Kate Daniels is back in
action in post shift Atlanta. After killing her aunt in Magic Bleeds her secret is rapidly becoming unfrayed as
more and more people notice her powerful magic and powerful blood –
and more and more people know exactly who she is and who her father
is.
Kate now runs her own
agency, joined by Andrea whose attempts to make the Order accept her
humanity failed in the face of their prejudice. And the Red Guard has
come to her with a job – they were guarding a weapon. A weapon of
incredible power. And it has gone missing, along with its inventor.
Under the cloak of necessary secrecy and discretion, the Guard need
Kate to find the weapon and the inventor, preferably before its power
is unleashed
But as magic has eroded
technology, so there are humans who long to return to technology –
and who loathe magical people. The Order is not the only ones who
refuse to accept the humanity of magical people. The Lighthouse
Keepers are a deep cover terrorist organisation that have infiltrated
many organisations in the hope of bringing them down. And with their
hands on the weapon they will use it to kill as many magical people
as possible, perhaps annihilating Atlanta in the process
As magic lasts longer
and technology frays and collapses The threat they poses unites all
the magical people of Atlanta – witches, druids, the people of the
dead, the shapeshifters, vohls, shamans – all unite to take down a
threat that risks them all in an epic confrontation.
Against this
background, Kate must also face major personal crises. Julie, her
ward stands on the edge of death unless Kate can find the magic to
save her – and more of Kate's past comes to light, destroying many
of the illusions she held about her parents, revealing a much uglier
truth
This story was epic on
many levels. The magical people coming together for battle was
already a legendary conflict and definitely up there on the epic
meter. It was a fun exciting read, one of those books you not only
can't put down (as my husband will tell you, at length, given my
reading at 5:00am) but one you read while on the edge of your seat,
holding your breath. In some ways the tension and the fear was
ratcheted up further because the antagonists were human – simple,
non-magical humans but with the capacity for so much hatred and
destruction
It was also pretty
visceral and dark. Kate and Curran are not soft and gentle people –
and they have no mercy. They take no prisoners, they have no
compunction about torturing people for information or sim,ply jkust
for vengeance. There is an especially powerful and in your face scene
where we see a widow who has just lost her husband and children to
the Lighthouse Keepers. She's dazed and confused, sees that Curran
and Kate have captured some of them and says “They killed my
babies, My whole family is dead. I want a turn.” They agree – the
prisoners are taken away and later we see the widow with blood
stained hands – “She had her turn.” And there's never any
apology for them being who and what they are – ruthless, dangerous
and violent at need.
I love Kate and
Curran's relationship. Love it love it love it and I never thought
I'd say that about Urban Fantasy. The constant snarking, the biting,
the fights, the arguments, the constant looking for a vulnerable spot
to poke. Ahhhh true love – with a rattle snake.
I also love the many
side characters and stories. Ascanio, Daniel, Andrea and Julie all
have their own stories and personalities. There are some token walk
on servants that have little role, but there are enough characters
around Kate that actually have their own lives and goals that feel
wonderfully fleshed out.
Grendel the attack
poodle is funny and pack politics is fun and interesting even as
Curran becomes disillusioned with it and disappointed with his pack
mates. They just have to be mentioned.
I'm less sure about the
plot lines surrounding Julie or Kate's parents. Both plots serve to
provide angst and doubt in spades. However, the books themselves are
not overly given to angst so these little additions are realistic and
interesting and deep. My problem is that so many urban fantasy uses
tragic pasts and doubts of self/lovers to give us a constant stream
of angst and pain that I find it tiresome – so I hope it doesn't
grow too much in this series.
There was a sort of
comment on prejudice against magical beings and the “other” in
this book. Now normally such comparisons annoy me a lot. Marginalsied
people in the real world face prejudice because of hatred and bigotry
– and it literally ruins lives. To compare that to prejudice
against, say, vampires because they eat people is insulting, annoying
and deeply appropriative. I don't like it. So I tensed up when I
realised we were going there...
...And we didn't. Oh we
had a wonderful statement on treatment of the “other”. We had
statements on how people scapegoat the other for their own problems.
We had statements on how there's always an other and how people use
it to allay their own fears, failings and problems. We had a number
of quite decent and thoughtfully laid out explorations of mindless
fanaticism and persecution. But they never drew the comparisons or
tapped into actual real world prejudice or implied they were the
same. It was surprisingly well done, especially since it's so rarely
done remotely well.
I really wish this
series had more diversity. I love the series and it's one of my
favourites, but it depresses me immensely that I have another
favourite series that is, again, predominantly straight and white.
There are some tokens flying around but they're very very clearly
tokens.
Other than that –
this book is truly epic and will forever enshrine this series as one
of the best Urban Fantasy out there. Worth a read. Worth reading
twice. Worth gilding, hanging on your wall and worshipping as the
awesome book it is.
