Magic Triumphs Book Review
Oct. 11th, 2018 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFinished Magic Triumphs by Illona Andrews -- this is the final installment in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series. Which is still the best urban fantasy series that I've read to date. (I admittedly haven't read all of them, because that would be humanely impossible. I'd have to spend my time doing nothing but reading urban fantasy series, and frankly I've better things to do with my time and better series to read. Also, considering what I've read, it's probably not saying a whole lot. To date I've read or tried the following urban fantasy series (which I remember, if I didn't make it past the sample chapters, then I don't remember it):
1. Kate Daniels Magic Series by Illona Andrews (all of it, including most of the novellas. I think I may have jumped over the Jim/Dali one.)
2. Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (including a few of the short stories)
3. Rachel Morgan Bounty Hunter Series by Kim Harrison (pretty much all of it)
4. Mercy Briggs Coyote Shifter Series by (can't remember the author's name, and stopped about six books in.)
5. Tobey - Rosemary & Rue Series by Sceanan McGuire ( only made it through one book, got stuck on the second, can't stand the dialogue. I require good dialogue, more important to me than description.)
And...I don't remember the others that I tried.
Anywho, of those books, the Kate Daniels series was far and away the best. I also ranked them by preference. YMMV, of course. Writing style, character, etc is subjective, after all. Some people like stories about faeries (I really don't), so prefer vampires (not crazy about them myself), some prefer wizards (my preference), and others (shapeshifters - hit or miss).
The Kate Daniels Series is - I'll warn you, a tad into paramilitary. If that is something you can't deal with? Don't bother. It put me off the series to begin with, but the protagonist, Kate, managed to win me over -- because she was anti-military and anti-authority. So it worked. (But avoid at all costs the other series Illona Andrews writes -- such the Hidden Legacy Series and Iron & Magic, because those are pro-military. And lack the humor this one has.)
Enuf of that. If you haven't read the series? Stop now. This book isn't the one to start with -- also you would be horribly lost. And this review contains spoilers from this point forward.
The upshot? Magic Triumphs feels a bit rushed (which is odd since it took longer to write), and isn't as good as previous novels in the series. I think they'd have been better off stopping with the last book and just leaving things open-ended. But I'm guessing the publisher pushed them to put out a finale that wrapped up the lead character's storyline yet opened things up for future novels.
And Magic Triumphs certainly accomplishes that -- Kate's storyline is for the most part, neatly wrapped up. There's no reason to visit her again. Other's maybe, but not Kate or Curran specifically.
The books are told in first person pov, so this may have limited the scope of the narrative. There's a lot of characters over the course of the series, and when you write from first person -- you only cover whoever comes into contact with the narrator. The narrator isn't going to talk to everyone on the planet or interact with everyone. It's not possible. Also only those characters that push the protagonist/narrator's story forward really matter. If they don't? We won't see them or much of them.
It is what it is.
So for instance, Jim has distanced himself from Kate and Curran to run the Pack and was not a featured player. That said, it did seem a bit odd that he never really makes an appearance, and remains off-screen, while folks like Saiman, Phillip, Nick, Dali and Hugh are heavily featured. Jim is the best friend of Kate and Curran. But again, too many characters -- and the writers added a whole bunch from novellas, etc. So on top of the ones we already had, we had Yong Fong (who only made an appearance in a short story about Julie, Elara (Iron & Magic), Conlan (Curran and Kate's son), the villain (Neig), the Druids, and Hugh.
I don't think the writers knew how to deal with this many characters and got a bit bogged down and lost. Nick Feldman's character never made a lot of sense -- and still doesn't. Adora -- I didn't really care that much about.
The plot? Eh, it sort of works. Felt contrived in a few places. And Hugh's redemption was a tad forced. The writer's spend half of this book convincing the reader to embrace Hugh. I think they should have built that over time. And had this novel come out after doing a full series on Hugh D'Ambray. And an interval book where Kate and Hugh come to terms. Trying to wedge it into this book along with everything else..was cluttered. I did like her scenes with Hugh a great deal, but it felt a bit pushed. Also, we should have seen the growing friendship between Julie and Hugh. Julie as a character -- has been written all over the place and didn't work for me. I found myself wanting to smack her upside the head. I'd have liked to have seen Julie and Derek's battle to get the anchor.
A lot of the action happens off stage, leaving us with basically Kate and Curran either playing with Conlan, worrying over Conlan or chasing after Conlan most of the time. Do kids ruin these types of stories? Hard to say. It made sense they would be doing that...but it also veered us away from the plot.
For a bit I wondered if Roland and Neig were working together. They weren't. So that's a nice tease. But it is also confusing -- it confused me in Iron & Magic, because it does appear that they are. Also it doesn't make sense that Roland didn't go after Neig, after he took out Landon Nez's forces in Iron & Magic.
