Thursday, September 8, 2022

CHOP IT UP: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

"When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.
 
Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.
 
The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way..."

Oh, MAN! Check this out, I tried to read this book back some almost-decade ago when I was still in my urban fantasy reading bag. Back then, I couldn’t seem to get around the first chapter. Now–as of my writing this–I’ve read the book page for page successfully. And I have to say the delay wasn’t worth it. Though I have to admit it's one of those books I've been curious about since, and am now happy the experience is behind me. Still, the Kate Daniels series is certainly popular with at least ten books released since her story's 2007 debut. However, I don't feel any desire to go further than said debut, Magic Bites.

So what happened to me with Magic Bites?

For starters, the first 100 pages had it going on. There was a crime scene. Murders to investigate. A law enforcing institution of sorts that's geared toward investigating and solving paranormal/preternatural crimes. Then there's Kate, our local mercenary heroine. She steps on stage appearing as clear-headed and competent in bringing justice to a crime that has unfortunately resulted in the murder of her guardian. So, off the bat, she has a closeness and even deeper stakes in solving this case ("story" box checked). Furthermore, she came armed with a directive and motive as a character ("plot" box checked).

In those first 100 pages, Kate was doing the damned thing; researching, interviews, morgue visits, document gathering, deducing, analyzing, and determining her next angle/action. I was all in, thinking to myself how nice it was to see an urban fantasy character doing actual investigative and procedural work that made sense. No illogical and desperate conclusions. Not too much fumbling. But actual steps. Now I held my breathe a bit because I knew soon she would be swayed to have sexy time with a local vampire or pack leader, per urban fantasy tropes (especially given the book's 2007 publication)! Yet, it was undeniable how Kate in motion provided a level of groundedness to the story, as well as character.

Sadly, the bottom fell out somewhere around 100 pages...

That’s when all I can describe as an over-the-top freakshow extravaganza hijacked Kate's investigative journey, and Kate herself. Now you can take my use of the term "freakshow" as either good or bad when you consider how we're talking about urban fantasy books where werecreatures and vampires generally take center stage. Yet, for darn sure, this change in tone seen in Magic Bites made for a disappointing and unpleasant reading affair.


So Kate lost focus and her groundedness. The book suddenly shifted into a matter of how tough and indestructible yet vulnerable Kate was determined to be in the face of a host of freaks. One freak set is shapechangers hiding their society and politics under rubble. Another consist of puppet vampires crawling on walls. Said vampires driven by a "queen" of sorts that has her guts ripped open for hand-stuffing. Twisted, grimy, ugly creatures who do nothing but banter, eat flesh, rape women, and tie up their bodies over some pre-developed motive run amok in this world. A dragon consisting of its skeletal frame comes out of nowhere. There were murders, killings, bones broken, blood splayed, tissue showered, guts yanked, and bullshit all over the damn place. I mean, the freaks ran the city of Atlanta with seer, incomprehensible madness. And I was over the show.

Speaking of which, Atlanta was mostly described as an apocalyptic bag of leftover rubble and waste from some destructive magical world-building incident that further discouraged me from the second book. How ever the setting was explained just didn't land well to me. In retrospect, a lot of the world-building components didn't land as Kate went to freak holdout to freak holdout to seek information through threats and posturing and bravado (several times I found myself forgetting who characters even were). To me these scenes featuring Kate and "leader freak" were interactions designed to redefine what traditional paranormal creatures were in Kate's world. Like to make what we traditionally see as a vampire as something anew. However, to me, all the characters just came across as a bunch of bloodthirsty, gut-sucking, power hungry, cryptic-magic freaks. Just about everything about these paranormal creatures and Kate was so over-the-top. I had to wonder what was the point of this paranormal crime force guild when it’s apparent they are overpowered and outnumbered by the freaks who truly run this desolate version of Atlanta.



Because that’s what Magic Bites was–a freakshow! So much so that I lost the actual drive to care about Kate solving her guardian's murder, despite managing to keep reading until the book’s end. I suppose Kate’s voice was a large part of my dedication to keep reading. At times I could appreciate her one-liners, but she was largely too much of a comic book action hero Mary-Sue by the book’s end. She’s the urban fantasy special one, with an obscure and mysterious lineage that allows her to do the magical things others can't. That sort of thing. But keeping in tune with urban fantasy, of course there was a romance present in the book. The issue is that both Kate and her variety of interests often threatened and express violence against one another. The key romance figure even yoked Kate up against the wall toward the end of the book. But I guess all the good he does outweighs the abuse because it's obvious this universe deems them a pair.

And while there’s more I can say, what really left a bad taste is the ending. You see, the impetus or even premise of Kate’s story began with her determination to solve the murder of her guardian. There was absolutely zero mention of him at the end. No introspection on her journey and his life at the end. No reflection on her history with him at the end. I wasn't surprised because as the story moved, any acknowledgment toward him gradually dissipated to get the freaks on the road. And there flushed what I felt was the true story behind Magic Bites. Nevertheless, there was no warm path for Kate to travel toward losing her guardian. Unless said “warm path” had to do with her trampling through the guts of the freshly disemboweled to go do god knows what with god knows who. And "who" probably ate a human head on his way to meet her there. Definitely as both a power source and aphrodisiacs. Sex and power. Gotta have those two things in order...

Yeahhhhhh... NO!

I’m through!

Just a bunch of f’ing FREAKS is all this book left me thinking.

LOL.

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