' have left the city and the 'Cosa', the tenative coalition of all magical beings, is holding its breath waiting for the bigoted power organization, 'The Silence', to strike again -- the Silence won't be satisfied until all the magical beings including the Fatae and the human magic-using 'Talents' have been eliminated.
Wren begins the book trying for some normalacy in her post-Sergei world, she still has to pay the bills so she's on a Retrieval, but what should be an easy in-and-grab turns out to be a deadly trap. Wren manages to survive but the price of her survival is one that she doesn't truly understand and the backlash of her actions 'break' her in a subtle way. When minions of the Silence begin openly targeting the Talented, Wren convinces the Cosa to go on the offensive but using guerilla and sniper tactics instead of striking openly. But in order to make their effort effective Wren must search out the master of information, her ex-partner/ex-lover Sergei, who she believes betrayed her trust at the end of the last book. Sergei having accepted the undeserved verdict is very pragmatic, even though he misses Wren, as long as Wren is safe he can handle not being with her, but in order to make sure that she stays safe he continues to do the job the Silence trained him for -- gathering information -- so Sergei is ready with what Wren needs when she comes seeking his help.
I enjoyed Free Fall much more than the previous book, which ended on a sad note with the world falling apart and a high price paid by all who survived. But the Free Fall is still mired in wars and politics, where the first three books in the series were focused more on Wren's adventures. Here things are still a mess but I enjoyed the build-up, and all the pieces that fell into play along the way to Wren's 'big Retrieval' -- her contribution to the battle. I was happy to see P.B and Sergei play a big part in the narrative since I love both of these characters. I also liked that these two had finally resolved their adversarial relationship, even as far as coming to respect each other, both united in their love for Wren. Though Wren was definitely the still the star, I liked the way we got a bigger picture view of what was going on in the story with threads following P.B. and Sergei. Also the little peeks into what was happening within the walls of the Silence through Andre's eyes added to the tension too. This did mean that there was a fair amount of setup before the action kicked in, but when it did the book raced to a climatic finish with some surprises along the way. But this time the story ended on more hopeful note and luckily for us Wren's adventures are not over - the series will continue with "Blood from a Stone".
Staying Dead (Retrievers, Book 1)
Curse The Dark (Retrievers, Book 2)
Bring It On (Retrievers, Book 3)
Burning Bridges (Retrievers, Book 4)
There are also two very very very short Wren and Sergei prequels (unless you like the other authors in these anthologies look for them at the library)
Murder by Magic: Twenty Tales of Crime and the Supernatural 'Overrush'
Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy "Palimpsest" (this also has a terrific little short for Simon Green Nightside fans)
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been better, April 30, 2008
I stumbled across the Retriever series accidentally in the bookstore, and have been in love with it since...that is until this book. The writing is still great, but the story line just seemed to flop in this one. I didn't put the book down, but I was awfully tempted. The back and forth between Wren and her partner made me insane - whose side are they on, are they working together, against one another, blah blah blah. This might be the fifth book in the series, but let's hope that this is the author's version of a sophmore slump.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the Series, May 9, 2008
I love Laura Anne Gilman's books, don't get me wrong, but <u>Free Fall</u> was the first time I actually delved completely into this series. The last couple of books I felt the Wren/Sergei relationship was a little too much. However, like her note at the beginning of the book says, she found out what love is, and she communicated that knowledge very gracefully.
So, the first issue to address is the relationship. In Free Fall it felt far more nuanced and real than it has before. Not even just with Sergei, but with PB as well.
Second, the first chapter's illustration of what the Silence was when it was founded impressed me a great deal. It allowed more empathy to be placed upon the Organization and really fell in with that old adage "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
Third, the plot is clean, and while there were one or two blips I noticed while reading... I can honestly say I don't remember what they were now, so they can't have been all that important. The plot also has so much more pathos than the others. I feel for the characters, even the minor ones, in ways that were not near as deep or as meaning full in Burning Bridges or its predecessors.
All in all this was a great book. There is learning and growing, and learning to get along and when to kick butt. Both things are necessary, and both are brilliantly written here.
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