Deviations, by Elissa Malcohn

Many critics will tell you that every book, regardless of whether or not it is part of a series, should stand on its own feet. I hold that is not necessarily the case. In the same way that J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings is a single book published in three volumes, so is Elissa Malcohn's Deviations series really a single book published in five volumes.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations series, Deviations: Covenant, Deviations: Appetite, Deviations: Destiny, Deviations: Bloodlines, and Deviations: Telzodo, asks a simple question. “What happens when one sentient species has an absolute need to feed on the flesh of another sentient species?” Malcohn takes the question a step further and explores how different, closely associated cultures handle the same problem, and what happens when characters from the different cultures interact.

Malcohn's worldbuilding is excellent, and the imagery her writing evokes reminds me very much of Appalachia in the United States. Just like in Appalachia, towns in different valleys, in many ways, might as well be in different countries. The study of the different cultures in Deviations makes the series most interesting to read.

Rather than stuff judgements of right and wrong down the reader's throat, Malcohn asks questions, and leads the reader to find his own answers. Further, she develops the ideas of right and wrong from her characters' points of view, and the points of view of her various cultures.

One warning I will give prospective readers, though. Get the whole series, and allot a large chunk of time for reading them, because once you pick them up you won't want to put them down.