This, the sequel to last Thursday’s Ill Wind, follows within a day from where the first book leaves off. Considering book 1 ends with a cliffhanger, I appreciated this. If you’ll recall, Joanne Baldwin lives in a world with Wardens who keep the weather and other geological processes from killing us. Due to the fact that book 1 ends with such a cliffhanger, I’m not going to discuss any more plot. Readers of book 1 will be happy to know that David, Paul, Rahel, and Lewis play roles in this book, and that we learn quite a bit more about the Djinn, both their world and the metaphysics of their existence.

The book starts in a car, and has a fair amount of travel in it, including to the outer reaches of the universe. The beginning is reminiscent of the first one, but there aren’t any flashbacks at all. It seems that Caine had covered enough exposition in the previous book. However, while the plot has just as much danger and excitement, it moves a little bit slower, and keeps up the fever-pitch intensity in ways other than high-speed car chases.

Jo remains a smartmouthed Rachel Morgan-like character, but not in a bad way. I quite like Rachel Morgan, so I don’t consider it a bad thing. She does gain some characteristics in this book that differentiate her from other characters in this genre. Some characters, notably David and Lewis, become much richer in this book. They round out quite a bit, gaining nuance and motivation. Lewis isn’t simply the most powerful Warden ever anymore; he makes decisions from a viewpoint that we can understand.

Speaking of genre, I suppose these are supposed to be urban fantasy. They’re published by a fantasy/sf line, so I don’t think I’d call them paranormal romances, and the romance is no more primary than it is in dozens of other ‘pure’ fantasy novels, but what else do you call a book with an a**-kicking heroine, supernatural beings, a contemporary setting, and a love story? Laurell K. Hamilton swears that her books (which have these characteristics) combine many genres together, but ten or fifteen years on we’ve come up with a category for them. It’s not entirely a bad thing; people do have a need to categorize things. In any case, I’ll leave that determination up to a publishing house.

I do like the love story, although it’s a bit complicated. Once nice thing about this book, as opposed to the last one, is that it seems that Jo is NOT the love-obsession with every single male in this book. Sure, there’s the same three from the previous book (two from her past; one I don’t think anything is going to happen with, and the other is sort of out of the picture on a regular basis), but now at least it doesn’t seem like every male that appears is intended as a Romantic Figure.

There are quite a few new characters in this book, including an ifrit, which is a fallen Djinn. There is definitely more of the weather-working and the description, which I enjoyed so much in the first book. Neither of my questions were answered (do people know about Warders, and how to you really get to be one?) but there are still several other books in which to explain this. Many other questions (about the djinn, about the nature of weather-working) that I didn’t have were answered, though. The book, yet again, held my attention the entire time. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I’ll still give it 4/5 stars.