Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, Book 5) by Ilona Andrews

 

Magic Slays is only the fifth book in this series, but it feels like we are eight or nine books into it. The husband and wife team of Illona Andrews pack a whole lot into each of their books.

There will be no spoilers for Magic Slays in this review, but if you haven't read previous books in the series then you probably won't want to read ahead.

The Kate Daniels series is one of my all time favorite series. I adore Kate and her smart assed attitude. She's always been mature well beyond her years, but when she was only responsible for herself she could afford to mouth off a lot more than she was able to in Magic Slays. She and Curren are the Alpha pair, and she speaks for the Pack, so she must watch what she says. To balance that out though, we also get to see the positive parts of her new position, and we see her making her way just fine with it. Mostly.

To all of the authors who say the series is over once you let the relationship actually form, I give you a big old raspberry. Kate and Curran are fine, and I enjoy watching them together much more than I enjoyed watching them apart.  Jeaniene Frost has managed to keep a series going with a couple as the lead, Carrie Vaughn is doing just fine with it, as is Devon Monk, and Patricia Briggs, and I'm sure  more that I'm just not thinking of at the moment.

We were given the first two chapters last year for a few days and then they were pulled. Those chapters have gone through a major rewrite since then, with a major conversation taking place with a different person than the original version. I like the revised version better, as it answers more questions and makes more sense.

Here is the blurb:

Plagued by a war between magic and technology, Atlanta has never been so deadly. Good thing Kate Daniels is on the job. 

Kate Daniels may have quit the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, but she's still knee-deep in paranormal problems. Or she would be if she could get someone to hire her. Starting her own business has been more challenging than she thought it would be-now that the Order is disparaging her good name. Plus, many potential clients are afraid of getting on the bad side of the Beast Lord, who just happens to be Kate's mate.

So when Atlanta's premier Master of the Dead calls to ask for help with a vampire on the loose, Kate leaps at the chance of some paying work. But it turns out that this is not an isolated incident. Kate needs to get to the bottom of it-and fast, or the city and everyone dear to her may pay the ultimate price..

As for the writing elements:

• There are two main plots and a ton of sub plots. All are interesting and twisted. A few are verging on demented. Most of them kept me on the edge of my seat. Or, would have if I'd been sitting on a seat.
• Pacing was frantic, but I've come to expect frantic for this series and it's perfect.
• Prose and dialogue are excellent.
• Character development is above and beyond excellent. 
• World building continues to amaze me.

Magic Slays easily gets a 10 of 10. In some ways it is a filler book, preparing us for the big showdown that is probably still two books away. But in many ways it is much much more than a filler. Yes, it's building up to something big, and resolution of the plots are also helping to prepare the way for the coming battles, but that's okay. It's a good book, a great read, and incredibly entertaining. There were over a dozen laugh out loud moments. It's a seriously good book that is part of a seriously great series.

• Book Rating: Magic Slays: 10 of 10
• Series Rating: 10 of 10

1) Magic Bites (2007)
2) Magic Burns (2008)
3) Magic Strikes (March 31, 2009)
3.5) Magic Mourns in the anthology Must Love Hellhounds (Sept 1, 2009)
4) Magic Bleeds (May 2010)
5) Magic Slays
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Dark and Stormy Nights - Anthology by Jim Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, Lilith Saintcrow, PN Elrod, etc.

 

I read four of the stories in the Dark and Stormy Knights anthology.

A Questionable Client by Ilona Andrews is the story of the first time Kate met Saiman. We've heard bits and pieces of this story as the series has progressed, now we get the whole story. I doubt it would be that good as a stand alone story if you aren't familiar with the Kate Daniels series, but as part of the series it was a nice short story.

Even Hand by Jim Butcher is told from the viewpoint of Marcone, and I very much enjoyed the story. If you aren't going to buy the book and just have time to read one story while standing in a bookstore somewhere, this is the one you should read. In my opinion, of course.

God’s Creatures by Carrie Vaughn is a Cormac story, one I'm assuming happened long before he went to jail. He's on a solo job, and we get an idea of how he works. Or worked, I guess. It's further insight into how he thinks... the morals of a paid assassin.

Dark Lady by P. N. Elrod is a Jack Fleming story. If you like historical gangster stuff then you may enjoy this series, and this story. Imagine a vampire mixing it up with the gangsters and you've got an idea of the basis for the series.

