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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
This one doesn't work for me. I can't get into the idea of a tech-magic shift. How did Crest drive to the restaurant while the magic was on? What happens if you're on the ley and the tech hits?
Also there were too many holes in the narration filled with one sentence explanations. "I had to distract them, so I just escaped." Erm, what? How? I appreciate a story where the world building isn't done with a brute force approach but there's a difference between subtle and sloppy.
The story has potential and the secret blood line or whatever thing might turn out to be an interesting bonus further into the series, so if you don't mind wonky details this series might work for you. I'm too obsessed with logic to make it work for me, unfortunately.
Also there were too many holes in the narration filled with one sentence explanations. "I had to distract them, so I just escaped." Erm, what? How? I appreciate a story where the world building isn't done with a brute force approach but there's a difference between subtle and sloppy.
The story has potential and the secret blood line or whatever thing might turn out to be an interesting bonus further into the series, so if you don't mind wonky details this series might work for you. I'm too obsessed with logic to make it work for me, unfortunately.
I'd say really a 2 1/2 star book, the first half was confusing as so many characters are introduced and seemingly dropped as soon as they started to become interesting, in the end the only two character's that seem to get any development at all are the heroine Kate Daniels and one of her adversaries through much of the novel.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
0🌶
* Note: I was feeling a tad loquacious while writing this so be ready for a ramble *
First installment in what looks to be along series about Kate Daniels, a merc living in an Atlanta of the future where a tide of magic has come back with a vengeance against technology. Magical tides rise and fall, wiping out all technical function. Magic and monsters are the norm in this new world order and sometimes you just need to carry a sword.
We meet Kate after her guardian is murdered and she takes on the case. She crosses paths with the Pack of (animal) shapeshifters, the People (a deadly mix of necromancers and their controlled vampires), and the Order (a peace keeping force of sorts, highly skilled in magic and sworn to a code of their own. Kate's late guardian was a member). This is definitely the world building book for the series, so we meet a lot of characters (there's a helpful who's who in the back of the book) while learning a lot of details about the chaos of the magic x tech system.
As a start, the overall premise intrigues me and made me want to read the next book. We have a mystery to solve and a lot of twists on the road to solve it. Unfortunately that road includes a lot of bloodshed, so if you're not a fan of blood, gore, or fights, this one won't be for you. There is a rawness to this world that is both very intriguing and at times off-putting. Where a lot of modern fantasy romanticizes vampires and werewolves and the like, this is a darker take. There are necromancers and vampires who are mindless killing machines and beings willing to gut someone else without a second thought.
This is a gritty urban fantasy that feels like a darker, bloodier, magical version of Veronica Mars if she had a penchant for swords instead of tasers. Kate is not a perfect character. She is flawed and deeply human, and has a lot of secrets that we are not privy to yet. She's the type to keep herself apart or sacrifice herself instead of getting close to people because it's more dangerous for them. She has layers that make a reader want to learn more about her: her origins, her motivations, her endless supply of sass.
Add in an interesting (if deadly) set of friends and enemies and this looks to be an interesting series.
I don't know quite how to describe it, but the world being built in this series is one I'm not sure yet if I want to visit for a whole series. It is a dark one with seemingly very few patches of light, and those patches are elusive for someone like Kate. She may be human, but she exists in a world of shadows and monsters. Magic is so often described as wonderful and well... magical. But in this world, even the magic is inherently destructive and dangerous. It tears apart entire buildings and re-creates landscapes. It's as dark world, but sometimes the most interesting things live in the shadows. It's a world that makes you want to peer deeper, even if it means leaving the light behind while you do.
I'll give the authors this, while this wasn't a "5-star, I loved it for giving me the warm and fuzzies" read, it did something harder. It made me think and question the truths we are slowly learning about this world and it's characters. It's a challenge worth continuing, let's see what book 2 has in store.
0🌶
* Note: I was feeling a tad loquacious while writing this so be ready for a ramble *
First installment in what looks to be along series about Kate Daniels, a merc living in an Atlanta of the future where a tide of magic has come back with a vengeance against technology. Magical tides rise and fall, wiping out all technical function. Magic and monsters are the norm in this new world order and sometimes you just need to carry a sword.
