I have never in my life ended a book more furious. I had steam coming out of my ears and ranted around the house for at least 2 hours. This was the biggest tease and set up to a romantic happy ending I've ever read and at the end, for no valid reason, the two involved decide not to go on with a relationship. I read books all the time where things don't work out between a couple but the author owes it to the reader to set if up as that might be the outcome not set everything up to have this delicious sexual tension play out over 3 books and then when it's come to fruition and they are both in the same place emotionally and physically just jerk the rug out. It was like getting to the end of a Harlequin romance and having the hero and heroine just decide no let's just don't. I felt absolutely betrayed. It wasn't like in say [b:Middlemarch|19089|Middlemarch (Signet Classics)|George Eliot|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309202283s/19089.jpg|1461747]where you hoped but knew it was coming and it was gonna end bad.

Add the stuff I mentioned in the spoiler and the shamanistic dream stuff that just went on and on and didn't advance the plot and I'm done with this series. ( )

Overview:

This third instalment of the Walker Papers sets itself a significant challenge that it doesn’t entirely rise to: how do you make fighting sleep exciting?

The strength of this book lay in the character development and the dialogue.

The weakness lay in an excess of metaphor-heavy astral combat.

Moved the series along but if this is the shape of episodes to come, I’ll be tuning out of this series.

The Story:

Joanne Walker’s actions in the first two books, “Urban Shaman” and “Thunderbird Falls”, have caused a disturbance in the Force, or at least woken up an as-yet-unknown big bad that is sending all Joanne’s friends (which includes half a Police Precinct) into a potentially lethal sleep. Joanne has to figure out what the threat is and how to stop it while dealing with big changes in her social life (she finally seems to have one) and confronting trauma in her past that made her the late-developing Shaman she is today.

Things I Liked:

The humour remains sharp and well-dressed. Joanne’s progress through her day is a chaotic rush from crisis to crisis lubricated by witty or sometimes regretful exchanges with her friends, bosses and even her maybe-enemies. This is done in a way that is smooth without being slick, makes me care enough about the characters and often gives me cause to smile.

The introduction of two new characters, (one of whom Joanne wakes up next to in the opening paragraphs – even though she doesn’t know his name or remember how he got there) freshened up the ensemble cast and gave lots of room for jealousy, misunderstanding, wit and a little bit of genuine insight.

I enjoyed going back and seeing Joanne Walker’s earlier self and getting a better understanding of how she got to be where she is. It was a welcome origins story that was done well.

The book ended with some decisions about Joanne Walker’s future that could set the series on a new and more varied path, which would be very welcome.

Things I Thought Could Have Been Better:

The astral-projection dream-landscape stuff went on for too long and without enough physical action in between. The Walker Papers has the same problem as Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” comics, most of the conflicts happen at a level and in a place the rest of us can’t even see. This places a heavy burden on the metaphor machine. C.E: Murphy does this well but this novel had an over-abundance of it. I hope future episode will vary the pace a little. ( )

Woman who has discovered that she is a shaman must find out why her friends (and many other cops) are falling asleep and won't wake up. She must learn to trust herself, her power and her past to prevent the end of the world.

DNF ( )

Review from 2016-

This is a series I read when I want a well written book, not too deep, with genuine characters. Its not great literature, but its a cold Sunday afternoon literature.

In this book, Joanne is still reeling from what happened in the previous book - her Spirit Guide seems to be missing, and on top of it it, the members of her police force are falling into a coma.

Of course - this isn't great literature. There are some random things that are unexplained or just don't make sense, but for the most part, it doesn't matter.

Review from 2011-

This isn't my favorite series - too many things are easy for Joanne and she whines too much. In this book, Joanne is dealing with the results of the last book, her powers waking up a sleeping God who is charged with bringing his people to the next world after Armageddon. Its rather a mediocre story - Joanne running around trying to fix things, her spirit guide missing. She's on other own for this one.

There is too much angst, Joanne running around feeling sorry for herself. I also didn't like the randomness of this story - there was no real plan.

Its not a bad book, but not great either. This makes an excellent excellent beach read. ( )