My aunt G gave me a Karen Marie Moning (KMM) paperback for my birthday a while ago. I haven’t properly thanked her for the umm, addiction. Aunt G is only eight years older than me. She has been my role model for defiant habits like dying my hair, smoking pot and getting tattoos but mostly for being kickass. I guess you could say I’m the Danny to her MacKayla.  

The cover of Beyond the Highland Mist, KMM’s first novel in the Highlander series, ought to have clued me in that aunt G was passing on a kind of substance. I smoked through the whole series like a flash fire. I’m not sure I paused long enough to crease the spines!  

The blaze got to me on a deeper level in the Fever series.

I had to plan rest breaks to make it through. I have an appreciation for hot people, and this series is full of them. I’m also a dreamer, and the WORLDBUILDING begged me to slow down, to notice. The virtual world morphed with every page I turned.

The New York Times Book Review called KMM’s worldbuilding “extensive” and “inspired.” I couldn’t have said it better! In an earlier post, My TOP 5 all-time favourite worlds, I stated that I wouldn’t want to BE literally in this Fever world, but I recant that. Maybe the months of social distancing for the coronavirus have made me crave some otherworldly adventure. It’s been a long pandemic. I’d pay to “sift” into High Voltage right about now.

The world of the Fever series is like recurring dreams I’ve had. It’s uncanny. Holes show up in the ground out of nowhere, rooms relocate themselves, and I don’t quite know where I am. Are these universal human nightmares? I’m beginning to think they are.  

As a reader, I felt as disoriented and anxious as the protagonist, MacKayla Lane, seemed to be. Despite continual shifts to the physical world, it all held together convincingly. I can’t help wondering if KMM knew what she was building when she jotted her first notes. 

Building blocks from the Highlander series exist in the Fever series, although the action moved from Scotland to Ireland. The MacKeltar clan, the compact between races, the Celtic mythology, the Druids, the Fairy, the POWER all carried forward – and then some.  

Sex is a huge part of this world, but so is survival. Fighting for life is primal, and this series is on fire with primal energy!

One place that’s dripping with heat is Chester’s Nightclub. I could dance until I died at that club. Between you and me, I would totally go snooping around between songs. I want to know what’s happening on all those other levels? What’s going on in the private rooms? And what mysteries Barrons and Ryodan are hiding?

Of course, if I survived a night at Chester’s, I would head straight for Barrons Books & Baubles in the morning. I don’t move as fast as Dani “Mega” O’Malley, but I wouldn’t waste a minute before checking out every notable location in this series. I would be so dead. Curiosity killed the cat, and I would be a dead cat.  

I like how Karen Marie Moning built worlds inside many of the characters. During the series, MacKayla’s insides expand downwards to a dark lake, and Dany goes to a place in her head that makes her move “mega” fast. Each book in KMM’s series is like stepping into a mirror in the Hall of All Days - worlds of their own yet somehow connected.  

I will read this series again and again. I like getting close to the fire!

Kingdom of Shadow and Light – coming 23 February 2021  

Hey, KMM fans! Are you as psyched as I am for the next installment? 

Marsha Masseau

I’m Marsha, an avid virtual-world-traveller! Digging into the fictional worlds – in books, plays and films – of other writers has become a passion. To my mind, every story fits a broader context, and I want to understand what makes them work or not.