Magic Bites (2007)

Ágætis fantasía þar sem heimurinn hefur breyst í veröld þar sem tækni og galdrar takast á. Þegar galdrar virka gerir tæknin það aftur á móti ekki og öfugt. Þetta gerir fólki erfitt að lifa og um leið ber meir á fantasíu verum á borð við vampírur, varúlfum og álíka skepnum.
Kate Daniels er hörkunagli sem hefur þurft að fara leynt en þegar sá sem stendur henni næst er myrtur neyðist hún til að fara á stjá og leita sökudólganna sem virðast ætla sér að etja saman helstu valdaklíkum borgarinnar. ( )

I think I'm very glad that my introduction to Ilona Andrews started with their more recent "Hidden Legacy" series. After going back to the earliest part of their bibliography with Magic Bites, it really feels like this was a practice run for Nevada Baylor and Mad Rogan's story, and ultimately I liked Hidden Legacy better.

Kate and Curran's details feel very similar to Nevada and Rogan: a tough lady with a dry sense of humor who knows how to hold her own in a fight and secretly has high-level magical powers? An overly masculine, emotionally unavailable, borderline feral brawler with an insatiable attraction to the female lead? A relationship between the two that begins with some uncomfortably violent and problematic interactions? Yeah, I've read this before. Their voices are similar as well. Perhaps this is just the Ilona Andrews style, but if someone handed me a scene of Kate and Curran's antagonistic, crass "flirting" and told me it was an excerpt from a Hidden Legacy book, I wouldn't question it. None of this is really a complaint: the Kate Daniels series was a huge success for Ilona Andrews, and over the ~10 years that they wrote the series I'm sure that they honed their skills for writing these character archetypes to perfection. The characters might not have hit the mark yet for me in this first volume, but I know the series probably only gets better from here.

Another similarity to Hidden Legacy: the worldbuilding here is AWESOME. IA are great at coming up with very cool worlds for their characters to play in, and the rules and details of them never fail to draw me in. In this case, Kate and company live in a universe where magic is commonplace: law enforcement has departments dedicated to dealing with magic users and their goings-on, shapeshifters are all around living in packs with very organized hierarchies, vampires are... some sort of weird zombie-golem abominations that you don't want to come across. And coolest of all: magic and regular, modern technology are both part of day-to-day life, but there are specific times of day where one or the other straight up don't work. You can cast a spell, but if you need to travel anywhere you better find a bike or a horse because your car will not run for the next three hours. It's such a random limitation to put on this world, but it really ensures that there are unlimited opportunities for conflict that characters will have to face because of it. I really enjoyed that aspect of the story.

Overall, is this my favorite urban fantasy of all time? No, it didn't exactly grab me as much as other books, even others from the same author. But I think it has a lot of potential and I'm interested to see where Kate and Curran go from here. Also, Renee Raudman is the audiobook reader for this series, and I absolutely adored her reading the Hidden Legacy series, so at least there's that. ( )

This was a really great start to a new series. I love Kate Daniels' spunk and her independence. Loved the characters of Derek and Curran as well. Very graphic descriptions and realistic dialogue. I was starting to catch onto things by the end. Amazing world building and very complex characters. I definitely want to read more. ( )

Stayed up way too late to finish this. Excellent urban fantasy! ( )

Digital audiobook narrated by Renée Raudman
*

Paranormal fantasy is just not my thing, but this was really quite fun to read. I loved that the main character is a kick-ass woman who does not suffer fools (or vampires or shapeshifters or demons, etc) lightly. Kate Daniels is a strong woman in both body and mind, and that’s only part of what makes her a successful mercenary.

There were parts of the story line that reminded me of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files stories. Both deal with the various factions in the netherworld and both get themselves into trouble with the ruling groups. Harry has his staff, and Kate has her sword.

The action is nonstop and there’s some interesting sexual / romantic tension. If I need another paranormal fantasy for a challenge prompt I just might turn to Andrews in the future.

Renée Raudman did a great job on the audio narration. She brought these characters to life and I really liked the way she interpreted Kate Daniels. ( )