Book: Magic Bites

Ilona Andrews
Fantasy
Ace / April 2007
Mass Market / 260 Pages
Series: Kate Daniels #1

Atlanta would be a nice place to live if it weren’t for the magic…. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shape changers, blame each other for the bizarre killings – and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realises she’s way out of her league – but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

I picked this book up because I liked the "Narnia" inspired cover - I'm a visual person.

What I liked the Most? Hands down the characterization of Kate. She is a well-realized and interesting character, she's someone you can empathize with and she's got a pretty darn good sense of humor.

What I liked the Least? The vamps are anything but an erotic fantasy - I like my vamps sexy.

Review:Magic Bites has everything that you would expect in a fantasy novel, a well developed character who is fighting way above her weight, yet still doesn’t consider running away, a superbly envisioned world that is just an alt of our own, interesting plot, and wickedly graphic phrases.

Kate gains some more magical power during the story and has a secret heritage that hints at greater powers to come. There is a smorgasbord of supernatural beasties both good and evil, friend and foe. And just trying to figure out who is friend and who is foe is pivotal to the whole plot and Kate’s judgement proves to be somewhat impaired which leads to some great plot twists.

Magic Bites can be a bit gory with descriptions of the atrocities committed by the villain of the story but these aren’t gratuitous and this is in the dark fantasy genre after all. I would not recommend this book to a youngish or sensitive reader.

Recommended to: Someone who really likes fantasy - this is not another romance dressed up to look like fantasy.

Best Quote:"Most clairvoyants are slightly emphatic."

Challenges: 100+, Para999, August