Just finished Benedict Jacka‘s Fated novel today – the first in his Alex Verus series. Definitely an engaging read!

While I’m not a big fantasy person – about the closest I usually come is time-honored (but sadly still far too obscure) Clark Ashton Smith and HP Lovecraft (neither of which aren’t strictly fantasy – CAH is equally sci-fi in his weird way; HPL is much more horror-tinged than straight fantasy), this was a fast and fun read. I have read at least one Harry Dresden novel, in the same ‘modern magic’ category and liked it, but then forgot to go back to read more – my bad.

Mr Verus is a modern mage (wizard or warlock) that lives in London and tries to keep to himself and out of trouble, given his sordid past. But like all such anti-heroes, he gets drawn in anyway, much to the reader’s delight. I liked the mix of descriptive prose vs. action, and the pacing of the novel keeps you rolling right along until the penultimate stages, to be sure. I liked the effort to paint the Dark Mages as a mixed bag, not quite just straight evil as they could be in a simpler tale, but certainly very dangerous all the same – and the Light certainly not being what they seem either. I’m not going to reveal any more plot but there were some good twists in there too.

I guess I’ll have to go back and read more Harry Dresden now too – but first to finish the other three AV books! 🙂

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