by Terrance McArthur
Details on how to win a copy of the first book in this series, Magic Bites, at the end of the review & links to purchase the new one.
It’s Magic Triumphs, the bottom of the tenth—and last—Kate Daniels novel by Ilona Andrews, the wife-and-husband team who have blown the urban fantasy world out of the water. Kate and Curran—the sometimes-lion former Beast Lord of Atlanta—are married and the parents of Conlan, a cute little monster with lion powers. Kate’s dad Roland, a near-god whose age is counted in millenia, wants the city Kate has claimed as its protector, and he sends assassins to kill his grandchild (not the kindly grandparent feeding a kid too much candy and buying noisy toys, is he?).
➡ switch to KingsRiverLife.com for this week's issue ⬅
Some malevolent entity is sending Kate boxed flowers in ashes, and whole populations of communities are being turned to ponds of boneless gelatin. All in all, things are running true to form in a post-apocalyptic Southland where waves of magic reduce technology to metallic doorstops, and countering tech waves strip powers and existence from the paranormal.
 |
| Image Source Ace |
Kate’s world includes witches, wizards, death-angels, Russian death-priests, orders of semi-holy knights, shape-shifters of various genders and species, a comatose dragon, mercenaries, and her advice-giving dead aunt. All of this is dealt with by snarky one-liners and some major sword-battles.
I missed several books in the series, but the lay of the land was easy to acquire. Before I knew it, I was up to snuff on who was who and what creature was what. If I can do it, it must be easy. Of course, if you want to go back to the beginning, Magic Bites, and savor the whole saga, you’ll enjoy the trip.
Kate was raised to take revenge and kill her father. Roland wants to eliminate the greatest challenge to his power—his daughter. The problem is: if either one of them dies, so will the other.
Identifying the history of the new Big Bad, and wondering how to defeat the Nasty and eliminate Big Daddy without killing off Kate, is part of the joy of this well-plotted finale.
Ilona and Andrew (some sources say his name is Gordon, others say their last name is Gordon) have built a major Urban Paranormal world, and now they have the savvy to put this set of storylines to rest before it uses up its last head of steam—with room for spin-offs. This decalogy (plus a few novellas and short stories) still delivers, and it’s good to the last lion’s roar.
To enter to win a copy of Magic Bites, the first book in the series, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “bites,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen October 27, 2018. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address (so if you win we can get the book sent right out to you), and if via comment please include your email address. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.
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.
We have a winner!
ReplyDelete