Just Finished Reading: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Kate Daniels is a mercenary in Atlanta, a city changed beyond all recognition by the return of magic. Magic and technology are forced to co-exist in a new age where waves of magic make most technology obsolete and where technology only works when magic periodically retreats. The great architectural edifices have collapsed and new Agencies have grown up to cope with the sudden shifts in power. In a reality where anyone with talent can conjure demons and where your next door neighbour could be a werewolf or worse, people like Kate are always in demand for protection or retribution – as long as it pays the bills. But when her friend and guardian is killed and both the vampire and werewolf communities are implicated, Kate must find the killer before all out war erupts on the streets.

Yet another urban fantasy novel I’m afraid. There are so many of these around at the moment that it’s pretty hard to avoid them – unless you’re not into fantasy novels of course! I picked this up on spec because it looked slightly different from the others. It certainly pushes all the buttons though, a modern city, a strong female central character with a troubled past and a dark secret, a life threatening quest that brings out her abilities and increases her confidence, strong male characters (though not always human) who she can lust after and wise-crack with and, of course oodles of magic. I liked the central character Kate but she’s my kind of woman – feisty. Though I’m confident that a woman that feisty in real life would both pass me by and totally intimidate me. As a first novel though this wasn’t half bad. It did wobble a bit in places to begin with but found its feet and its style fairly quickly. Andrews didn’t exactly hit it out of the ballpark on this one but showed enough talent that I haven’t regretted already buying her second novel even before I’d read this one. If she doesn’t lose her focus (unlike Laurell Hamilton) I can see Ilona Andrews going a long way. Certainly not a great book – even within its sub-genre – but this showed an interesting amount of potential.