by Terrance McArthur
Details on how to win a copy of this book at the end of the review & links to purchase it.
In Marked, the ninth Alex Verus book by Benedict Jacka, Alex is on the Junior Council of the Light Mages because his Dark Mage boss is in prison for his responsibility in a robbery of magical objects. As usual, both sides try to kill him from time to time, but he is a divining mage, which makes him hard to kill. It’s like he has a cosmic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, and he can check out different paths of the story to see where they lead before making decisions on what to do.
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Alex is having trouble making those decisions. He has been reacting to situations instead of playing the long game like Richard, his former mentor, the darkest of the Dark Mages. He tries to get help from a dragon oracle, but dragons never give you a straight answer. He worries about the safety of Anne, who he loves…and Alex has finally admitted that fact to himself, although he hasn’t officially told her.
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| Image Source Ace |
Alex’s ability to test possibilities makes for interesting action scenes as he evades bullets to the amazement of the rest of his assault team. There is also much time spent on the workings of the Councils. You learn about their organization, their factions, their squabbles, and how the adepts are treated. These untutored individuals with magic abilities feel put upon and downtrodden under the feet of the mages. As heir of the first Junior Council seat given to a Dark Mage, he is not trusted by any group, even though he is more of a Light Mage than many of his fellow Council members. He isn’t after power, but he finds he needs to get some to protect him from his enemies…and some of his friends. Anne has a powerful, violent side confined in a dreamworld, and this alter ego gets out from time to time. Sometimes, she is even needed.
This series has been going for a while, but it doesn’t take long to get up to speed. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t hurt to start with Fated, the first book, but that would mean you’d have to spend all that time catching up when you could just enjoy Marked.
To enter to win a copy of Marked, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “marked,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen September 8, 2018. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please included your mailing address. If entering via comment please be sure to include your email address.
You can use these links to purchase the book. If you have adblocker on you may not be able to see the Amazon link:
Terrance V. Mc Arthur is a Librarian in Fresno County, California. He is also a storyteller, puppeteer, magician, and maker of pine needle baskets. On top of that he writes stories that range from rhymed children's tales to splatterpunk horror. He's an odd bird, but he's nice to have around.
Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.
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