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Book Review -- Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
NOTE: I save five stars for classics or any kind, either ones that history calls classics (and I agree) or books I still feel strongly about many years after first reading them. Four stars out of five is generally my highest rating the first time around.
Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kate Daniels is a scarred, PTSD heroine, and she may earn your respect before you like her. But the city of Atlanta, devastated by the Burning that announced the return of magic to the world, rises like a phoenix from the ashes, painting a post-apocalyptic world unlike any other. We have a group reminiscent of the Mafia that controls most necromancy and creates most vampires – soulless, mindless killing machines that are piloted by necromancer-navigators. We have wer-animals of many types banding together for strength and stability, a quasi-military order enforcing their humanity as they live by their own Rules. We have groups who kill out-of-control magical creatures – some of their members are mercenaries, maybe part of a guild, maybe not, and others are Knights and knights-in-training, members of still another organization that tries to put names and rules on the new world order. Some of these characters are human...or mostly human. We don't see very many people not touched by the brush of magic.
Kate Daniels tried to be a Knight and could not live with obedience (or so she tells others) and switched to working as a mercenary. She’s been the liaison between the Knights and the Mercenaries, and was a Friend of The Pack – a big deal. Then it is made manifestly apparent to Kate that the Knights define human differently than she does. So now she’s back working as a mercenary, but with a big difference – she’s now the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, and has the Pack (most of them) as her landlords and backers in her new enterprise.
A business that is floundering, without a single client. Seems the angry Knights are spreading nasty rumors about her. Kate the merc could have been merciless about dealing with these lies, but Kate the Consort (Mate sets her teeth on edge, and Beast Lady is just silly) has too many political eyes upon her to indulge in small revenge.
But Kate is earning her money in a way that doesn’t occur to her. She’s the place where the problems of the pack end up – weres who don’t fit in and might otherwise be killed, but who are talented people with gifts to use for the greater good of their group. And Kate is also a magnet for rumors, odd information and odder jobs – jobs that rip the lid off an almost-unknown terrorist cell organization whose purpose is the extermination of magic and magic-users, so that technology can once again reign supreme.
This time Kate will be tested over and over – as the political entity the Consort, as wife to a brilliant, psychotic shifter, as surrogate mother and mentor, as friend to the odd ones out. She will discover things about her past and her history she doesn’t want to know, and begin learning what she must to be able to live through the day when her father finally finds her.
There is much action, much magic, and consequences for all manner of decisions. We have not even touched upon the possibility that Kate may have the longevity of her father’s family tree – but I imagine that’s coming.
Recommended to all lovers of action-packed urban fantasy, but this is probably not the best place to start the series. Things have finally gotten weighty enough that you’ll get more subtext starting with an earlier book.
View all my reviews
Magic Slays by Ilona AndrewsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kate Daniels is a scarred, PTSD heroine, and she may earn your respect before you like her. But the city of Atlanta, devastated by the Burning that announced the return of magic to the world, rises like a phoenix from the ashes, painting a post-apocalyptic world unlike any other. We have a group reminiscent of the Mafia that controls most necromancy and creates most vampires – soulless, mindless killing machines that are piloted by necromancer-navigators. We have wer-animals of many types banding together for strength and stability, a quasi-military order enforcing their humanity as they live by their own Rules. We have groups who kill out-of-control magical creatures – some of their members are mercenaries, maybe part of a guild, maybe not, and others are Knights and knights-in-training, members of still another organization that tries to put names and rules on the new world order. Some of these characters are human...or mostly human. We don't see very many people not touched by the brush of magic.
Kate Daniels tried to be a Knight and could not live with obedience (or so she tells others) and switched to working as a mercenary. She’s been the liaison between the Knights and the Mercenaries, and was a Friend of The Pack – a big deal. Then it is made manifestly apparent to Kate that the Knights define human differently than she does. So now she’s back working as a mercenary, but with a big difference – she’s now the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, and has the Pack (most of them) as her landlords and backers in her new enterprise.
A business that is floundering, without a single client. Seems the angry Knights are spreading nasty rumors about her. Kate the merc could have been merciless about dealing with these lies, but Kate the Consort (Mate sets her teeth on edge, and Beast Lady is just silly) has too many political eyes upon her to indulge in small revenge.
But Kate is earning her money in a way that doesn’t occur to her. She’s the place where the problems of the pack end up – weres who don’t fit in and might otherwise be killed, but who are talented people with gifts to use for the greater good of their group. And Kate is also a magnet for rumors, odd information and odder jobs – jobs that rip the lid off an almost-unknown terrorist cell organization whose purpose is the extermination of magic and magic-users, so that technology can once again reign supreme.
This time Kate will be tested over and over – as the political entity the Consort, as wife to a brilliant, psychotic shifter, as surrogate mother and mentor, as friend to the odd ones out. She will discover things about her past and her history she doesn’t want to know, and begin learning what she must to be able to live through the day when her father finally finds her.
There is much action, much magic, and consequences for all manner of decisions. We have not even touched upon the possibility that Kate may have the longevity of her father’s family tree – but I imagine that’s coming.
Recommended to all lovers of action-packed urban fantasy, but this is probably not the best place to start the series. Things have finally gotten weighty enough that you’ll get more subtext starting with an earlier book.
View all my reviews