Review: Eye of Heaven by Marjorie Liu
Whenever I tell people they shouldn’t paint romance novels with the same brush, I inevitably end up recommending Marjorie M Liu. I’ve been a huge fan of her Dirk and Steele series of paranormal romantic thrillers since I first read them a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I’m not caught up with the series. I tend to hoarde books from my favorite authors, which is why it’s taken me this long to read Eye of Heaven, the fifth book in the Dirk and Steele series.
The premise: The members of Dirk and Steele are all people with special abilities. Blue Perreneau, an electrokenetic, is no exception. He’s been tracking Santoso, a human flesh peddler, but is injured before he can affect a capture. After he recovers, he is summoned to the bedside of his dying father, who wants Blue to recover the half-brother he didn’t know about. If Blue, who has always had an adversarial relationship with his father, to put it mildly, doesn’t do this, then his father will make sure that Dirk and Steele’s dealings are compromised. So Blue tracks his brother to Las Vegas, where he’s working for a small circus. Blue joins the circus as an electrician, and almost immediately meets Iris McGillis, a leopard shapeshifter. But it’s not all glitz and glamor, as there are people who very badly want to use Blue and Iris for their own ends.
What I appreciate about Ms. Liu’s writing is that there’s always stuff happening. I’m never bored when I read her books, and this one was no exception. There’s a lot going on in this book, and I found the mystery and thriller elements quite riveting for the most part. I honestly didn’t know how Ms. Liu was going to resolve the plot threads she put into place, and there were a few twists I really enjoyed. For the most part, everything is resolved satisfactorily, although not every thread worked for me. There was, for example, an element of tension having to do with a couple from a previous book that I thought would make for some interesting moral quandries, but that plot thread was literally solved with a deus ex machina. And there were a few times where I rolled my eyes as yet another set of goons attempted to kidnap Iris. It seemed like she was either about to be kidnapped, in danger of being kidnapped, kidnapped, or recovering from being kidnapped throughout the book.
The romance element also works well for me. It’s not very explicit–at least compared to other books I’ve read–but I bought the chemistry between Iris and Blue. It didn’t even bother me that they declared their love within a few days of knowing each other, because those were some action-packed days, what with all the kidnapping going on.
I haven’t talked much about the characters. Iris is awesome. Being a leopard shape-shifter, she has an affinity for the big cats she performs with. But, aside from the cats, all she’s known in life is her mother, who disappeared two years ago with little explanation. That combination of toughness and vulnerability always works for me, and this time was no exception. I also appreciated that, while Iris does get kidnapped an awful lot, she never brings it on herself by doing something mind-numbingly stupid.
Blue is also great. He’s not my favorite Dirk and Steele hero–that title goes to the very bookish gargoyle hero of The Wild Road , but Blue is interesting in his own right. I liked reading about his struggles to come to terms with his relationship with his father. By the end of the book, he understands the man a little better, though he’s still got a few issues. And the relationship between Blue and his brother, Daniel, works very well and comes about quite naturally.
The secondary characters are also, for the most part, very interesting. I found Iris’s mother fascinating for reasons that would involve spoilers, and even Blue’s father isn’t a complete villain. Daniel also has a lot to deal with, and I hope we’re not done seeing the last of him. Former Dirk and Steele heroes also make brief appearances–not enough to disrupt the flow of the story but their presence definitely provides something to the plot.
If you’re interested in this series, each book stands perfectly well on its own. They don’t need to be read in order, though, series purist that I am, I always feel that books are better enjoyed if you read them in order.
This isn’t my favorite entry into the series. But it’s great for those who like thrills in addition to their romances. The leads are likeable, there’s a lot of action, and the world-building is excellent. I rate this one a strong B.