Book #2

Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews

I went for a quick fantasy read, Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to work on my next book project, since it is a sort of hardboiled urban fantasy with blood and guts and a light whodunit mystery that relies more on the particular version of supernatural creatures that this author created than on any traditional mystery concepts. What I mean is that the bad guy in this is a magical creature, who wants magical creature things and who kills in magical creature ways, rather than, say, a jealous lover who kills and blackmails before running off to Mexico. I like these books when the magical creatures are unusual or interesting in some way, when the main character is sympathetic, and/or when the writing is fun.

This one had good magic, so-so writing, and a fairly irritating main character. She was intriguing, but way too over the top with her ass-kicking image. A lot like John Taylor of Simon Green's Nightside books, who also annoys me in the way he is always implying how incredibly dangerous he is to mess with, and never takes his armor off, even for a second, because he has to keep his myriad of enemies in check with the neverending bluff that is his reputation. It is annoying for me to read because the authors, both in Green's case and in this book, act as if the reader is another person who can never be allowed to see the main character's weakness, and that's just silly. They drop hints of humanity, imply vulnerability, but never pursue it for long: Kate tries to date in this one, and regrets it when it blows up in her face, but she doesn't regret it that much -- because she still has ass to kick.

But I did like the version of vampires in this, and some things about the shapechangers. I like the Order of knights, though not much was said about them, and I really liked the bad guy -- though the actual character of the bad guy was not so good. He was not scary except for his power, and his personality and non-magical abilities should match his power for scariness -- see the Denarians in Jim Butcher's Dresden series for the way to make the bad guy scary. And I need to remember this for my own villain, who I have created to be scary, but haven't actually gotten to writing out yet. I'll have to make him dangerous in non-magical ways, to avoid the traps this author fell into.

All in all, it wasn't bad, and I'd read a sequel if I find it discounted.

I'm going to have to read something good to make up for this pair of mediocre turkeys.