Other stories in the anthology include The Beacon by Shannon K. Butcher, Even a Rabbit Will Bite by Rachel Caine, Beknighted by Deidre Knight, Shifting Star by Vicki Pettersson, and Rookwood & Mrs. King by Lilith Saintcrow.

Here's the blurb:

They’re the ultimate defenders of humanity—modern day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons. In this all-star collection, nine of today’s hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights that are brimming with magic mystery and mayhem.

John Marcone sets aside his plans to kill Harry Dresden to go head-to-head with a cantrev lord in Jim Butcher’s Even Hand. Kate Daniels is called upon for bodyguard duty to protect Saimen, a shifter she trusts less than the enemy in Ilona Andrews’ A Questionable Client. Cormac must stop a killer werewolf before it attacks again on the next full moon in Carrie Vaughn’s God’s Creatures. And in Vicki Pettersson’s Shifting Star, Skamar gets more than she bargained for when she goes after a creature kidnapping young girls—and enlists the aid of her frustratingly sexy neighbor.

When everything’s on the line, will these knights complete their missions and live to fight again another day? Find out in Dark and Stormy Knights!

I'm not sure how to rate an anthology, so I'm not going to try. For the most part I'm not a fan of anthologies in general. Especially a story that is an intrinsic part of a series storyline. Kim Harrison is terrible about that - making it so that if you missed an anthology piece then you are completely lost when you read the next book in the series. Charlaine Harris has done it a few times as well. Of the four stories I read, I think there is information in Jim Butcher's story that will probably be important in a future book, but I don't believe there is anything in the other three stories that would be important knowledge for upcoming books.

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Another Kate 5 Snippet taken down - Saiman and Curran

The writing team of Ilona Andrews once again had a snippet up for a short time and then took it down. If you haven't read the first four books then this is a huge spoiler for what happens in those books.

This snippet has Kate and Derek and a few others going back to her office, and as they get near the office Derek growls and says "the pervert". Kate walks into her office and sees Saiman there, and wonders if he has a death wish.

After some discussion where Saiman basically says he'd like to make nice with Curran and get back on the good side of the pack, Saiman shows Kate a video. The video takes place the morning after Saiman took Kate out, parading her on his arm in front of Curran. Likely a few hours after Kate refused to go back to the Keep with Curran to announce to the pack that they were now an item.

In the video, Curran walks into a warehouse with several million dollars worth of cars - Lamborghinis, Maseratis, etc. He basically just tosses the guards away, hurts them without injuring them, but makes his point that he can just walk right into a heavily guarded warehouse without a problem. And then he lets his temper go on the cars. Tosses them around like toys. At one point he rips an engine out of a car and beats the other cars with it. He throws cars up in the air so they land upside down on a different car. Completely vents his temper out on these cars. And when he's done he looks straight at the camera with his calm face, and then walks out. Kate doesn't blame Saiman for being terrified.

Saiman makes an offer to tell her where someone is that she's looking for if she'll talk to the Beast Lord and make it so that Saiman is no longer considered a bad guy by the pack (not in those words, but you get the idea). Kate says no thanks, they'll find him on their own. But she does say she'll talk to the Beast Lord, but won't make any promises.

It's a rather lengthy snippet, and most of the fun in this snippet has to do with the way the authors tell the story -- the humor, the camaraderie, the strength and wildness and scariness in what Curran does, the fear Saiman doesn't want anyone to know about... the authors have such an incredible grasp of the English language and how to use it to tell a fantastic story. I can't wait for Kate 5 (tentatively titled Magic Sucks at this point), but it looks like we're going to have to.

Here is a synopsis of the first excerpt that was taken down.

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Kate Daniels Book Five Chapters One and Two

The writing team of Ilona Andrews briefly put up the first two chapters of the fifth Kate Daniels book (tentatively titled Magic Sucks), as a thank you for making Magic Bleeds such a success. But then apparently changed their minds, and they have since taken it down.

I did not listen to the little voice in my head that told me to c&p it, so all I have is my memory to go by, but I'll give a synopsis based on my memory:

Kate is in her new office. It's been a few months and she hasn't had anyone hire her. She's looking over the bills, depressed at all she owes. When the magic flicks off and tech comes back she turns the light off to save electricity.