We meet Kate after her guardian is murdered and she takes on the case. She crosses paths with the Pack of (animal) shapeshifters, the People (a deadly mix of necromancers and their controlled vampires), and the Order (a peace keeping force of sorts, highly skilled in magic and sworn to a code of their own. Kate's late guardian was a member). This is definitely the world building book for the series, so we meet a lot of characters (there's a helpful who's who in the back of the book) while learning a lot of details about the chaos of the magic x tech system.
As a start, the overall premise intrigues me and made me want to read the next book. We have a mystery to solve and a lot of twists on the road to solve it. Unfortunately that road includes a lot of bloodshed, so if you're not a fan of blood, gore, or fights, this one won't be for you. There is a rawness to this world that is both very intriguing and at times off-putting. Where a lot of modern fantasy romanticizes vampires and werewolves and the like, this is a darker take. There are necromancers and vampires who are mindless killing machines and beings willing to gut someone else without a second thought.
This is a gritty urban fantasy that feels like a darker, bloodier, magical version of Veronica Mars if she had a penchant for swords instead of tasers. Kate is not a perfect character. She is flawed and deeply human, and has a lot of secrets that we are not privy to yet. She's the type to keep herself apart or sacrifice herself instead of getting close to people because it's more dangerous for them. She has layers that make a reader want to learn more about her: her origins, her motivations, her endless supply of sass.
Add in an interesting (if deadly) set of friends and enemies and this looks to be an interesting series.
I don't know quite how to describe it, but the world being built in this series is one I'm not sure yet if I want to visit for a whole series. It is a dark one with seemingly very few patches of light, and those patches are elusive for someone like Kate. She may be human, but she exists in a world of shadows and monsters. Magic is so often described as wonderful and well... magical. But in this world, even the magic is inherently destructive and dangerous. It tears apart entire buildings and re-creates landscapes. It's as dark world, but sometimes the most interesting things live in the shadows. It's a world that makes you want to peer deeper, even if it means leaving the light behind while you do.
I'll give the authors this, while this wasn't a "5-star, I loved it for giving me the warm and fuzzies" read, it did something harder. It made me think and question the truths we are slowly learning about this world and it's characters. It's a challenge worth continuing, let's see what book 2 has in store.
3.5! I had a much better time with this than that time I tried to read that other extremely popular UF series that shall not be named. No rage face here this time.
Enjoyed the first book of the Kate Daniels series. I like the storyline as well as the mystery around each of the main characters. Will definitely keep reading the series!
YES. I want some more of that, please. Oh, look. There's moooore!
Andrews builds out some fun characters and a reasonable mystery. The world created for this series is neat. I guess I was expecting it to be more "trash-y." I wanted more than kissing out of this thing. It really seems set up to support that. I'll probably read either all of these or none of these after this.
I did find the mystery for this specific story somewhat lacking. Also, the amount of overall answers to the greater mystery weren't seeded well for a first book.
I did find the mystery for this specific story somewhat lacking. Also, the amount of overall answers to the greater mystery weren't seeded well for a first book.
Suburban fantasy is a picky genre. Sometimes you get a book where magic and tech co-exist – and have always co-existed – in a world full of plot holes and “it just works!”. Sometimes you get a book that verges on steampunk and typical sci-fi. And sometimes, very rarely, you get Magic Bites.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews is the story of Kate Daniels, a mercenary in a post-magic-apocalypse world where magic and technology battle for dominance. A world where vampires, necromancer, and shape shifters are real. A world where she is plucked from her merc life and suddenly put into detective work to figure out the death of her mentor.
This book is… intense. If it were tagged on Archive of Our Own, it would be rated M for Mature for graphic depictions of violence, minor depictions of sexual violence, sexual humor, and nude men. Lots of nude men. There were several times I thought I was going to have to put the book down for good. Because of the violence, I mean. The nude men do nothing for me either way. But how the fights, the gore, the corpses were described made me uncomfortable; then again, I’m squeamish, so maybe someone more used to gory books would do better than I did.
Once in a while, I found the book took itself too seriously; I wanted to go “okay, I get it, it’s GRITTY. It’s DARK. It’s SERIOUS. Let’s move ON.” The writer(s, they’re actually a husband-and-wife writing team) put a lot of effort into fleshing out their world and making it believable, almost livable. But, to do so, they really hammered home that Kate’s life was hard, what she did was hard, she was hard. I liked Kate, and I wanted to know her story, but I never felt like I was on her “side.” I wasn’t craving to see her succeed. I didn’t root for her. The world was dark and cold, and would chew you up and spit you out. There are no happy endings in this world. The same goes for Kate. So it makes it hard to believe that Kate’s gonna make it through all the shit she’s slogging through alive, let alone have a happy ending.
