• Written in Red

  • A Novel of the Others
  • By: Anne Bishop
  • Narrated by: Alexandra Harris
  • Length: 18 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (6,477 ratings)

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Written in Red  By  cover art

Written in Red

By: Anne Bishop
Narrated by: Alexandra Harris
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Publisher's summary

No one creates realms like New York Times best-selling author Anne Bishop. Now in a thrilling new fantasy series, enter a world inhabited by the Others, unearthly entities - vampires and shape-shifters among them - who rule the Earth and whose prey are humans.

As a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut - a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg's Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard - a business district operated by the Others.

Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she's keeping a secret, and second, she doesn't smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she's wanted by the government, he'll have to decide if she's worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

©2013 Anne Bishop (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Amazing...A compelling story set in a seamlessly crafted universe.” (Fresh Fiction)

“A stunningly original yarn, deeply imagined, beautifully articulated, and set forth in clean, limpid, sensual prose.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Bishop has a way of making your heart wrench with joy and pain within a breath.” (Fantasy Book Critic)

What listeners say about Written in Red

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

WOW!!!!! JUST WOW!

This is truly a wonderful book, from start to finish, just outstanding. The book is 18 plus hours, I managed to listen to the entire book in about 30 hours. I did nothing else! The characters and the world that they live in are phenomenal. As events unfolded, I kept checking to see how much longer I had. This will probably be one that I go back and listen to again. And don't you just love it when the bad guys get exactly what they deserve?! It was really an outstanding performance with both Anne Bishop and Alexandra Harris. And you have got to be damned good to deliver such a fantastic performance without even one love scene!

This performance is worth BOTH of my credits for the month, so it was a bargain at only one credit.

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118 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Original, emotion-driven alternative reality

I listened to the audiobook version of "Written In Red" in December 2013. I didn't write a review because I was so blown away all I'd have been able to say was: "Best fantasy novel I've read in a long, long time." I needed a bit of distance to get some perspective on what I enjoyed and why.

Last weekend, I was in "Forbidden Planet" in Liverpool and saw that the third book in the series, "Vision In Silver" had just been released in hardback. It was an instant and joyful buy. So I figured it was time to review the books that have brought me so much pleasure.

In my view "Written In Red" is closer to classic science fiction than it is to urban fantasy. Anne Bishop isn't writing about supernatural creatures roaming city streets. She's created an alternative reality, imagined the way good science fiction should be: starting with two small changes to our familiar reality - humans are not at the top of the food chain and shapeshifters are not only real but dominant - while keeping everything else the same and then working through the consequences. She then delivers complex, credible, I'm-hungry-to-know-more world-buidling in simple prose. But what makes this book unmissable is the way she made her world real to me by creating characters I cared about and putting them in peril.

The back story to Anne Bishop's alternative reality is that humans evolved and developed their civilization away from the wilderness that covers most of the planet. Then they came into contact with The Others - predatory shapeshifters and fierce elementals - who dominate the planet and to whom humans are "clever meat". The two cultures clashed. The humans lost, again and again, over centuries. Eventually the humans negotiated the right to specific pieces of land in exchange for services rendered.

At the time of the events of "Written In Red", humans are thriving on their "reservations" and are being supervised by Others living in Courtyards from which they observe what the clever meat is up to.

The Others in "Written In Red" can be described as werewolves or vampires or even werecrows but Anne Bishop only uses the familiar tropes to twist away from them. The Others are not humans who shift into wolves. They are wolves who occasionally choose to put on human skin. The Others are fundamentally alien. They literally eat humans that displease them. They are fiercely loyal to each other. They have a strong sense of pack or flock or hierarchy. They are civilized but they are not at all like us.

Into this world comes Meg Corbyn, a homeless waif with a secret. A Courtyard takes her in as their "Human Liaison" and the history of the world starts to pivot. Meg is engaging vulnerable, empathetic, curious, kind, and dutiful. Her innocence is explained by her sequestered life as a cassandra sangue, a woman who can see the future if her is skin is sliced. That she is kind and extremely likable is explained only by the fact that she is Meg.

The interaction between Meg and the Others is one of the most enjoyable things about the book. They laugh at her and puzzle over her but they also give her shelter. They declare her to "Our Meg" and protect her even though they are unaware of her background. She becomes, in effect, a valued pet human.

The treatment of the cassandra sangue by humans is far more monstrous than anything the Others do. When the Others sell human flesh as "Special Meat" it is an honest, malice-free act. When humans exploit the cassandra sangue, their actions are both fundamentaly inhumane and realistically human.