Ghastek calls her, a necromancer journeyman has fainted and now a vamp is out and loose, and headed towards Kate. Kate jumps into action and runs outside, clears the street of people, sets up a chain on a tree, commandeers a horse (I think, could have been a mule, don't remember) and cuts it to get it to bleed. She gets her hand bloody and waves it around until the vamp comes at her, and manages to get the chain around the vamp's neck and then get away from it. She's wondering how long the tree will hold when Ghastek gets close enough to possess the vamp and get it under control.

The First Response people show up. I think they are PAD - could be wrong, but that's what I'll call them. PAD shows up and Kate steps in front of the vampire, telling them it's under control. PAD isn't happy, they want to shoot something. Ghastek makes the vamp bow to show it's under control. Then Ghastek shows up and is being berated and threatened by PAD for allowing a vamp to go out of control, and Ghastek faints, putting the vamp out of control again. PAD starts shooting and they kill one of the People with Ghastek and seriously wound the other. Kate drags Ghastek and the girl into her office while PAD shoots what sounds like more than a thousand rounds into the vamp to make sure it's dead.

Then two people from PAD come knocking on her door, telling her to open up, and she refuses. She's managed to get the bleeding mostly stopped on the girl who was shot, but did it with a tourniquet and the girl is still critical and needs to get to a hospital quickly and is probably going to lose her leg. Kate is sure if she turns these two over to PAD that they will "die of their injuries on the way to the hospital". PAD threatens to kick the door in, Kate tells them they need a warrant. They decide Kate's life is in danger and that means they don't need a warrant. Kate points out the Pack seal over the door, reminds them that they don't want to come up against Pack lawyers, and they stop to think that one through (the Pack must have some kick-ass lawyers). In the end she makes them a deal that if they bring either a warrant, or the detective she's worked with before (don't remember his name, sorry) that she'll open up. They get the detective on the scene, Kate opens up, and they take the two People to the hospital.

The Nice Detective points out she ticked off PAD and she doesn't want to make an enemy of "them". She thinks that is odd wording, wonders why he's separating himself from PAD, says "Them?" to him, and learns he is GBI. She asks if that makes him an agent, he said special agent. She asks if it is new, he says (I think) something like "more than a decade" (not sure, but it's been a long time, much longer than she's known him). She points out that he introduced himself to her as Detective and he says he must have had his reasons. He asks her why she didn't call the People, since she had two of them here, one unconscious and the other very close to bleeding out. She chooses her words carefully, saying that if she'd called the People they would have sent help in the form of a vamp, and that while she has respect for PAD (they are the first responders, the first to get shot, etc), that they were fresh off of a kill and would have likely killed any vamp showing up at the scene, under control or not, and her goal was to keep the peace.

Both Ghastek (before he faints) and the detective ask her how she managed to get the vamp in the chain without getting hurt herself. She casually blows off the question both times (one of the times I think she says something like "I have mad skills") and then changes the subject. She just keeps doing things to draw attention to herself, doesn't she? She'd have been better off just killing the vamp, since it takes more skill to capture one than kill it.

When the detective/special agent leaves he says he may be back with more questions.

Kate is cleaning up the blood in her office when Andrea walks in. Kate tells us that she hasn't heard from Andrea in months, not since all of the stuff with her aunt. She's called Andrea with no answer, gone to her house and no response, etc. Andrea walks in noting the bullet holes outside, the blood outside, the blood inside, and asks where the list is -- since Kate's hands are bloody Andrea can cross off bullets, cops, and a few other things I don't remember.

And that's it - no discussion about why Andrea removed herself from Kate's life, whether she's there on a friendly visit (or not)... nothing. Oh,and Andrea is loaded down with weapons when she arrives. Not terribly unusual for her, but it's enough to make me wonder if this is an official visit or a friendly visit.

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That's what I remember. What I came away with is that there is something making The People faint, and that will probably be a big part of the plot.

For the rest of what I came up with, there will be spoilers for the first four books in my musings. If you haven't read the first four books and don't want to be spoiled, you should stop reading now.

