It’s coming. Nimrod has been poking at Kate’s borders so
many times and she cannot keep ignoring it. She cannot let this go. It is time
for a war.
I love this series!
I love it love it love it love it. And this book
excellently continues this whole awesome series. This was one of those books
where I got it, retreated to my bedroom and snarled at anyone who dared to
interrupt me
Friends, family, beloved husband – I love you all. I just
love the book more. Come back in a couple of days when I’ve finished this and
maybe I will notice humanity again. Maybe
This includes sleep. Sleep can take a back seat, I have
this book. This is amazing. This is my life now. Bury me with this book
Kate faces some absolutely excellent conflict here –
influenced by her magical claiming of the city of Atlanta. There’s an excellent
magical explanation for this in the growing world building of this series (more
of that later because it’s awesome) but it wasn’t so forced as to change Kate’s
character. Even without the magic, I could see Kate moving down some of these
pathways – ok not all of them (and the woo-woo driving her to dominate and
control what I hers) – but her being generally hacked off by people challenging
her, giving her shit and not coming close to respecting her for all the
sacrifices she has made.
This is a long series and through that series we’ve had
Kate save the city and the world quite regularly. We’ve also seen people fail
her, a lot, over and over again. She has proven herself time and time again
even as the people she have saved continue to fail her, not trust her and often
not make her much of a priority for them. This is one of the reasons why Kate
and Curran left the pack in a previous book. So, for me, seeing Kate push back
and respond to, for example, Jim threatening her with
“If I ever turn
into my father, you will kneel and pledge yourself to me, Jim.”
And I cheered. I did. Because this was past time doing
this. It also made her power creep complicated. Because part of her was very
justified in wanting to push back against the insults she takes for constantly
saving people with her vast power and then having the people she just saved
being terrified by that same power. But that’s the complexity – because she is
powerful, never more so than in this book – she is terrifying in her power and
even though she’s never given anyone reason to doubt her the mere fact she can
destroy the entire city makes her a terrifying force. Especially with the woo-woo
now being such a pressure on her she has some really excellent conflicts where
she is aware she’s circling the abyss
This is clear in all her relationships especially Curran.
Obviously this has been the defining relationship of this series for so long.
Their love hasn’t always been smooth and their previous issues rise up now when
facing Kate’s ascendant power. Curran loves her, is loyal to her but is more
than a little afraid of her and what she’s becoming (and of course she makes a
joke about this because that is them). While Kate worries about the lines she’s
crossing and how far the power will drive Curran away, especially her ability
to enslave people and the magic driving her to see people as objects and tools.
It’s an excellent depiction of her moral conflict and the conflict between
being ruler and person
The relationship with her father is perhaps the gem of
this book. He genuinely loves her and she seems to actually care about him.
What is interesting is that, throughout this series, Roland/Nimrod has been an
absolutely terrifying force. He’s literally Biblical, he is enormously
powerful. He is terrifying. And in this book Kate stands up to him, challenges
him and shouts him down - this isn’t Roland being weakened or made less epic –
this is making Kate that much more powerful. Kate has stepped up. Kate is epic.
Kate is a power and she can stand up to Roland as an equal. Something she
demands he acknowledge
This doesn’t even come close to the number of other
powerful relationships Kate has, especially Julie her ward, Derek, Saiman and
so many more.
And Erra. Her undead aunt, the City Eater who is just perfect and awesome and I can’t even begin to cover all of what this means because this review is already becoming ludicrously – long but it’s just so much fun.
On top of this we have an utterly epic world building
which I’ve said in book after book with all the mighty research merged
perfectly with the incredible imagination and depth of the world building. On
top of this we have those wonderful moments when random people will, after
hearing Kate’s awesome history lessons, will say things like “You’re from
Eden!?” (and I love her take on the Eden mythology). This adds to the general
storyline as both the history and nature of their powers are essential part of
the story
Which is awesome. Of course it’s awesome. It’s full of action and ominousness and excellent world building and relationships, never pausing for a second as we lead up to a truly epic battle
And love that battle. I love how it drew on so many different characters and their pasts – including the Russian Volv and worshipper of Chernobog and even a really nice moment from Dali the white were-tiger which took the past world building of her being a purifying force (I love this, I love that these past stories being ). It’s an awesome, epic conclusion to an absolutely awesome, complex and original book
Ooh oooh, I forgot the wedding! I forgot the evil Volv
wedding planning and his feuding witchy parents! See, all this epic writing,
excitement, amazing world building and it’s funny too?! Yes, I love this series
and I’m just going to fanpoodle everything….
Exxxxceeeeeeeept the LGBTQ inclusion because we have Barabas
(the rat alphas are mentioned briefly, but it’s exactly that, briefly) Kate’s
happy GBF servant, a lawyer who left the pack and his position to be Kate’s
full time servant (rather than part time) with a side-gig of being nursemaid to
a guy Kate kind of dumped on him. After many books we have a belated attempt to
realise this gay character should actually have a reason for throwing away his
whole life on Kate’s whim and decided to make him super involved in the Guild.
Except he’s not. The Mercenary’s guild is entirely Curran’s baby and deciding
Barabas is making this his thing despite his complete lack of interest before
(or during) this book, really just establishes him as Curran’s servant as well.
Some of the problem here is that after so many books there has been so little effort
to turn Barabas into an actual character with actual storylines and aims and
hopes and a life of his own (especially glaring in this series because so many
of the characters do) means that these belated and flawed attempt to patch a
token into an actual character feel exactly like that
For POC we have a large number of characters who have long
histories in this series. We have Kate, of course, of Babylonian descent who
has only become more and more open with her history and past. Jim, the leader
of the shifers, is a Black man and his mate, Dali is Indonesian. Raphael, prominent
Bouda is Latino as is Ascanio, one of Kate’s staff members who is actually growing
and showing a more complex side to himself. Mahon, the great bear and his
family are all Black and Curran’s extended family. George, Mahon’s daughter, is
married to the Latino/Middle
Eastern Eduardo who was only a brief mention here but has a much more advanced
depiction in previous books. George and Dr. Doolittle are also disabled and
Dr. Doolittle is Black – both of these characters (along with Nasrin, Dr.
Doolittle’s fellow medmage and middle eastern Muslim character) are more
mentioned in this book than expanded on, along with the Indonesian and nearly
blind Dali – but they’re characters with strong history and established
presence in the series. On top of this there is a vast array of briefly appearing
chartacters from every subset – the knights, the wizards, the mercenary guild
and there is an ongoing depiction of POC in more detail even for this
background characters: such as a character not just being Black, but Tongan and
describing the magic and ritual tattoos she has (which also works really well
with the world building as it establishes Kate’s encyclopaedic knowledge). Some
are only tiny roles. Some are major roles. Some have had long character arcs
and histories that are essential to the overarching story – but overwhelmingly
there’s a lot of POC here.
This book series is the ultimate trap for me. I have
books to read. I have a lot of books to read and review. But when I pick up a Kate Daniel’s book it is so very hard
not to throw all those books aside and go back to Magic
Bites and read the whole series again and again and again and again.
With the amount I read it’s hard to pick among my favourite. But this series is
it. Not just one of my favourites, but hands down my favourite. That’s not a
slur on any other beloved series – this is just so good and keeps getting
better.