Neig, while an interesting villain and yet another metaphorical take on how people can go insane once they obtain too much power, felt rather one-dimensional. I was also disappointed that the writer went the traditional route with the Dragon. (But I also happen to like Dragons.) He felt very cliche to me. Dragon, treasure, look how great I am, Narcissist. The best villains to date are Roland, Landon Nez, Hugh, and Erra. Mainly because they are complicated. Also Nick Feldman made for an interesting antagonist, whom was never fully developed. Neig's too impersonal. The yeddimur on the other hand were clever and creepy. Illona Andrews is rather good at creating twisty mythological creatures, and the yeddimur is the latest example.
The world-building in this book, as in all the others in this series, is rather good. The best of the urban fantasies in my opinion. The writers pull from less know mythos, and put their own little wicked twist on it. I still think they have the best take on vampires, shapeshifters, and Judeo/Christian mythology out there. And I love the sly insertions of Eastern European, Russian and Mespotamian mythology.
The book's other strength is the snarky dialogue and humor. I chuckled in various sections, and smiled in others.
What it lacks is in characterization and plot, which feel a bit rushed in places, and don't quite add up. I did however like the fact that Elara aka The White Warlock was not the answer to the Roland problem. Kate sacrificing herself and pulling him into a pocket dimension was -- but it seemed to come a bit out of the blue. I think the writers wrote themselves into a corner with Roland. And didn't quite know how to get out. It's interesting that the worst villains, Erra, Roland, and Hugh get a second chance in the books, while others are painted with a far blacker brush. Is Neig truly worse than Roland and Erra? Hard to say. Some long-term characterizations pay-off - Christopher, Hugh, Erra, Ghastek, Rowena, and to a lesser degree, Julie, George, and Saiman. We don't get hardly anything of Derek and I kept wondering what his relationship was with Julie. Also, Ascanio, Raphael, and Andrea barely make an appearance. Ascanio and Jim aren't really seen at all, just referred to.
Elara still does nothing for me -- too cliche and not all that interesting. So, it's unlikely I'll read further installments.
I think the writers have grown weary of this world and want to move on. Which I understand all too well. Their characters have begun to stop chatting. While new ones are. It happens.
Anyhow? Over all? Three stars. It was okay, somewhat better than books one and two, but not as good as books three through nine.
1. Kate Daniels Magic Series by Illona Andrews (all of it, including most of the novellas. I think I may have jumped over the Jim/Dali one.)
2. Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (including a few of the short stories)
3. Rachel Morgan Bounty Hunter Series by Kim Harrison (pretty much all of it)
4. Mercy Briggs Coyote Shifter Series by (can't remember the author's name, and stopped about six books in.)
5. Tobey - Rosemary & Rue Series by Sceanan McGuire ( only made it through one book, got stuck on the second, can't stand the dialogue. I require good dialogue, more important to me than description.)
And...I don't remember the others that I tried.
Anywho, of those books, the Kate Daniels series was far and away the best. I also ranked them by preference. YMMV, of course. Writing style, character, etc is subjective, after all. Some people like stories about faeries (I really don't), so prefer vampires (not crazy about them myself), some prefer wizards (my preference), and others (shapeshifters - hit or miss).
The Kate Daniels Series is - I'll warn you, a tad into paramilitary. If that is something you can't deal with? Don't bother. It put me off the series to begin with, but the protagonist, Kate, managed to win me over -- because she was anti-military and anti-authority. So it worked. (But avoid at all costs the other series Illona Andrews writes -- such the Hidden Legacy Series and Iron & Magic, because those are pro-military. And lack the humor this one has.)
Enuf of that. If you haven't read the series? Stop now. This book isn't the one to start with -- also you would be horribly lost. And this review contains spoilers from this point forward.
The upshot? Magic Triumphs feels a bit rushed (which is odd since it took longer to write), and isn't as good as previous novels in the series. I think they'd have been better off stopping with the last book and just leaving things open-ended. But I'm guessing the publisher pushed them to put out a finale that wrapped up the lead character's storyline yet opened things up for future novels.
And Magic Triumphs certainly accomplishes that -- Kate's storyline is for the most part, neatly wrapped up. There's no reason to visit her again. Other's maybe, but not Kate or Curran specifically.
The books are told in first person pov, so this may have limited the scope of the narrative. There's a lot of characters over the course of the series, and when you write from first person -- you only cover whoever comes into contact with the narrator. The narrator isn't going to talk to everyone on the planet or interact with everyone. It's not possible. Also only those characters that push the protagonist/narrator's story forward really matter. If they don't? We won't see them or much of them.
