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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Don't be ridiculous. Of course I enjoyed this book. It's set in the world of Kate Daniels, my favorite urban fantasy series ever.
Magic has returned to the world, coming and going in 'waves:' when magic is up, technology fails, and vice-versa (except telephones--they're unpredictible at any time). Magic hates concrete and tall buildings, and it's been a struggle for citizens to reclaim their city from pre-Shift buildings--now rubble--and magic-powered areas of wildness. Reclamation companies specialize in materials recovery from collapsed buildings, and a shapeshifter group run by Rapheal is successful at winning a contract from the city. They discover a hidden vault in a building and promptly assign four shapeshifters to guard it. In the morning, the shapeshifters guarding the vault are discovered dead, and Pack security chief assigns Andrea to investigate, putting her into direct contact with Rapheal after months of estrangement.
Absolute uppers: fun, fun, fun. There's nasty bugs in Andrea's building's basement. Atlanta's police trying to put the moves on Andrea for a few deaths here and there. There's post-break-up transformation, a hot dress and Egyptian almost-gods. Roman, the Russian volhv (druid) is hanging out and doing his lecherous dark-and-evil routine. Then there's snakes--why'd it have to be snakes? Lots of humor sprinkled throughout, particularly from Roman, and Ascanio, the teenage bouda.
Sort-of-downers: Andrea's full personality is definitely bouda, which makes sense--her father was a hyena transformed by the Lyc-V virus and her mother a hyena shape-shifter. But now I'm wondering how much of Kate is bouda too. No, she isn't, I know. But I started to feel like there was personality semblance towards the end. I don't much care; Kate's an awesome character. I'm just saying I'm not sure if Andrea's distinctive voice was ever achieved. A couple of scenes remind me of Kate books; Andrea's trip into the Glass Menagerie mirrored Kate's first trip into the Honeycomb, and one of Andrea's phone conversations with Raphael--complete with eavesdroppers--paralleled Kate's phone conversation with Curran.
Neutral reaction: it is a reconciliation love story. Not heavy on the romance, but a certain failed relationship is weighing heavily on Andrea's mind, lingering and intruding the way it does after a turbulent break-up. I'm not one for romance, but there was enough actual investigating and non-romance-based action to keep me interested, and of course, bouda love is different.
Bottom line--if you love the series, don't avoid it just because it's about a secondary character. It contains all the great world-building that makes the series special, with plenty of fights, odd monsters and a magical investigation to move it along. Glad I bought it and I'll undoubtedly re-read.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/gunmetal-magic-kate-daniels-world-1-by-ilona-andrews/
Magic has returned to the world, coming and going in 'waves:' when magic is up, technology fails, and vice-versa (except telephones--they're unpredictible at any time). Magic hates concrete and tall buildings, and it's been a struggle for citizens to reclaim their city from pre-Shift buildings--now rubble--and magic-powered areas of wildness. Reclamation companies specialize in materials recovery from collapsed buildings, and a shapeshifter group run by Rapheal is successful at winning a contract from the city. They discover a hidden vault in a building and promptly assign four shapeshifters to guard it. In the morning, the shapeshifters guarding the vault are discovered dead, and Pack security chief assigns Andrea to investigate, putting her into direct contact with Rapheal after months of estrangement.
Absolute uppers: fun, fun, fun. There's nasty bugs in Andrea's building's basement. Atlanta's police trying to put the moves on Andrea for a few deaths here and there. There's post-break-up transformation, a hot dress and Egyptian almost-gods. Roman, the Russian volhv (druid) is hanging out and doing his lecherous dark-and-evil routine. Then there's snakes--why'd it have to be snakes? Lots of humor sprinkled throughout, particularly from Roman, and Ascanio, the teenage bouda.
Sort-of-downers: Andrea's full personality is definitely bouda, which makes sense--her father was a hyena transformed by the Lyc-V virus and her mother a hyena shape-shifter. But now I'm wondering how much of Kate is bouda too. No, she isn't, I know. But I started to feel like there was personality semblance towards the end. I don't much care; Kate's an awesome character. I'm just saying I'm not sure if Andrea's distinctive voice was ever achieved. A couple of scenes remind me of Kate books; Andrea's trip into the Glass Menagerie mirrored Kate's first trip into the Honeycomb, and one of Andrea's phone conversations with Raphael--complete with eavesdroppers--paralleled Kate's phone conversation with Curran.
Neutral reaction: it is a reconciliation love story. Not heavy on the romance, but a certain failed relationship is weighing heavily on Andrea's mind, lingering and intruding the way it does after a turbulent break-up. I'm not one for romance, but there was enough actual investigating and non-romance-based action to keep me interested, and of course, bouda love is different.
Bottom line--if you love the series, don't avoid it just because it's about a secondary character. It contains all the great world-building that makes the series special, with plenty of fights, odd monsters and a magical investigation to move it along. Glad I bought it and I'll undoubtedly re-read.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/gunmetal-magic-kate-daniels-world-1-by-ilona-andrews/
2017 re-read review: I remember not liking this book when I first read it, and now I think I know what it is--plot-wise, it is considerably thinner than the Kate books. But then again, any excuse to bring in Roman is a good one, especially with his Eeyore pajamas. But upon knowing where the series currently is, Andrea deserved her own book, and she shines in this. I think I also appreciate the book more knowing how Andrea and Kate continue to be depicted as friends, how Andrea and Raphael come to be, etc.
3.5 rounded up. I agree with others that this seemed to go on a little long. Although I do like Andrea and Raphael.
I enjoy a well crafted series. when I meet fictional characters I like I want to hang out with them, so to speak, for a long time. I love the Kate Daniels books and this deeper look into some of the secondary characters was great fun.