• Kate's business isn't doing so good just yet. On the one hand that's good, since the Pack will be using her for any problems that come up that involve humans or The People, so that means things have been calm in that regard. But it also means no one else has hired her, and she'll need clients besides the Pack. She thought she had enough contacts for this, and apparently she doesn't. Or... maybe Saiman is involved with her not having contacts willing to send business her way? Not sure, but I wouldn't put it past him. He deals in information, after all.
• The only mention of Curran was that The Beast Lord wouldn't be happy that she put her life in danger to save a vampire, or to save members of The People... it gave me the impression that they are still okay and that he's still just as concerned about her health and safety as always.
• No idea what's going on with Andrea. Could it be that when Curran got in her face about putting Kate down that Andrea decided being friends with Kate could be hazardous to her standing as a beastkin who is allowed to stay outside of the pack? Or could it be that the Knights of the Order forbid her from having anything to do with Kate? Or... something else? Or maybe both?
• I had expected Roland to jump into action faster, but it's been months. Maybe Hugh d’Ambray hasn't spilled the beans yet? But, wouldn't Roland be interested in anyone strong enough to kill his sister? There has to be something there. Hugh was trained by Kate's dad, maybe Hugh liked Kate as a kid and has figured out who she is and is more interested in helping her than killing her? Or, maybe not. At any rate, Hugh has to have figured things out by now, and the fact that life has been quiet for a few months tells me that there is going to be an extra twist in there somewhere.

That's all that comes to mind at the moment. I'm not sure about Magic Sucks as a title, but then I don't know what happens in the book. Maybe the magic is being sucked out of The People, and that is the reason for their fainting.

But, unless there is a plot reason to use the word "sucks", I think that Magic Blows might be more suitable. Though, either one brings up X rated thoughts in my head - LOL.

As I mentioned in my review of Magic Bleeds, this is now my favorite series. As you can see from the sidebar, I read a whole lot of series. And this one is at the top of the list for me.  If you haven't read the series then I highly recommend it.


1) Magic Bites (2007)
2) Magic Burns (2008)
3) Magic Strikes (March 31, 2009)
3.5) Magic Mourns in the anthology Must Love Hellhounds (Sept 1, 2009)
4) Magic Bleeds (May 2010)

UPDATE:  Here is an old snippet that is a small part of what was posted yesterday. I was right, it is PAD!
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/2010/01/14/oh-look-a-snippet/

UPDATE #2: A most excellent snippet showing how Curran got revenge on Saiman:
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/2010/06/05/kate-5-snippet-curran-and-saiman-hug-it-out-sort-of/
http://bookseriesreviews.blogspot.com/2010/06/another-kate-5-snippet-taken-down.html

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Review: Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, Book 4) by Ilona Andrews

 

Oh. My. Goodness.

I've re-read  Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes this week, in preparation for Magic Bleeds. I was expecting something good, but Magic Bleeds blew me away.

I've ordered it from Amazon, but then found out a local store already had it on the shelves. Days before the UPS guy will bring it to my door. I wanted to read the book so badly that I made a special trip to the store and bought the book. Again. And you know what? The ability to have the weekend to read it, made the trip and the extra money totally worth it.

After the events of Magic Strikes I thought I had a good idea where Magic Bleeds would be going. But then the Prologue was posted online a while back and suddenly half of what I thought would happen, wasn't going to.

And now that I've read the book, the other half of what I thought was going to happen, didn't happen, either. Well, it didn't happen yet. It will, it's just taking longer to get there.

Besides the prologue, there was a discussion, and then there is this snippet, and this snippet. In the discussion it is mentioned that "Kate loses everything". That's kind of true, but when I read it I had flashbacks to the events of Changes, where Harry Dresden really does pretty much lose everything. I almost didn't want to read Magic Bleeds at all when I first saw that in the discussion. I like Kate, I don't want things quite that bad to happen to her. But some other reviewers have been happy with the ending, so I took the plunge. I will say that the events of Magic Bleeds are rough, but they are not as bad as the events of Changes. And for that I am thankful. One door has to close before another can open. Jim Butcher ended Changes while the new door hasn't opened yet. The writing team of Ilona Andrews doesn't do that to us, we get a nice glimpse of what the new door brings.



Here's the blurb:

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it rose.

Kate Daniels works for the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, officially as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, she cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle—especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community.

When she’s called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar midway between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers there’s a new player in town. One who’s been around for thousands of years—and rode to war at the side of Kate’s father.

This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family…

To go over the basics: pacing is excellent, dialogue rocks, humor and smart assed comebacks are perfect, plot is exceptionally well done, drawing on old mythologies and legends is so creatively done my head almost started spinning, and the complexity of all of the relationships she has with others is very well written. Her relationship with the Order, the Mercenary Guild, the various other law enforcement agencies, the People, Ghastek, Saiman, Andrea, Raphael, Jim, Mahon, the shapeshifters in general, and (of course) Curran... those relationships are almost as much of the story as the plot. And the plot this time, is huge. They are all pretty big, but they are only getting more and more involved. And closer and closer to what is going to be a huge showdown.
 
