“In all those years, he must have had mortals who served him. Perhaps he calls them something else?”
“I never cared about mortals until I had a living body. Unless they were possessed. Then I ate them.” [loc. 5003]
There are five short books in this omnibus edition, but I barely noticed the joins.
The second series of SPECTR picks up some months after the end of Series One. John and Caleb (and Gray) are working for SPECTR, but Gray is chafing at the restrictions -- such as caring more about saving possessed mortals than eating the demons possessing them -- and Caleb is uncomfortably aware that he represents nothing more than a very valuable Gray-container to SPECTR. To complicate matters, John's boss Kaniyar has been promoted, and he and Caleb now report to District Chief Barillo, a micromanager who's out of his depth and who strongly disapproves of John's liaison (professional and personal) with a 'faust', or demon-possessed individual. On the plus side, there's a new member of their team, Zahira Noorzai, who thinks Gray is 'amazing'.
Luckily Caleb is not without resources. He finds a support group for people with mild paranormal abilities (though obviously he can't tell them about his co-pilot), and then -- even better -- encounters another drakul, as powerful as Gray, and his charming host Yuri. Maybe it's time for Caleb and Gray to learn a bit more about the demon-infested world and their place in it.
Like series 1, this was a quick read that built steadily to a pyrotechnic finale but didn't sacrifice characterisation, humour or style. There's plenty of tension, a genuine sense of development, and even more diversity than in the first series. There's a lot about gender in this series: there's also a mature and sensitive examination of the interplay between trust and love. John, Caleb and Gray negotiate the dynamics of their poly relationship, and the complex web of loyalties and affection, imperfectly but satisfactorily.
And I was extremely happy that, amid the somewhat stylised hyperviolence, the big bad was defeated by a mortal woman with a heartfelt grudge.
Onto season 3 except oh wait, it isn't complete yet ...
... never mind, I'll read in installments.
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