Magic Triumphs Book Review

Finished 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.
( spoilers )

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.