Anne Bishop's alternative reality is as dark and threatening as an ancient forest. Immediately after reading the book, I might have said that the darkness came from the constant threat the Others pose to humans, but the darkest image lingering in my imagination is Meg's razor: the one with her number on it, the one that was used to slice her skin to force her visions, the only thing she carried with her to her new freedom. The razor is a source pain and pleasure, a sign of slavery and a badge of honour, a bone-deep fear and a heart-felt desire. The razor and all it means, makes Meg Corbyn much darker than she first appears to be. In many ways it brings her closer to being one of the Others and makes her disturbing as well as engaging.

In "Written in Red", most humans who have power or are seeking it, are not mentally equipped to accept a status quo in which they are not at the top of the food chain. They are constantly plotting, looking for an edge that will enable them to become the apex predators. This seemed realistic to me, although I think the human evil-doers would have been more interesting if they had been a little less irredeemably venal.

Alexandra Harris does an excellent job as the narrator, particularly with the voice she uses for Meg.

"Written In Red" is original, rigorously thought through, passionate and written in deceptively simple prose. I believe it is the start of an outstanding series.









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105 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Just TOOO Cute (for adults)

Really, way too cute. I expected a dark adult urban fantasy. Instead this was beyond Disneyesque.

There are cute ponies, cute puppies, cute talking animals, lots of cookies & peppermint tea, shopping & catalogs, and making friends, as well as an unbelievable amount of mail sorting. Yes, there were some potentially dark themes of cutting, vampires, and were-creatures, but everything was so darn cute and simplistic there was little tension.

Even the antagonist is too cute to stomach.

The universe did not seem internally consistent to me. The internet exists, but humans are woefully uniformed about vamps and werepacks. The protagonist was raised without emotional sensations except those stimulated by ritual cutting, yet is just as cute as a button and peppy as can be. There are also direct inconsistencies like the protagonist sometimes knowing about wolves and sometimes not. I am also dubious that associating self-mutilation with psychic-powers for impressionable young females readers is the best of ideas.

The prose were weak, perhaps just ok for young readers, but too childlike for me. The universe is like 1990s US with the names changed to protect the cuteness. LA is “Sparkletown”, Wednesday is “Windsday”, and so on. Everyone and everything has a cute name. The masculine characters are all amazingly weak and PC considering they are mostly werecreatures and police.

The writing was also totally predicable. After the second chapter if you pause and ask yourself “How will this book turn out?” You will likely guess correctly on every aspect. There was literally not a single thing that surprised me.

The environment is not urban, instead it is like a friendly small college town where prey and predator learn mutual respect, how to understand each other and work together.

The narration is quite annoying with exaggerated cutesy-pie or gruff, but I find it hard to blame the narrator for this, as it seems that is how the characters were written.

My daughter really liked this series and recommended it to me. She loved the cuteness juxtaposed with darkness, and the characters and story, for her, made up for any inconsistencies. Nevertheless I would not even recommend this for young readers.

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84 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I should have known - bad choice

Nope - not my style, not my kind of story. With one exception - I think this book will be a great lullaby book - ie. with such a silent/quiet voice with no inflictions, and a story line that doesn't require you to actually pay attention, I'm sure I'll be asleep in no time.

I like the genre - but this is too much a soft-novel produced in the millions all similar with basic no brainer plotlines. The characters are way too feminine - with nothing that I could characterize as remotely real.

Note to Audible - it would be GREAT if you had a simple feature where we could list authors we like and we DON'T like and books would be marked accordingly. Ie. a simple warning saying "you've marked Ann Bishop as a non-preferred author" would be helpful. And authors I like should be smacked right in the middle of the front page when they release new books. A simple change to Audible that would make it much easier and beneficial to us (audio) book worms.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Arrrooooo!!!

I absolutely adored this book. This is my first exposure to this author and all I can say is that I'm just blown away. The book covers are gorgeous and I can be lured in by beautiful graphics. I'm a book slut that way.

I didn't enjoy the narrator as much. I much prefer deeper voices and the voice seemed too young adult. However the voice was consistent and smooth. I could get past those slight annoyance and enjoy the story.

The premise of the story, based on a person who cut themselves (because they were a blood prophet), didn't appeal to me when I first learned of it and even though I had several recommendations by book friends, I resisted until now.

Finally in desperate need of a good book and looking for new authors I took the leap. Talk about rock my world. The best way I can describe this is an alternate reality story that is similar to our own world, but imagine instead that humans were the minority. Think of white man coming to America and finding indigenous natives that could and would readily eat you. It took a while but human finally negotiated a foot hold with bartering with the Others. Then after several hundred years as what rings strongly with our own society, humans forget what they should be grateful for and how they should be beholden too and starts creating trouble. They should let sleeping wolves lie as if they rouse they can not only eat you, but crush entire cities.