In the past I've said that my favorite series is the Night Huntress series, but it is now the Kate Daniels series. I can easily give Magic Bleeds a 10 of 10. Easily. 

Book Rating: Magic Bleeds: 10 of 10
Series Rating: Kate Daniels series: 10 of 10






1) Magic Bites (2007)
2) Magic Burns (2008)
3) Magic Strikes (March 31, 2009)
3.5) Magic Mourns in the anthology Must Love Hellhounds (Sept 1, 2009)
4) Magic Bleeds (May 2010)


Related Post:  Kate Daniels Book Five Chapters One and Two

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Review: Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, Book 3) by Ilona Andrews

I was up until 2:30 this morning because there was absolutely no way I could put Magic Strikes down before finishing it. I will survive today on less than four hours of sleep. And it was so totally worth it.

As the book opens we see that Kate is pretty comfortable in her role with the Order now as she quite capably handles some smaller stuff that seems to be almost routine. Then she gets thrown right into the middle of shapeshifter politics and the action doesn't slow down.

There is a decent amount of Curran in this book. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think I like where things are heading.

There is also a lot of Saiman in this book, and we learn a bit more about what he is.

We learned about Kate's heritage in the second book, and in the third book things are set up so that the time when Kate has to confront her heritage seems to be rapidly approaching. We don't really learn much more about that heritage, though we do learn more about her childhood and how she was raised.

And we see Kate's circle of friends being drawn even closer, though we are reminded that Kate's father cautioned her against having friends. Still, I think we see a circle of people who will stand behind Kate and help her as much as possible, whether she wants the help or not. I'm really hoping the deal with her dad not wanting her to ever rely on someone is not foreshadowing of some sort. I want her to be able to depend on her friends.

Cast of characters we've previously met that we see a decent amount of in this book: Curran, Jim, Derek, Andrea, Raphael, and Saiman. Kate's sort-of foster child also makes a brief appearance when she comes home from boarding school. Oh, and very brief appearances are made by the head of the hyenas and by Mahon the Kodiak.

I really like Kate. And she's grown and come into her own so much more in this book, she just gets better and better. She stands up to Curran a few times and manages to catch his attention when she does. She also has to stand up to Jim and make some threats in order to get him to take her seriously (and he does, once she makes herself very clear). Come to think of it, she has to do that with Saiman, too. She's still her normal smart-assed snarky self, and that is part of the fun of the book. Her personality is one of the reasons I've enjoyed the first two books in this series as much as I have. Yes, the plot is good and the world building is good and the other characters are great characters. But Kate's personality makes the book a lot of fun to read.

The plot in this book was quite good. There are a few new mythological beings, placed into a setting that manages to shake things up so that this book is pretty different than previous books.

Magic Strikes is a very enjoyable read. The book and the series get the highest rating I can give, a 10 of 10.

This is a series you need to read in order. I don't think it's possible to skip around and truly understand what is happening in this series.

I am not prepared to wait another year for the next book. I'm really not. There is supposed to be a Kate story called Magic Mourns in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology due out September 1st of this year. We know there will be a fourth book, but I don't see anything that tells us what the fourth book in the series is to be called, or when we might expect to see it.


Book Rating: 10 of 10
Series Rating: 10 of 10






1) Magic Bites (2007)
2) Magic Burns (2008)
3) Magic Strikes (March 31, 2009)
4) Magic Mourns in the anthology Must Love Hellhounds (Sept 1, 2009)

Magic Burns (Kate Daniels, Book 2) by Ilona Andrews

I'll start this out with the blurb from the author's website:

As a mercenary who cleans up after magic gone wrong, Kate Daniels has seen her share of occupational hazards. Normally, waves of paranormal energy ebb and flow across Atlanta like a tide. But once every seven years, a flare comes, a time when magic runs rampant. Now Kate's going to have to deal with problems on a much bigger scale: a divine one.

When Kate sets out to retrieve a set of stolen maps for the Pack, Atlanta's paramilitary clan of shapeshifters, she quickly realizes much more at stake. During a flare, gods and goddesses can manifest - and battle for power. The stolen maps are only the opening gambit in an epic tug-of-war between two gods hoping for rebirth. And if Kate can't stop the cataclysmic showdown, the city may not survive...