Gunmetal Magic is good, but it's not anywhere near as good as the Kate Daniels main books. The plot's good and the secondary character stuff is good and most of Andrea's emotional arc is great, but the romance didn't really work for me so well.
Andrea's voice isn't bad, except that she mostly sounds like Kate only less witty, which does make you wish a bit that you were just reading Kate's POV some more. The book picks up where things left off pretty much, with Andrea having recently returned and taken the job working as a PI with Kate. She and Raphael are still on the outs but are, of course, thrust together when she's assigned to investigate murders at one of his work sites.
Until now, I've been a fan of Raphael and Andrea. They were pretty cute in their novella, though nowhere near as shippable as Kate and Curran, because really who is. However, Gunmetal Magic starts out with Andrea finally calling Raphael hoping to make peace but he doesn't answer so she leaves a message arranging a meeting to discuss the murders and to hopefully put the past behind them. He shows up with a "fiancé." This unrolls exactly how you would expect, and this book is full of jealousy and a love triangle for no reason that pretty much just goes away at the end. Honestly, I wanted Andrea to ditch Raphael and go with Roman, even though I do like Raphael, but that's how shitty Andrea and Raphael were to each other in this book. Kate and Curran also have jealous personalities (it is, unfortunately, part of the shifter thing), but they don't intentionally make each other jealous to prove a point and hurt the other person.
Andrea's emotional arc outside of her love life, however, works really well. She's been torn between the Order and the Pack, and getting kicked out of the Order didn't automatically make her choice any easier for her. Andrews does a great job highlighting the reasons why she felt uncomfortable joining the Pack and accepting her identity as beastkin, and her evolution to acceptance (as well as her badass embrace of the whole thing once she made her mind up) felt very authentic to Andrea. Now that she's willing to use her were form, she's going to be even more unstoppable since she's a great fighter in tech or magic.
The book's worth it if you're a Kate Daniels enthusiast, because you do get to see some plot elements that no doubt get referenced, though it's not a must read. As ever, the plot is intricate and well done, but a little bit less intense for focusing on characters who were annoying me greatly at the time. However, I will see that I really love Roman now, so that's a plus.
Andrea's voice isn't bad, except that she mostly sounds like Kate only less witty, which does make you wish a bit that you were just reading Kate's POV some more. The book picks up where things left off pretty much, with Andrea having recently returned and taken the job working as a PI with Kate. She and Raphael are still on the outs but are, of course, thrust together when she's assigned to investigate murders at one of his work sites.
Until now, I've been a fan of Raphael and Andrea. They were pretty cute in their novella, though nowhere near as shippable as Kate and Curran, because really who is. However, Gunmetal Magic starts out with Andrea finally calling Raphael hoping to make peace but he doesn't answer so she leaves a message arranging a meeting to discuss the murders and to hopefully put the past behind them. He shows up with a "fiancé." This unrolls exactly how you would expect, and this book is full of jealousy and a love triangle for no reason that pretty much just goes away at the end. Honestly, I wanted Andrea to ditch Raphael and go with Roman, even though I do like Raphael, but that's how shitty Andrea and Raphael were to each other in this book. Kate and Curran also have jealous personalities (it is, unfortunately, part of the shifter thing), but they don't intentionally make each other jealous to prove a point and hurt the other person.
Andrea's emotional arc outside of her love life, however, works really well. She's been torn between the Order and the Pack, and getting kicked out of the Order didn't automatically make her choice any easier for her. Andrews does a great job highlighting the reasons why she felt uncomfortable joining the Pack and accepting her identity as beastkin, and her evolution to acceptance (as well as her badass embrace of the whole thing once she made her mind up) felt very authentic to Andrea. Now that she's willing to use her were form, she's going to be even more unstoppable since she's a great fighter in tech or magic.
The book's worth it if you're a Kate Daniels enthusiast, because you do get to see some plot elements that no doubt get referenced, though it's not a must read. As ever, the plot is intricate and well done, but a little bit less intense for focusing on characters who were annoying me greatly at the time. However, I will see that I really love Roman now, so that's a plus.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Ilona Andrews always delivers a fun, fast-paced adventure in an urban fantasy setting. Even though this is a side story, I enjoyed the characters a lot and it's just a really fun story.
My husband liked the book, I did not like it all that much. I believe that it was kind of like Kate and Curran lite. As the main character, Andrea did not interest me all that much. But what I did like was the scenes with Aunt B. Now she is pretty awesome.
All my complaints about previous books still hold true for this one, but it was rather nice to see inside Andrea's head again for a full length installment.
After Andrea Nash was kicked out from the Order and breaking up with her boyfriend, she’s trying to find new direction in her life. Then several shapeshifters die and it’s her job to find who is responsible. To make matters more difficult she must work with her former lover whose workmen were killed.
I’ve liked Andrea before so I was happy that she got her own book. I like her relationship with Raphael and we get to know Raphael bit more in this book. It was nice to see there’s more to him than being Aunt B’s pretty boy whom women drools after. And we learn more about Andrea’s past and we get to see someone from her past. And I’m starting to think Ascanio is adorable. Too many hot men here…
The book was action-packed as all Andrews’ s books are but not as action-packed as Kate books. At least it felt to me like that. Can’t wait for her next book.
I’ve liked Andrea before so I was happy that she got her own book. I like her relationship with Raphael and we get to know Raphael bit more in this book. It was nice to see there’s more to him than being Aunt B’s pretty boy whom women drools after. And we learn more about Andrea’s past and we get to see someone from her past. And I’m starting to think Ascanio is adorable. Too many hot men here…
The book was action-packed as all Andrews’ s books are but not as action-packed as Kate books. At least it felt to me like that. Can’t wait for her next book.
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved it! Just be warned there are some pretty heavy content warnings due to Andrea's backstory.