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A review by ninjamuse
Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt
3.0
In brief: Marla Mason, sorceress of Freeport, is in San Francisco to find the one magical artifact that can stop a plot to delete her from reality. Unfortunately, someone has killed its guardian in their own bid for it—and Marla just can’t let that happen. First in a series.
Thoughts: Thoroughly enjoyable, which is how I tend to like my urban fantasy! Like a lot of mid-2000s urban fantasy, it’s solid on plot and character and setting and magic system without doing anything more than is strictly necessary, but it’s also not like I pick up this genre when I wanted to be challenged, and if Pratt is anything, it’s entertaining.
I’m not sure I’ve seen another protagonist like Marla, though. She definitely operates in grey areas and often for entirely selfish reasons, but she also understands karma and has the greater good in the back of her mind. She’s got this air of mystery too, in that we only get glimpses of her past and her life in Freeport and are left trying to piece everything together. I liked that. Kept me on my toes.
And I liked the world-building! There are all kinds of magical traditions and foci, everything from Chinese medicine to computers to sexual energy. Powerful artifacts turn up with no provenance in thrift stores. There are seers and ghosts and doppelgangers and parallel dimensions and gods. It should feel like a hodgepodge of stuff but Pratt somehow makes it work, and it all felt cool and helped to keep the story fresh.
The plot’s fairly predictable for the genre—they talk to people, go places, get clues, etc.—with just enough in it to stay not-boring, but it’s also got some deeply hinky stuff. I’m not talking about the gay sexual sorcerer who hosts kink nights, who was pretty well handled. I’m talking about the nasty Chinese sorcerer and the actual villain, who is Aztec and doing his darnedest to conform to stereotype. Few clothes, obsidian knives, desire to feed his gods with blood, the whole bit. I side-eyed whenever he was mentioned, which, given that he’s the bad guy, was reasonably often.
But, like I’ve said, I had fun burning through this! It was pretty satisfying, as urban fantasies go, and I can absolutely see myself picking up the next book in the series. Someday. Maybe at a book sale or in a fit of “no book in my bag” desperation, which is what prompted me picking this one up in the first place. It’s not great shakes but you can do (and I’ve done) a lot worse.
To bear in mind: Questionable use of poison dart frogs. Questionable biology of poison dart frogs. Extremely questionable use of indigenous Aztec sorcerer in a villainous role. Slightly less questionable use of Chinese sorcerer as a more minor villain. Mention of cannibalism. Surprisingly good about mental illness and queer people, though not perfect. Harm to animals.
6/10
Thoughts: Thoroughly enjoyable, which is how I tend to like my urban fantasy! Like a lot of mid-2000s urban fantasy, it’s solid on plot and character and setting and magic system without doing anything more than is strictly necessary, but it’s also not like I pick up this genre when I wanted to be challenged, and if Pratt is anything, it’s entertaining.
I’m not sure I’ve seen another protagonist like Marla, though. She definitely operates in grey areas and often for entirely selfish reasons, but she also understands karma and has the greater good in the back of her mind. She’s got this air of mystery too, in that we only get glimpses of her past and her life in Freeport and are left trying to piece everything together. I liked that. Kept me on my toes.
And I liked the world-building! There are all kinds of magical traditions and foci, everything from Chinese medicine to computers to sexual energy. Powerful artifacts turn up with no provenance in thrift stores. There are seers and ghosts and doppelgangers and parallel dimensions and gods. It should feel like a hodgepodge of stuff but Pratt somehow makes it work, and it all felt cool and helped to keep the story fresh.
The plot’s fairly predictable for the genre—they talk to people, go places, get clues, etc.—with just enough in it to stay not-boring, but it’s also got some deeply hinky stuff. I’m not talking about the gay sexual sorcerer who hosts kink nights, who was pretty well handled. I’m talking about the nasty Chinese sorcerer and the actual villain, who is Aztec and doing his darnedest to conform to stereotype. Few clothes, obsidian knives, desire to feed his gods with blood, the whole bit. I side-eyed whenever he was mentioned, which, given that he’s the bad guy, was reasonably often.
But, like I’ve said, I had fun burning through this! It was pretty satisfying, as urban fantasies go, and I can absolutely see myself picking up the next book in the series. Someday. Maybe at a book sale or in a fit of “no book in my bag” desperation, which is what prompted me picking this one up in the first place. It’s not great shakes but you can do (and I’ve done) a lot worse.
To bear in mind: Questionable use of poison dart frogs. Questionable biology of poison dart frogs. Extremely questionable use of indigenous Aztec sorcerer in a villainous role. Slightly less questionable use of Chinese sorcerer as a more minor villain. Mention of cannibalism. Surprisingly good about mental illness and queer people, though not perfect. Harm to animals.
6/10