Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews

[meganbmoore]

I have to confess: I don’t actually recall the events of the first Kate Daniels book that well. I remember that I really liked it, that it had a kickass heroine, a pretty cool post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, a bit of a fun noirish feel, that it had all sorts of weres(not just werewolves) non-romantic pseudo-goth vampires, great worldbuilding, and touched on various mythologies, but seemed to have a bit of a fondness for celtic. Uhm…basically, I remembered all the cool bits, but none of the details. It happens. (If you’re me.) I also remember thinking that the book felt like it was supposed to be a lot longer, and got crammed into a smaller package, which is probably why the details didn’t stick.

Thankfully, the second book doesn’t have that problem, and feels like it was just the length it was supposed to be. This time around, Kate finds herself taking care of a 13-year-old girl named Julie, whose mother is part of a coven that has disappeared, and who has the ability to sense magic. Not helping things are the fact that the Flare (see below) is in full swing, allowing all sorts of Celtic beasties to come through, including Bran, an immortal Celtic “hero” who styles himself quite the trickster and ladies man. Bran, of course decides that it will be fun to mess with the people in town you least want to mess with and plays games with the Pack, who approaches Kate for help tracking him down. Kate has serious not-having-sex-yet issues with their leader, Curran. Not only that, but David, a 18-year-old were who was briefly (non-sexually, thankyouverymuch) bonded to Kate before is out to prove himself and invites himself along. Kate is very wise to the wisdom of a free babysitter who can rip out throats when taking care of a 13-year-old everyone wants.

I am going to take a moment to just steal a paragraph from the Dear Author review of the book to explain the setting, because I’m lazy that way:

For those readers new to the series, the Kate Daniels books take place in a futuristic Atlanta suffering from an advanced state of urban decay. In this world, magic batters the earth in waves, eating technology. When tech is up, spells fail and magical constructs lose their power. When magic is up, cars cease functioning and planes fall from the sky. But every seven years the waves increase in intensity until they culminate in a magical tsunami called a flare. During flares, magic is so powerful that even gods can walk the earth. 

(Go read the review.)

A few rambles:

1) Did I mention I love the world building and mythology? Let me repeat it. I love the worldbuilding and mythology.

2) Bran said he thought Kate was not-hot. There are no words for how much I love that. Not out of any ill-will towards Kate, but I am just so sick and tired of every male in this genre falling head-over-heels in lust with the Oh So Speshul heroine.

3) Still-half-dead Kate made a deal with Bran over the much-contested maps (I’m not explaining it to you, just read the book!) to not use her sword. So she bashed him over the head with a chair. Twice. Then let the big strong alpha males come in.

4) Kate making David prove her point to Julie about not letting some (very much a loser) guy take her magic and be proud of herself was most excellent. As was Kate giving sex ed.

5) I’m not sure what I think of David’s whole little alpha bit about people hurting Kate. Possibly(probably) I am just too scarred by the genre’s obsession with “complicated romantic lives resulting in 50 guys lusting after Our Heroine and she has to choose”(I just can’t handle it anymore! Just give me my world, my characters, my story and my action and go! If you want romance, just give me a pairing, I don’t care if it takes an eternity for them to get their act together! But most of the time, I just can’t take the whole “who will she choose?” games anymore, in almost any genre.) But look, David, here’s this cute Julie. She is little but tough and seems to have a crush on you. And you were making her a flower out of nails and wire while Kate was coaching you into telling her to value herself. I am highly susceptible to such things. But no touching for about five years unless it’s hugging or rescuing. 

6) Often, guys in these stories as overwhelmingly alpha as Curran tend to annoy me, and contribute to my eventual alienation.  Curran's alpha doesn't.  Probably because Kate's just as alpha as he is.

Ahm…It is a good book and you should all go read it. 

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I also remember thinking that the book felt like it was supposed to be a lot longer, and got crammed into a smaller package, which is probably why the details didn’t stick.

That's because the book was supposed to be longer. I think Ilona had to cut something like 30K from the original to get the product we all know today.

[estara.livejournal.com]

Darn! I didn't know that. I miss the 80ies. You always had a brick of fantasy if you wanted one, especially from DAW. I bet Michelle (Sagara) West couldn't sell her Broken Sword series today. Or remember David Eddings...

I WANT big books if they're necessary... *sigh*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's weird, because there are still some 350-500 urban fantasy books, and some 450-1000 page high fantasy books, but there do seem to be fewer and fewer new authors putting out longer books. I think the only really long "first book" I've stumbled across recently is Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora, which is about 750 pages. The other longer books are authors who've been out for a while.

Perhaps this should be its own post.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I remember you telling me that a little bit after we "met." I remember going "oh good, it's not a problem with the writer, just the editor being dumb."

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

It's actually a publisher thing. Ace/Penguin is very strict with their word count. Until writers "prove" themselves (read: sell), they want to keep the pages short so they can keep the price point down.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I realize I'm in the minority here, but I wish _more_ editors would have this problem. I thought Magic Bites (and this one, too) was the perfect length for its content; I'd much rather be left wanting more than slogging through excess the way most books make me do.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings on the subject, really. On the one hand, there are a lot of books that feel to me like they needed to be a little longer to finish fleshing some stuff out, but they weren't to keep the book at a tidy little page count, but I've read a lot more books where someone just needed to confiscate the writer's computer and tell them they couldn't have it back unless they promised to get to the point.

[ilona-andrews.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad the book worked out. ;)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.