Despite all of this, putting this book down? A daunting task.
Magic Bites was immensely interesting and compelling book, once you get past the first few pages. A colorful cast with an ever-twisting story, this is a world that I’d find myself daydreaming about if I were just a few years younger. Kate is the kick-ass, take-no-shit protag I’ve always loved. She is not unbeatable or indomitable, but she’s strong, and she’s not about to let herself be made small for your ego. “Mary Sue” cries be damned, I adore characters like Kate and I probably will until my dying breath.
Besides Kate, of course, the rest of the cast is wholly entertaining. Rough-and-tumble shape changers (the leader of which I can’t help but hear The Iron Bull’s voice for), extravagant vampire-controllers, dreamy doctors, there’s no shortage of fun and quirks to go around. The world is curious – magic and tech coming in waves, being unable to coexist, and the world learning to adapt around it – and highlights the tenacity of humans and humanoids to MacGyver Their Way Around Just About Anything.
The only other issue I have is with some of the language – the r-slur appears once or twice, along with a few other not-great word choices, but for being written in 2007, it’s a lot better than it could be.
Would I read it again? I’d say yeah, if I wasn’t already wondering how long it’s going to take me to eat through the entire series.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews is the story of Kate Daniels, a mercenary in a post-magic-apocalypse world where magic and technology battle for dominance. A world where vampires, necromancer, and shape shifters are real. A world where she is plucked from her merc life and suddenly put into detective work to figure out the death of her mentor.
This book is… intense. If it were tagged on Archive of Our Own, it would be rated M for Mature for graphic depictions of violence, minor depictions of sexual violence, sexual humor, and nude men. Lots of nude men. There were several times I thought I was going to have to put the book down for good. Because of the violence, I mean. The nude men do nothing for me either way. But how the fights, the gore, the corpses were described made me uncomfortable; then again, I’m squeamish, so maybe someone more used to gory books would do better than I did.
Once in a while, I found the book took itself too seriously; I wanted to go “okay, I get it, it’s GRITTY. It’s DARK. It’s SERIOUS. Let’s move ON.” The writer(s, they’re actually a husband-and-wife writing team) put a lot of effort into fleshing out their world and making it believable, almost livable. But, to do so, they really hammered home that Kate’s life was hard, what she did was hard, she was hard. I liked Kate, and I wanted to know her story, but I never felt like I was on her “side.” I wasn’t craving to see her succeed. I didn’t root for her. The world was dark and cold, and would chew you up and spit you out. There are no happy endings in this world. The same goes for Kate. So it makes it hard to believe that Kate’s gonna make it through all the shit she’s slogging through alive, let alone have a happy ending.
Despite all of this, putting this book down? A daunting task.
Magic Bites was immensely interesting and compelling book, once you get past the first few pages. A colorful cast with an ever-twisting story, this is a world that I’d find myself daydreaming about if I were just a few years younger. Kate is the kick-ass, take-no-shit protag I’ve always loved. She is not unbeatable or indomitable, but she’s strong, and she’s not about to let herself be made small for your ego. “Mary Sue” cries be damned, I adore characters like Kate and I probably will until my dying breath.
Besides Kate, of course, the rest of the cast is wholly entertaining. Rough-and-tumble shape changers (the leader of which I can’t help but hear The Iron Bull’s voice for), extravagant vampire-controllers, dreamy doctors, there’s no shortage of fun and quirks to go around. The world is curious – magic and tech coming in waves, being unable to coexist, and the world learning to adapt around it – and highlights the tenacity of humans and humanoids to MacGyver Their Way Around Just About Anything.
The only other issue I have is with some of the language – the r-slur appears once or twice, along with a few other not-great word choices, but for being written in 2007, it’s a lot better than it could be.
Would I read it again? I’d say yeah, if I wasn’t already wondering how long it’s going to take me to eat through the entire series.
Starts out a little hokey, but gets better and better as the story unfolds. I plan on reading the next book, and I'm hoping that it will be even better.