Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, Book 1) | Ilona Andrews

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, Book 1) | Ilona Andrews | Close to 5 stars!

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Magic Bites (Kate ...

	Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, Book 1) Ilona Andrews Ace, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 102 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Mercenary Kate Daniels cleans up urban problems of a paranormal kind. But her latest prey, a pack of undead warriors, presents her greatest challenge.

Excellent Urban Fantasy

If you're into the genres of Urban Fantasy or Speculative Fiction, or if you like to see a well-written female lead or some truly fabulous world-building, then by all means please check out Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites. It's an excellent piece of fiction; the writing is fun, engaging, and clever. She's developed a very tactile and realistic future-Atlanta, and her characters all feel satisfyingly 3-D. I thoroughly enjoyed both this and the sequel, Magic Burns, and I'm eagerly awaiting the third installment.

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Close to 5 stars!

This KATEGORIE|/book" class="textlinks">book was a wild ride, with a super-tough female heroine (which I love), a fresh premise, and lots of action and gore. Andrews' approach to the rather tired vampire/were-creature genre is unique and, in the case of the vamps, rather horrifying (which I loved), and the storyline is tight - I thought there was no extraneous detail and found myself reading every word, rather than skimming and reading dialogue only. I really enjoyed the inclusion of world mythological lore as well, which again seemed a fresh idea and provided some surprising twists. Kate, the main character, was well-drawn and provided with some funny, snappy dialogue; the fact that the authors left out some details with regard to her origins left me very interested in book two, as did the tension between her and Curran. In all, a great first effort, unique in its approach and in its rough and tumble female lead. Don't miss this book!

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Good debut novel: not great but good

In this, Ilona Andrews' first novel, there is magic in the world, and it does not like technology. Set in Atlanta in the not-too-distant future, Magic Bites tells of a world where magic comes in waves, alternating with "tech" (times when technology works). Because of this influx of magic, there are certain agencies which have been created to deal with new magical problems such as harpies, dragons, and the occasional salamander-wielding arsonist. One such agency is the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, a highly-structured system which "helps" citizens who cannot afford any other aid. Another magical clean-up agency is the Mercenary Guild, to which Kate Daniels belongs.

When Kate's oldest friend and sometime-protector Greg is murdered, Kate takes on a mission to figure out why and how he died, and to avenge his murder. Kate's investigations bring her to the Order - which she left several years beforehand due to "authority issues". They put her in league with the Pack (shapeshifters who have conquered their beasts and retain their humanity), and have her facing off against the city's Masters of the Dead (necromancers and their vampire drones) in a battle for the city - and her life.

The story contained within Magic Bites is interesting, and I love Andrews' conceptualization of magic colliding with our technology-laden world. However, it all could have used slightly more editing, or more writing, or...well, something. There were a few parts where I was unclear as to how the characters got to a certain conclusion, and the narrator is constantly hinting at things which we are never told. Perhaps these hints will be further explained in forthcoming books, and I hope they are. This is an interesting series: I have already started on the next book, and hope that Andrews publishes more volumes of Kate's story.

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Magic Bites and Sometimes Sizzles

When you pick up a KATEGORIE|/book" class="textlinks">book at the supermarket checkstand you know you are taking a chance. The odds of hitting a winner in the Lottery are better, even the chance of being hit by lightning or eaten by a shark are better...but once in a great while you do hit a winner. This book, Magic Bites, does all of the things that a book needs to do, the hero, (Yuck! C'mon admit it, sometimes the old word just sounds better no matter if it is a bit sexually exclusionary, Heroine there I've said it and feel much better), is heoric, the odds overwhelming, the villian villianous and the guy, guyish. Okay so being a guy its hard for me to find all that much enticing about a romantic icon. Sure some parts of the tale are familiar, the heroine is tough as nails. (No one ever complained about Mickey Spillane or Ian Flemming writing about tough as nails heros, so just get over it. If you don't like some of the conventions of the genre read something else. But some parts of the saga explore uncharted ground. No cape-wearing, accented, evening dressed vampires here. No, these guys are not the party going type and if you don't know what that means buy the book and find out.

All in all a great read and a new take on some supernatural sacred cows. Do it the right way, buy the book from Amazon and get the companion book, Magic Burns at the same time. Then you won't pick it up one dark and stormy night and find that instead of Magic Bites, you have Magic Burns and will either have to start without knowing the backstory or wait two weeks to get the first book from Amazon! Great new series and waiting with a worm on my tongue for the next one, Magic Breaks...How's that Ms Andrews? Or maybe Magic Blaze, have you tried, Magic Blooms? No that's not right but then you could do Magic...

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A mite too hard-boiled

Magic Bites is a decent, quick fantasy read. It is a sort of hardboiled urban fantasy with blood and guts and a light whodunit mystery that relies more on the particular version of supernatural creatures that this author created, and less on any traditional mystery concepts. What I mean is that the bad guy in this is a magical creature, who wants magical creature things and who kills in magical creature ways, rather than, say, a jealous lover who kills and blackmails before running off to Mexico. I like these kinds of KATEGORIE|/book" class="textlinks">books when the magical creatures are unusual or interesting in some way, when the main character is sympathetic, and/or when the writing is fun.

This one had good magic, so-so writing, and a fairly irritating main character. She was intriguing, but way too over the top with her [...]-kicking image. A lot like John Taylor of Simon Green's Nightside books, who also annoys me in the way he is always implying how incredibly dangerous he is to mess with, and never takes his armor off, even for a second, because he has to keep his myriad of enemies in check with the neverending bluff that is his reputation. It is annoying for me to read because the authors, both in Green's case and in this book, act as if the reader is another person who can never be allowed to see the main character's weakness, and that's just silly. They drop hints of humanity, imply vulnerability, but never pursue it for long: Kate tries to date in this one, and regrets it when it blows up in her face, but she doesn't regret it that much -- because she still has [...] to kick.

But I did like the version of vampires in this, and some things about the shapechangers. I like the Order of knights, though not much was said about them, and I really liked the villain -- though the actual character of the villain was not so good. The only scary thing about him was his power, and his personality and non-magical abilities should match his power for scariness -- see the Denarians in Jim Butcher's Dresden series for the way to make the bad guy scary.

All in all, it wasn't bad, and I'll be reading the sequel.

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