The main protagonist, Meg (who is the blood prophet), is actually an escaped slave who gets a job with the Others, and unknowingly starts changing the world of Others and Humans in her efforts to learn to be human and learn to coexist with the Others. She is not the strong fighter, and in fact scared a lot but she is brave in her own way. I didn't find this annoying because she wasn't whimpy/whiny. Even though the story is dark and violent as all the best Urban Fantasies are, there is so much charm and humor and the relationships and points of view of the different story lines are intriguing (other than one I didn't enjoy to much). I adored the elemental ponies, 'wolf' beds and cookies and Simon in his gruff/rough way was seriously too cute. Major hugs and scritches to Sam too.

Don't expect romance or sex - in fact I found it refreshing to see the development of relationships without it. (Reminds me of the lovely slow/strong relationship building of Kate and Curran over many books in the Magic series by Ilona Andrews) This story is NOT regular tame shifters that are just fury people. These are truly MONSTERS and the world building is just awesome.

My only little grumble was not liking the point of view of female baddie - she was just too annoying for me, rather than scary or worrisome.

As soon as I finished this I jumped on the next "Murder of Crows". I"m already jonsing for book 3.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent...

I have already listened to this twice. It takes a little while to get used to since it is a different twist on the shifter human relations then you see in most paranormal books, but that is what makes it so good. The characters are excellent, well developed and likable. Bishop does a good job of establishing and explaining the world for these characters. The story is engaging and keeps you listening and wanting more at the end. I already cannot wait for the next book to come out.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting premise hindered by repetition

I was intrigued by the premise of the story but quickly lost interest. I thought the dialogue was repetitive and the storyline boringly predictable. The narrator's performance was fair, but I think her creative talents were hindered by the author's inability to escape circular character exchanges. This storyline might have been improved if written in novella form.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

COMFORTABLE SHOES

SHE CHOSE THE BLUE DRESS AND COMFORTABLE SHOES
Some female authors are my favorites, some who write like females are not. This is written in the way my wife explains to me how to take the laundry out of the washer and put it into the dryer, making me feel like a stupid kid. Lots of women and some men like to talk about every little thing in their life, few men do and most men could care less.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mundane details killed this book for me

What disappointed you about Written in Red?

I'd like to say I enjoyed the book, but I feel like I mostly mildly tolerated it just to know what happened as I don't like to leave books unfinished. The author fixates on extremely mundane details. There is so much fuss over putting on and/or taking off boots, moping up melted snow, and other things that I really just didn't care about. It slowed the book down tremendously, and while I can see how it fit with the naivety of the protagonist, it drove me nuts to listen to the repetition of routine tasks and how much concern everyone had over what nobody would even think about in their daily life.

What didn’t you like about Alexandra Harris’s performance?

She is a very slow reader, which made a slow story crawl even more. It added to the sense of mundane to this book, and I was honestly very bored through much of the book and I wonder how much had to do with the pace of the reading. Her voices were fairly good, other than Simon's voice (too hostile all the time).

What character would you cut from Written in Red?

Overall I enjoyed most of the characters. The female antagonist was highly annoying, fairly stupid for someone who is supposedly gifted at what she does.

Any additional comments?

As a fan of other worlds such as Jim Butcher or Faith Hunter where more action takes place in a vivid and brilliant world, I found Bishop's world laking somewhat in believability. I feel like the author could have done so much more with this book if the premise wasn't so... boring. I found myself not as engaged or enthralled by Bishop's world, I found it very simple and odd incongruences in the behaviour of the people in that world. If you are more action-based urban fantasy, like myself, this book may not be for you.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

OK book, will not listen to that narrator again

The story is interesting in its premise. It even starts with a brief history of the world that sets the scene which I thought helpful. I just couldn't figure out if it was for teens, or adults because the place names and story sometimes followed at a Harry Potter level, but there were graphic descriptions of gore and sexual intimacy, so not Harry Potter. I believe it is supposed to be for YA at the very least.

The reading level aside, the narrator sounded like she was reading a bedtime story with too ooey-gooey sweet voices. The protagonist was voiced like a 10 year old. I feel this is unfortunate, because if I read the book on paper, I might have had a different idea of how dialogue was exchanged, or the story was told. But even the narrative outside dialogue was told with the flourish of a knight in shining armor fairy tale.

I think the author is talented. Maybe overuses a the same word at times (in 3 minutes 3 different people "shrugged" on their coat). But the narration killed it. It was like listening to Stephen King's IT being read to a kindergarten class. It might well be worth a read in paper, but the audiobook didn't resonate with me personally.

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