HIGHLY RECOMMENDED--- The Fox, by Sherwood Smith (sequel to Inda)

[tricia868]

No real spoilers...

Title: The Fox
Author: Sherwood Smith
Genre: Fantasy (not as blatantly magical as many fantasy books though)
Rating: 9.8 / 10

Absolutely amazing!

I'd read a couple of Sherwood Smith's young adult books, and at the time, loved them, particularly Crown Duel...and the Wren series was cute...but Inda & The Fox are on a whole new level.  The maturity level of the writing, the character development, the whole culture she creates--down to earth but with magic flickering around the edges...It's the most engaging fantasy world I've encountered in awhile.

I had forgotten about Inda for awhile, (I'd lent it to my best friend, so it wasn't sitting on my shelf to remind me) but the second I saw The Fox on the shelf at Barnes and Noble, all the excitement I'd felt reading the first book came rushing back.

The only complaint I have about them, and it's not even a real complaint per say, is that the end of each book leaves you ravenous for more; upon finishing the first, my reaction was some form of, "WHAT!?  It ENDS there!?  I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!"  And the second produced the same mental response.  Well, if I were to be horribly picky, a perfectionist (*cough*such as myself*cough*) might be bothered by the few typos, but they were rare.  I can't help it that I'm conditioned to automatically find any errors in other people's writing!  No one who isn't obsessively detail oriented would notice them though.


So...what can I say about the plot without spoiling anything?

Piracy, land wars, sea wars, politics, magic, romance as a secondary plot point---it's not at all the center of the story, but it's there---the shifting character focus allows for many plotline persuals, but is not overdone and therefore does not become boring or confusing.

The Fox has a Pirates of the Caribbean vibe for a few chapters...the otherworldly pirate crew, etc, but none of it is a knockoff, and it deviates soon enough that you won't be overlapping them in your head.

If you've read Inda prior to reading this review, I'm sorry to say that some of the character interactions you've been waiting for won't happen.  (It ends just before the part I've been waiting for for the past year and a half...*screams in frustration*)
On the other hand, a few good ones that you probably weren't expecting will take place.

If you have problems with casual mentions of sex, don't read it.  There's nothing explicit in these books, but sex is acknowledged as an everyday/common sort of thing in both novels.  That's one of the things that separates this series from her novels geared toward younger readers, but personally, I found that to be a more minor factor.  While she's always been good at creating engaging worlds and characters, the complexities of culture and environment, as well as character development, are enough to make these novels much deeper than the other works of hers that I've had the pleasure of reading, but not so layered that the reader is bogged down and loses track of the story, which happens far too often when a new fictitious world is created.

Damn, somebody needs to stop me from writing horrendous run-on sentences...Oh well, since this isn't anything formal, I'm not editing it.

At the moment, Inda & The Fox are my favorite books, although I do tend to change my mind often.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next book. (And I pray it comes soon...)