This is the book review I just posted about Magic Strikes at Goodreads, and while I could have just cut and pasted, there is a piece of author commentary I want to make as well.
Make no mistake–I am now enthusiastic. While I enjoyed the series before, for many of the reasons listed in the review below, I have now understood these characters on a complicated level and seen many facets of these characters. They’ve grown, shifted, changed, and become real.
Wait a second! Aren’t we reading a pulp genre–urban fantasy? Isn’t the focus on grit and combat? Sure, that’s there too, but the point, the salient point here, is that Gordon and Ilona haven’t forgotten their characters in the gimmick, which can happen. Rather, they’ve chosen to explore, to let them grow, to look at the psychological. I’ve waited 3 books for this payoff, and honestly, didn’t expect it to happen in a genre book.
Which leads me to two observations.
1. Regardless of the genre, there is no substitute for character-centered story telling. This Magic Strikes has in spades.
2. Patience and time are required to develop characters in a series. Sometimes we feel pushed to create fast, or focus on the things that sell a genre. Again, the action bells and whistles are in Magic Strikes, but there has been a patient development toward more, and that slow build has paid off for this reader. As an author, I appreciate the technique as well.
Well done. You have made your characters live for me beyond the boundaries of your novel. As I’ve said in the review, not just your main characters. You have made a world, and I have stopped believing it’s a book.
Now the review.
While Ilona Andrews has always been a technically brilliant writer, in this book she touches the soul and essence of her characters. Kate is beautifully realized in this book, her emotions and physical aspect combined with her heart and self-sacrifice. Her secret may be out in the world, and future books will deliciously deliver what looks to be an amazing and final conflict between Kate and her heritage.
Meanwhile, Curran is realized as well, less as a creature of arrogance, and more as a complicated man. When the chips are down, Kate, Curran, and their cast are revealed to be a group of heroes worthy of their mythology and series. I find myself not only wanting more of this series, but also spin offs writing about the characters I enjoy. I would particularly like to see Andrea and Jim featured in books.
Andrews is not only technically precise, but her fight scenes are ones you can fall into. The action is well-paced and absorbing. Her knowledge of the myth and folklore of many, many cultures is put to good use in this story in a natural setting and world that makes using the variety of fantasy creatures much more than a mismatch.
I am impressed. While the first two books were good books, now I really care, and I want the next book soon. Now. Yesterday if possible. Andrews has crossed my analytical read-fiction-as-a-writer-and-learn line, and turned me into someone who has experienced her characters.
Enthuse much? All of us writers should be so lucky to get to this point in our series, and I think maybe we do have to write 2 or 3 books in a series to get here.
