Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

[meganbmoore]

This is the fifth of Andrews' Kate Daniels books, and book 5 is when I'm used to even the good fantasy series to start heading south. Thankfully, that is not the case with these books. I suspect a large part of it is that, unlike other books in the urban fantasy genre (well, this isn't technically urban fantasy, as it's a semi-post-apocalyptic Atlanta, but it has all the right trappings) Kate's life hasn't turned into having half a dozen romantic interests running around, making knowing remarks and fighting over her, with her non-romantic personal story popping up between those scenes, and instead remains squarely focused on Kate herself, with only one romantic interest. The books also remember that if you have to have a bossy alpha male used to giving orders as a romantic interest, the best way to do that is to have the heroine be more alpha than he is and unphased by his pushiness, not to mention is the more powerful of the two. (Probably the best example of Kate and Curran's relationship is a scene in this book where Curran tries to give Kate an order and she taps him on the nose, goes "bad cat," and proceeds to do whatever she wants and he basically sighs and goes about his business.)

On a personal-for-Kate level, this book also does what I've wanted these books to do since we started getting into Kate's family and history: it talks about her mother, and gets into her head. I don't know that I like some of what was revealed, but I do like that she was given more agency in her life and made more choices about herself and Kate than had been previously implied. I suppose I feel about her actions the way I do about some of Bonnie Bennett's actions in season 2 of The Vampire Diaries: I don't like it and I don't, morally, agree with it, but I cannot say that if I were in the same position facing the same consequences (for someone I loved) and had the same abilities, I would not have made the same choice.

It also continues with the culture collision theme from the previous book, and has Kate learning more about the Pack, and how to handle it and her own interests. (On a side note: I particularly liked Kate's anti-rape culture speech, maybe even more than I normally would have, as I was one of the readers who was made uncomfortable about some of the comments re: consent in Bayou Moon, which affected my enjoyment of an otherwise mostly fun book.)

The main plot of the book revolved around a device that absorbs the magic in the area surrounding it, which has the unintended (by the creator) consequence of hurting or killing any person or creature that has magic and is affected by it. As happens with such things, anti-magic extremists get it.

While I found that interesting, I thought it was less interesting than Kate's personal plot and history, which really have enough drama, secrets, politics, and complicated relationships to carry the book alone. (Though the main plot did change things for Kate and her ward, Julie, in a way that I can't really know how I feel about it until I've seen how it plays out in future books.)

Comments

[bigbrasskey]

Haaaa, I liked that speech so much I forgot the Bayou Moon thing was by the same author. Maybe the Bayou Moon was an editorial thing and this is Andrews' push back?

Honestly, I think this was my favourite book by far - not only because of the personal growth for Kate, all the meat and conflict for her, Andrea, Kate&Andrea, all the really awesome emotional interplay between characters - and Kate and Curran wrestling out their differences in a really nice way; with all of their differences still there but, like human beings do, compromising for each other - Kate and Julie (I'm...waiting for that to play out too, but with hope?) and just so much lovely magic and loyalty and humour and politics and those gorgeous, gorgeous IC smackdowns of the ~animal instincts~/being a shapeshifter made me an abusive partner BS shapeshifter books love. (I also really liked the way the Temple and rabbis were brought back into the series - with respect, dignity and humanity. I kind of had a *....leeeeean back dubiously* reaction to Kate being brutally dismissive of their outrage in the last book; in character and understandable in context, but an echo of funky.)

I honestly had a bit of a flatline reaction to the Kate's mom reveal. It's a terrible thing to do, but my response was hampered by, well, Voron - he was a general serving Roland (meaning mass murder, conquering, etc) and complicit in the planned murder of her child. But neither Evdokia (who explicitly blamed his abuse of Kate and reprehensible personality on her mother) or Kate - Kate's reaction being completely understandable - really seemed to take that into account. I'm guessing Voron could have been plenty vicious with Kate even if he genuinely loved her mom and wasn't fried.

[meganbmoore]

I've seen Andrews (I don't know if it was one half or both halves) defend the Bayou Moon stuff in places.

And yeah, I kinda...think Kate's mom may have jumped the gun a bit with Voron? But at the same time, I think she was doing whatever she had to JUST IN CASE. And I actually wish now that we couild have flashbacks to Kate's mother? Because I've always thought that Kate was making some assumptions about her and Voron, and i really doubt Voron was incredibly forthcoming about things, and the only other input we've had has been from a third party who knew what was going on but wasn't actually involved.

[bigbrasskey]

Uuuuugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Yes, I imagine her mom wasn't willing to take any chances considering what was going on and what was at risk. The concept delivers a visceral shudder of horror and I'm glad that Andrews is at least handling that with the unpleasant gravity it deserves.