Counter-Review?
A bit. Probably. I did decide to post it because I wanted to put up a contrasting review that adresses why people like the series. I hope I made it an objective review on it's own of the series, while adressing the themes that some people have trouble with.
Wait, What?
I think this puts it rather well. You dive straight into the heart of the issue when addressing morality and attempt to set expectations. It's spot on.
I do like that the author likes dogs. You can tell Rachel is a favorite of his.
Rachel has been a fantastic character overall. You'd think the whole simple-minded brute archetype would be incapable of character development, but he's done a fantastic job in creating a tremendously complex character where logically, it shouldn't be possible.
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A well thought out world, and a very grey and black one too.
Doing the Wrong Things for the Right Reasons. That's the series tagline. And really that is the heart of the series. This is a very Grey and Black series. The protagonist stumbles. She may end up doing awful things. If you don't like characters doing bad things while trying to do good things, this series is not for you. And yet dispite everything it's not that cynical a series in my opinion. Often the wrong thing, no matter how good the reason, still is the wrong thing. It makes things worse. Characters do very morally dubious things, and yet remain if not sympathetic, understandable. This isn't a simple cut and dry "Right is right, and wrong is wrong" story. This isn't an idealistic story about a person who clings to their moral standing, and inspires others, winning the day. This is about a character who finds that they are better at helping people by doing things that they never would have thought themselves capable of. Then finding that sometimes, those moral comprimises weren't worth it, in surprising ways.
The other great strength of the series is the depth of the world. I've heard authors say that you should have more pages in the notes on the story than the finished story. Well the Author of this series certainly spent time planning this world out. Every so often we get an Interlude Chapter, switching us to another characters viewpoint, giving us background on them, and letting us see another point of view on the leads and events. And this is where we see that as Grey and Black as things seem, there are genuinely heroic and noble characters. Legend, Chevalier, Dragon, and more. They are people who do their best to make the world a better place, and in some cases are immensly compasionate. They make mistakes, sometimes they make a situation worse, but then again they are only human. Other chapters go into the mind of characters that play a major role, and that what they seem like on the outside isn't what they are like on the inside. And sometimes we get to see take a trip inside the heads of the real monsters of the series. The serial killers and monsters that terrioze the world, and see the depths of their evil and insanity. And it all makes a rich tapestry.
Oh, and the author likes dogs too.