It is what it is.
So for instance, Jim has distanced himself from Kate and Curran to run the Pack and was not a featured player. That said, it did seem a bit odd that he never really makes an appearance, and remains off-screen, while folks like Saiman, Phillip, Nick, Dali and Hugh are heavily featured. Jim is the best friend of Kate and Curran. But again, too many characters -- and the writers added a whole bunch from novellas, etc. So on top of the ones we already had, we had Yong Fong (who only made an appearance in a short story about Julie, Elara (Iron & Magic), Conlan (Curran and Kate's son), the villain (Neig), the Druids, and Hugh.
I don't think the writers knew how to deal with this many characters and got a bit bogged down and lost. Nick Feldman's character never made a lot of sense -- and still doesn't. Adora -- I didn't really care that much about.
The plot? Eh, it sort of works. Felt contrived in a few places. And Hugh's redemption was a tad forced. The writer's spend half of this book convincing the reader to embrace Hugh. I think they should have built that over time. And had this novel come out after doing a full series on Hugh D'Ambray. And an interval book where Kate and Hugh come to terms. Trying to wedge it into this book along with everything else..was cluttered. I did like her scenes with Hugh a great deal, but it felt a bit pushed. Also, we should have seen the growing friendship between Julie and Hugh. Julie as a character -- has been written all over the place and didn't work for me. I found myself wanting to smack her upside the head. I'd have liked to have seen Julie and Derek's battle to get the anchor.
A lot of the action happens off stage, leaving us with basically Kate and Curran either playing with Conlan, worrying over Conlan or chasing after Conlan most of the time. Do kids ruin these types of stories? Hard to say. It made sense they would be doing that...but it also veered us away from the plot.
For a bit I wondered if Roland and Neig were working together. They weren't. So that's a nice tease. But it is also confusing -- it confused me in Iron & Magic, because it does appear that they are. Also it doesn't make sense that Roland didn't go after Neig, after he took out Landon Nez's forces in Iron & Magic.
Neig, while an interesting villain and yet another metaphorical take on how people can go insane once they obtain too much power, felt rather one-dimensional. I was also disappointed that the writer went the traditional route with the Dragon. (But I also happen to like Dragons.) He felt very cliche to me. Dragon, treasure, look how great I am, Narcissist. The best villains to date are Roland, Landon Nez, Hugh, and Erra. Mainly because they are complicated. Also Nick Feldman made for an interesting antagonist, whom was never fully developed. Neig's too impersonal. The yeddimur on the other hand were clever and creepy. Illona Andrews is rather good at creating twisty mythological creatures, and the yeddimur is the latest example.
The world-building in this book, as in all the others in this series, is rather good. The best of the urban fantasies in my opinion. The writers pull from less know mythos, and put their own little wicked twist on it. I still think they have the best take on vampires, shapeshifters, and Judeo/Christian mythology out there. And I love the sly insertions of Eastern European, Russian and Mespotamian mythology.
The book's other strength is the snarky dialogue and humor. I chuckled in various sections, and smiled in others.
What it lacks is in characterization and plot, which feel a bit rushed in places, and don't quite add up. I did however like the fact that Elara aka The White Warlock was not the answer to the Roland problem. Kate sacrificing herself and pulling him into a pocket dimension was -- but it seemed to come a bit out of the blue. I think the writers wrote themselves into a corner with Roland. And didn't quite know how to get out. It's interesting that the worst villains, Erra, Roland, and Hugh get a second chance in the books, while others are painted with a far blacker brush. Is Neig truly worse than Roland and Erra? Hard to say. Some long-term characterizations pay-off - Christopher, Hugh, Erra, Ghastek, Rowena, and to a lesser degree, Julie, George, and Saiman. We don't get hardly anything of Derek and I kept wondering what his relationship was with Julie. Also, Ascanio, Raphael, and Andrea barely make an appearance. Ascanio and Jim aren't really seen at all, just referred to.
Elara still does nothing for me -- too cliche and not all that interesting. So, it's unlikely I'll read further installments.
I think the writers have grown weary of this world and want to move on. Which I understand all too well. Their characters have begun to stop chatting. While new ones are. It happens.
Anyhow? Over all? Three stars. It was okay, somewhat better than books one and two, but not as good as books three through nine.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-12 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-12 03:49 pm (UTC)I read it as setting up Erra, Julie and possibly Hugh. Derek may or may not be Julie's love interest/friend in it. Since she left town without him. With the focus mainly on Erra. Apparently the writers are interested in Erra.
But that's going to be separate from the Kate Daniels series. Sort of similar to the Iron & Magic. And to a degree Gunmetal Magic. A spin-off. Without Kate or Curran in them. Which could work. I think I may be done with it though.