As I said in my review of the first book, this series is much closer to Fantasy than it is Urban Fantasy. The series is set in either an alternate Atlanta or an Atlanta of the future, and it's so far removed from our world that it's hard to call it Urban Fantasy. I'll also say that it's not a paranormal romance, either. The main theme here is a plot that is all about the magic and the violence, not a romance. It's still a very good book (and series), though. It's just not being classified as what I think it really is. Though I'm not sure exactly how it should be classified.

Also, fair warning, if you haven't read the first book then much of this book won't make sense. This isn't a series you're going to be able to skip around on, I don't think.

Kate is now working for both the Mercenary Guild and the Order of Merciful Aid, and is doing it by being a liaison between the two. This gives her more credentials, and a little more of a support system when she needs it. The latter being a very good thing to have in Kate's world.

This book has adventure, a touch of romantic intrigue, lots of paranormal critters, and humor. Kate is, well, snarky. I could say she's a bitch, but she's not, she's just snarky. I mean, if she doesn't like you then yeah, you'd consider her a bitch. But that's not a good description of her, she's just one of those people who think (and say) smart-assed things when people annoy her. Her personality is one of the reasons I've enjoyed the first two books in this series as much as I have. Yes, the plot is good and the worldbuilding is good and the other characters are great characters. But Kate's personality makes the book a lot of fun to read.

Kate is also a mystery, since we get even more hints that she's got some sort of heritage that makes her a very special kind of supernatural, but we aren't given much information about it. We see her being careful to guard her secret (and that involves burning her blood when she bleeds so no one can get any of it), but we aren't really given enough hints to even guess about what her family line might be a part of.

Magic Burns is a very enjoyable read. The book gets the highest rating, 10 of 10, though I'm conflicted as to what to rate the series. In the end, after arguing with myself between a 9 and a 10, I'll go with a 9 of 10 after two books. If the third book is as good as the first two when it comes out next year then that will easily be raised to a 10 of 10.


Book Rating: 10 of 10
Series Rating: 9 of 10





1) Magic Bites (2007)
2) Magic Burns (2008)
3) Magic Strikes (March 31, 2009)

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, Book 1) by Ilona Andrews

I'll start this out with the blurb from the author's website:

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for magic...

When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while the guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate's guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta's magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings - and the death of Kate's guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she's way out of her league - but she wouldn't have it any other way...

First, I'll admit that I don't live so far from Atlanta and that is part of what made me start this series in the first place. I thought it would be nice to read something in a setting I'm familiar with.

That thought process didn't really work though, because this seems to be an Atlanta of the future. Or, an alternate Atlanta, maybe. Either way, things aren't the same. The buildings and places we are familiar with are now ruins, for the most part.

Luckily, the book is good enough that this wasn't a disappointment. As I've said before, I normally like urban fantasy, the kind where things are taking place in a world of today, where the things in the book might be possible. We don't really have that with this book, this book seems more fantasy than urban fantasy, but it still drew me in and snagged me.

I'm assuming it's called Urban Fantasy instead of Fantasy simply because it has shapeshifters and vampires. And, while Magic Bites does have both of these creatures, it's not really like any other urban fantasy book out there. For starters, the vampires aren't the kinds of creatures we are used to. Vampires in this book are creatures that eventually turn into a spider looking monster thing. They are controlled by necromancers who stay in a well-guarded room and send the vampires out to do their business. The vampires basically have no will of their own in this series, it's the necromancers controlling them who have the power. You can read an excerpt of the book at the author's site and get an idea of how the vampires are handled in this world.

The shapeshifters seem to mostly be what you see of them in other urban fantasy books, complete with an Alpha and the usual closely knit pack and lots of pack rules.

There are also a lot of other supernatural critters in the book, and at least some of them obviously come from various myths and legends. Plus, we are told that Kate has her own heritage that must be kept a secret. I'm guessing that will be a large part of where the series is headed, as Kate comes into whatever powers that heritage gives her. And eventually people will find out and then I'm guessing all hell will break loose at some point because of it. Will that happen in the second book or the tenth book though? Who knows. If the books stay as good as this one, I will keep reading to find out.

Book Rating: 9 of 10





1) Magic Bites (2007)
2) Magic Burns (2008)
3) Magic Strikes (March 31, 2009)