Shadow Unit 6

Shadow Unit #6

by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Leah Bobet

The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts humanity's worst nightmares. But there are nightmares humanity doesn't dream are real. The BAU sends those cases down the hall. Welcome to Shadow Unit.
The Shadow Unit series was created by award-winning authors Emma Bull and Elizabeth Bear.

Contains
Wind-Up Boogeyman by Elizabeth Bear
Cuckoo by Emma Bull
and more by Elizabeth Bear, Leah Bobet & Will Shetterly, and others.

Genres: Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Horror, Fantasy

Nook

First published August 3, 2011

About the author

Emma Bull is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. She has participated in Terri Windling's Borderland shared universe, which is the setting of her 1994 novel Finder. She sang in the rock-funk band Cats Laughing, and both sang and played guitar in the folk duo The Flash Girls while living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Her 1991 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel Bone Dance was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Bull wrote a screenplay for War for the Oaks, which was made into an 11-minute mini-film designed to look like a film trailer. She made a cameo appearance as the Queen of the Seelie Court, and her husband, Will Shetterly, directed. Bull and Shetterly created the shared universe of Liavek, for which they have both written stories. There are five Liavek collections extant.

She was a member of the writing group The Scribblies, which included Will Shetterly as well as Pamela Dean, Kara Dalkey, Nate Bucklin, Patricia Wrede and Steven Brust. With Steven Brust, Bull wrote Freedom and Necessity (1997), an epistolary novel with subtle fantasy elements set during the 19th century United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Chartist movement.

Bull graduated from Beloit College in 1976. Bull and Shetterly live in Arizona.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting concentration on the fall-out from last volume's confrontation between Chaz and Brady. Reyes gets his (in a manner of speaking) as does his boss. Interesting development in the hierarchy. Too much detail in some parts, but interesting overall.

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shadow Unit continues to enthrall me.

[Lotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two major cases in this part. I read the first case quickly, the second had to wait a few days. Very good, as always. I like that the stories are more inclusive than others I've read (one critic on amazon called it "too politically correct"). Characters keep evolving, and the second case hinted at interesting plot developments in coming books. I have to take a break from the series for a little while, but I do look forward to reading the rest of them.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obsession continues. I do worry about running out...I hate when I read a book I really like only to find out the next one won't be out for a year. And then it takes two. I've accepted that I don't really get the anomaly because it is enough that there is a point for the group to work together.

[KA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even the short stories and vignettes in this one were spot-on; you get more Solomon Todd (finally!), and Reyes's character is wonderfully complicated and deepened. I am so addicted.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the whole series up to this points but haven't been recording them.
VERY enjoyable.

[Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally not where I hoped this was going, totally well executed and engaging all the same.

"No no no no no!"

Etc.

This series has me caught but good.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Articulate, immaculate, and manipulative are adjectives which apply to Stephen Reyes. Referred to as “Dad”, he’s the one who recruited most of the Shadow Unit, putting together a remarkable team to hunt a specific type of serial killer, one whom rides the boundary between the natural and the supernatural; the gamma.

This time the gamma is the one who’s caught Stephen Reyes, holding his captive, trying to unearth his secrets amidst her madness; just when Reyes’s team is on the point of fragmenting, unsure if it can be trust him, frightened by his calculating choices.

All of his williness, all of his psychological skill, and his empathy are necessary for Reyes to survive his ordeal. For he has faith in his team, their ability to rescue him, even if their faith in him is frayed.

Stephen Reyes in peril was quite a twist, and yet somehow a natural consequence of his hunt and the hurt it brings, sandwiched between exquisite character snapshots of Chaz Villette, Hafidha Gates, Daphne Worth, Solomon Todd, to name a few. Before Reyes’s ordeal, there was another hunt, where a reconcilation bloomed between a couple of estranged characters in all its organic beauty. There is something shattering about a powerful individual being victimized, yet even captive, Stephen Reyes was dangerous. Seeing what he could do in such a position both humanized him and made him more formidable. Reyes’s ordeal opened him up to bonding with his estranged protége, Chaz Villette, opening the door for their reconciliation as well.

All the while, there be an even greater danger than the gamma who took Reyes, waiting for the Shadow Unit.

I’ve become quite attached to the agents of the Shadow Unit, their personal struggle, as well as how they function as they hunt. I’m eager to see more of them.