Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld

Kelley Armstrong has created a rich, complex tapestry with her fantasy series Women of the Otherworld. She selected werewolves as her guides through this world and presented them in a completely new way. Her werewolves are people; not humans, yet still people.

I was late to the party, not discovering Kelley Armstrong until I picked up a copy of Dime Store Magic in 2004. I picked it up because of the interesting cover and flipped to the last scene in the book; yes last scene, if a book doesn't have a satisfying ending i.e. the characters are in a good resting place between their adventures, I don't buy the book. I read for the story and I want stories that provide a somewhat happy ending.

By the time I finished Dime Store Magic I was a fan of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. I quickly found her previous stories, Bitten and Stolen. When Industrial Magic came out I pounced on it. Once I'd gobbled these books down I had to wait for her next offering, Haunted. Her latest book, Men of the Otherworld, is an outstanding book providing substantial background for the males that people her world. Now I am impatiently awaiting Frostbitten.

Kelley Armstrong began her series with Bitten, the story of the only female werewolf in North America, how she came to be and how she learns to cope with her new life. Kelley doesn't rest on her laurels though; she then moves to a new narrator for her book Dime Store Magic, a young witch who is expected to assume a position as head of the Coven after her mother, the current leader, dies. This change of narrator doesn't involve a different otherworld; it is rather a different aspect of the one she has already created.

From witches and werewolves Kelly moves on to people her otherworld with all manner of mythical beings, presenting them from a fresh viewpoint that makes them people while not making them merely humans. She does this so well that I found myself readily accepting the werewolves need to hunt and the vampire's need to make an annual "kill" without a bobble of disbelief. This ability to create acceptance of the characters and their world is the mark of a gifted writer who has honed her skills to perfection.

With her young adult novel, Summoning, she is now expanding her talents and her world into another venue that is definitely appealing to the young fantasy fans I know. The second book, The Awakening, is now available.

I expect, in years to come, Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld, with its underlying theme of acceptance of the different, will assume its place among the great fantasy series of the twenty-first century.

Wikipedia and KelleyArmstrong.com as well as the books in the series are my sources.