subscribeMagic Strikes by Ilona Andrews
Friday April 24, 2009
Last week, over a 24 hour period, I devoured Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. It’s the third in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series about merc/mage/kickass female hero Kate Daniels (the previous two being Magic Bites and Magic Burns), written in first person, set in a futuristic and magical Atlanta. I’ll try to keep the reaction as spoiler-free as possible.
Firstly, the book was excellent. I love this entire series. It’s different from a lot of the other series in the genre for a few reasons, but the main one is the world. It’s set in a slightly futuristic time in a world where magic and technology intermingle and often cancel each other out (well, when it comes to magic canceling out tech, really) and the world is built up so well, you’re utterly and unquestioningly drawn in. That rich world layers the present action with a lot of depth, as well as allowing a huge backstory to unfold in a skillful way that doesn’t feel too clunky — in part because of how slowly and deliberately it’s revealed. (Any story can have a backstory this richly developed but the trick is in the way it’s revealed and therefore absorbed by the reader. If it’s all thrown out immediately, or infodumped in the middle/end, it’s hard to process.) That and the entire series so far is very well-paced. There’s a very comfortable unfurling of overarching series plot going on across all of the books that I am really enjoying as well as each book’s individual plot. And each book does have a distinct individual arc, which both complicates and helps to enhance the series plot. As much as I really want to know what will happen… it’ll keep. I’m enjoying everything as it’s been written. Yes, I want to know some things, but enough has been said, implied, and foreshadowed that I am quite happy to keep reading. (Twitch. I keep telling myself that I can wait patiently, anyway.)
I also love this series compared to many others for two other major reasons: the first is Kate herself (a true female hero if there ever was one) and the fact that there is no distracting, drama-ridden love triangle or ridiculous battle over the “many men” who love Kate. Nope. It’s straightforward and singular and I love that. The love plot for each book is simple, pointed, and clear, with as little drama as possible — which fits Kate. She’s not one for drama, and her love life (whatever there is of it) shouldn’t be made into the tug-of-war some authors make for their female main characters. (I am thinking of two series in particular; if you read the genre you probably know which I mean.) She just doesn’t have the time nor the energy to care too much about it and if it were any other way than the way it is, I wouldn’t enjoy the series half as much.
More specifically in Magic Strikes I enjoyed the interaction between Kate and Curran (as always, their witty interplay and chemistry is wonderfully amusing) and the structure of the tournament idea. The whole underground fighting idea has been done but it was used here in an entirely new and interesting way in keeping with this world and its style, and I enjoyed that. I really enjoyed getting to see a different/deeper side of Saiman, and getting to see the developing relationship between Raphael and Andrea (lovelovelove her!), especially as it compares to (and is totally different from) Kate and Curran’s. Getting to know more about Kate was exhilarating, as was seeing the promise of battles to come through well-placed hints and some obvious comments.
I’m thrilled at the way this series is shaping into something subtly grander and more epic than I’d initially anticipated. It’s growing into an epic urban fantasy series and I love that. And it’s not losing its voice or sense of characters, either, as it grows into a larger and more epic framework, which is so vital.
I can’t wait for the next installment in the Kate Daniels series, as well as the new book set in a new world that’s coming out, On the Edge. Keep them coming!
Note to self: Steal back LOTR this Christmas
Thursday December 13, 2007
When I am at my parents’ house this Christmas — admittedly, it’s 40 minutes away, I could go there NOW — I must remember to reclaim my copy of LOTR. Actually I might go there next week to go shopping with the sister to acquire presents for the masses. (Can’t they all just buy things for themselves, give them to me to wrap and pay them back for them, then we’ll all pretend the charade involved Santa and we’re all happy? Sigh. It’d be easier if we had a budget that made purchasing presents that make people truly happy possible. But no. They’ll just get somewhat appropriate gifts that I think they need but they in all likelihood don’t.)
Back to things I need to do: Mainly, steal lots of books from my bookshelf at home and my sister’s, but mainly LOTR. I realized I haven’t read LOTR (non-nerds: The Lord of the Rings) since… since… oh wow… 2002. Yes. Winter 2002. I really need to reread it. (Annalisa, I won’t ever beat you or your brother with LOTR knowledge; I could kick your ass with Star Wars trivia, though, or in the matter of Great Important Theorists of Literary Things. But only because those obsessions came first, chronologically. If they asked me a question about LOTR on Jeopardy though I could probably “Who/What is…” the hell out of it.)
Also. I need to not be neurotic this holiday season when it comes to being home. I’m not home much. For those of you who don’t know, I probably have been in my parents’ house for a collective two or three weeks since August 18, 2003. Which, as my nerdy digital watch tells me, was 1,578 days ago. That’s a maximum of 21 days out of 1,578. That accounts for about 1% of the last 4.3 years. I’ve been home 1% of the time. That sounds accurate. I wonder if I’ve spent more time with Bryan’s family… I won’t calculate that. Anyway I will be relaxed and fun and not attempt to have an Alpha Female confrontation. (There was a minor one at Bryan’s family’s Thanksgiving that I didn’t write about: Bryan’s aunts are all Alphas, as am I, and his mom is a self-admitted non-Alpha and she was the hostess, though all but one of the aunts had turned off the Alpha switch — even his grandma turned it off — anyway!)
So no Alpha dominance battles, no neuroses… Yes. Calm. It will be good. Church will be good, too — Christmas Eve’s candlelight service at St. Matthew’s. The one time of year that I really don’t mind being in a church. So long as the pastor doesn’t get all Jesus-and-Mary on us again (my family and I completely agree on this odd point: we like “God” more than “Jesus” in terms of terminology. How weird is that? It also helps the somewhat Jewish Bryan feel a little better). Despite the irony that Christmas sort of is specifically about Jesus… but never mind. It’ll be good.
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