Rellyh

Good second book

The avian world while not as brutal as the first book ( steps are being made to protect the lower rank species) is still very much a class based system. If you are one of the lower ranked species like Kane there still is no way to protect yourself from the prejudices of the high ranked species.
Kane's history and upbringing is horrific, with no role model to help him fight against the weakness of his magpie species. At the start of the book he was extremely unlikeable and it wasn't until his detox that he became a character that I could care about. His mistrust of everyone's motivation and inbuilt desire to protect himself lead to him making a number of mistakes. His reactions to Everett's pain was sweet and a major turning point for his character.
Everett is a fantastic character and good match for the untrusting Kane. His stoic personality and and ability to handle Kane with both a firm but yet kind hand was the key to their relationship. By giving Kane only a few rules, important ones, but ones that he could easily follow we were able to see the growth of Kane as he changed from wanting to buck the system to wanting to please Everett.
Their relationship was very different from Raynard's and Ori's but it needed to be as the personalities of Everett and Kane were so vastly different from the other two. Kane would not have been able to thrive under the same conditions as Ori, he is just not built that way.
Hamilton's class snobbery really annoyed me in this book. I really wish someone would take him down a peg or two.
Looking forward to reading more about this world, hopefully Ambrose will be in the next book, as I really want to see more from him.