Don't judge a book by its cover - or you'd run a mile from this!
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I liked this book very much. It has a likeable heroine, though I would be delighted, just once, to read a book of this sort that doesn't have a mouthy, belligerent, desperate to prove something female lead! (See also Stray by Rachel Vincent and Dime Store Magic and Haunted by Kelley Armstrong - I adore her werewolf books though.) This has many other good characters, I particularly liked the King of the Beasts and the crazy Gunslinger-esque character, lots of action, humour and style - and an unusual otherworld. I thought though, that the supernatural world should have been better described to allow the reader to get a feel for it, as the method of just carrying on as though the reader knows all about it already was confusing. There's nothing wrong with a bit of mystery, but when the reader gets lost and has to backtrack, then it's going too far. I think this could have been made a lot clearer with a bit more attention paid to setting the scene in the beginning, which would have helped draw the reader in, and I would have loved a bit more detail on magic taking over technology, and a but more background about Kate herself. I suppose this is being held back for revelations later in the series, but I found references to the power of her blood tantalising, and was frustrated when these references remained oblique throughout. I would read the next one to find out more about this, and I hope that as the author gets more into her world, she'll put in a bit more preamble so that everyone knows what is going on.
One other thing that rankled, though it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing - was that the book jacket is one of the worst I have seen in a long time! It is dated, ugly and actually made me ashamed to read this on the bus. This was mainly due to the fact that it looked like the worst kind of soft porn supernatural fantasy, which the book isn't at all. In fact, had this jacket been on the front of one the later Anita Blake books, the tone would have fitted perfectly (if not the subject). If publishers are willing to spend money on re-branding romance novels into chick-lit, to make them look fresh, stylish and classy, why can't the same be done with fantasy, considering the writing is often of a better standard and the plots and characters usually far more believable? It is a lot easier to believe in Andrews' world than the fantasy world that chick-lit heroines inhabit, where misunderstanding is rife and unrealistic coincidences abound!
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When I bought this book
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I was honestly expecting your typical pale copycat urban fantasy of the type that seem to be spring up everywhere these days in the wake of the success of Laurell k. and Charlaine Harris,but I was very pleasantly surprised.Yes ,the story does involve werewolves and vampires and there are echoes of Anita Blake in the heroine Kate Daniels but despite this I was totally gripped by the story and the relationships between the characters and was compelled to read the whole thing through in one sitting.This is obviously the first of a series of books and I can't wait to see what happens next. Read it, you won't regret it!! Oh, and if you missed Tino Georgiou's - The Fates - I strongly recommend reading it.
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Flawed but enjoyable and it cracks along at an incredible pace
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My biggest complaint about this book is that I really wanted it to be twice as long as it was. Ilona Andrews packs a hell of a lot into the 258 pages she's got and she's come up with an intriguing concept of a future world where magic and technology exist side-by-side, colouring it with many ideas that I've never seen before (particularly vampires being little more than undead puppets). Told in a tight first person voice, Kate Daniels is a pretty believable character, who leads you through what's happening to and around her. Whilst I think that some of the story is too exposition heavy, I think that's more to do with the limited length available to Andrews and I certainly didn't feel that any of it was needless.
I have reservations - the hints at Kate having some potential uber-power could rapidly disintegrate into some ripe Mary-Suism, although I must stress that in this book Andrews never crosses the line. I also wasn't a big fan of Curran the Beast Lord, mainly because arrogant men have never been my thang. I'd have liked to be shown some of Kate's relationship with her guardian, Greg, rather than be told about him (although again - I suspect this is more to do with page constraint) and I'm not sure that the relationship between Crest and Kate is really allowed to develop enough to give an impact to what happens between them. I also think that the pacing gets too full on in the final quarter, when Andrews resorts to dropping in key information suddenly to move onto the next thing and some events happen off page that I'd have liked to have seen and I think that the villain suffers as a result, dropping any Machiavellian qualities that they had.
However I think that for all this, Andrews's skill as a writer to watch shines through - I particularly liked Saiman, whose quest to come up with the ultimate in attractive men was amusing and who sells his encyclopaedic knowledge as a service to anyone willing to pay and there's enough wit in the text to make you care about what happens to Kate. It's also refreshing to see a fantasy writer who has clearly thought through the world they've created (although I had a tiny, tiny nitpick with the Crusader in the final act who tries to use conventional weapons when 'tech' isn't dominant) and who is trying to weave together pre-existing fantasy tropes with elements that are (to me at least) wholly original. I'm keen to see whether and how Andrews develops her heroine, given the set-up that the reader is left with at the end of the book and I think this has the makings of a solid urban fantasy series for readers who like tough female characters.
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Diffrent
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I liked this book but it did take a little while to get into it. once i got into the book i really did enjoy it, the plot was fasinating and great fun.
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not too shabby at all
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I had read a few reviews of the book before I bought it. When I did succumb and get it I found it pretty enjoyable. I'm a great fan of Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison, Vicki Petterson, Jim Butcher and Lorna Freeman to name a few , but I had all their recent books and was desperately seeking a new author, and I found her. Like the other reviews before me have stated, theres a bit of everything, and just enough to keep you interested to want to buy the next book. I won't rehash the plot most reviews before me has done that for you (by the way fellow reviewees, thanks), just buy the book, don't expect anything brand spankingly new and outrageously original , its good but its not one of those books that makes you go WOW!!!, like Jim Butcher Codex of Alera series or Lorna Freeman's Rabbit character , you'll enjoy it and its a good one to have til your next book becomes available. I will say that I shall be buying the next one (Magic Burns) because I do want to see the development of this story and its characters.
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