Book Review

I just finished Magic Bleeds, the fourth Kate Daniels book by Ilona Andrews.

It was quite the hoot.

I'm not super-easy to please with the modern-fantasy venue. If it's not Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, I usually find myself quickly-annoyed. For a while I gave Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series a try, mainly 'cause three friends whose opinions I value loved the series.

I hated it. I found Harrison's heroine, Rachel Morgan, to be a whiny bubblehead and the narrative to read like a bad romance novel. It's pretty much the banal crap I expect Twilight to be.

I picked up Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series. It has a ridiculous number of parallels with Butcher, Andrews, and Harrison's stuff. In some ways that was good. In others, not so good.

I enjoyed the first two books of Briggs' Mercy Thompson books (Moon Called and Blood Bound) a fair amount. The third book, Iron Kissed was... less. I have Bone Crossed and got about a third in before I realized I was completely uninterested in the plot. I attribute that to Briggs falling into Harrison's style of making the series a bad romance novel.

I started to think that was just an attribute that female fantasy authors had (yes, I indulged in sexism...) then I read the first two books in Morris and Chastain Investigations series by Justin Gustainis.

Yeesh what a bunch of drivel.

So it's just that there's a lot of authors out there who suck (in my opinion).

That brings me back to Ilona Andrews.

Her heroine, Kate Daniels, is an ass-kicker who would make Lara Croft whimper and cry. For that matter, Xena: Warrior Princess would probably be her b*tch too. Not to keep this strictly to gender roles, I'm pretty damn sure Daniels would make a light meal out of Indiana Jones, Jason Bourne, etc.

I'm not convinced she could take Harry Dresden, but I'm going to resist further fan-babble. Suffice it to say, Kate Daniels is awesome and tough. Despite the fact that Andrews spends a ridiculous amount of time having Kate in a cliche love/hate relationship with "Curran the Beast Lord" (a hilarious caricature who fits perfectly in Andrews' narrative) I find the four books (so far) in the series move quickly and keep an even mix of action, humor, and fun.

Her mythology is also intriguing, especially in the form of the heritage of Kate Daniels. I'm not going into it in this rant 'cause it would spoil things.

Hm... this isn't much of a review so far, is it? I haven't really talked about the series.

Okay...

The first book - Magic Bites - introduces Kate Daniels, a "down-on-her-luck mercenary" with an undead-melting saber and a mysterious past who joins an order of modern-day knights to avenge the death of her former mentor. Her investigations force her to cross paths with the Masters of the Dead, a group of wizards who "pilot" vampire bodies (it's creepier than it sounds) and the Pack, a group of shapeshifters led by the Übermensch-cliche, Curran the were-lion.

The second book - Magic Burns - takes Kate on a job for the Pack and has her winding up battling rogue gods, then adopting a hapless waif.

The third book - Magic Strikes - goes a bit more into Kate's background as it relates to her deadly father and why she has to keep her heritage secret. Oh, and there's a death-match battle with super-demons. Good, clean fun.

The fourth book - Magic Bleeds - further explores Kate's family as she's forced to resolve her romantic tension with lion-boy while battling a family member of hers who is seemingly-unstoppable.

All four books are quick reads. They're an even mix of action, romance, humor, and bloodthirsty chaos. I have to admit I can't wait for the next one.

Meh. That's enough.