Magic Burns

Title: Magic Burns
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Kate Daniels, Book 2
Publication Info: Ace Penguin April 2008
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Bloody Brilliant! Even better than the first one, and the first one was great. In this sequel to Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews ups the ante on world building and adds a layer of mythology. Best of all, Magic Burns has Heart. I don’t mean romance – there is sexual tension between Kate and Curran but no romance yet. By Heart I mean that it tackles some of the big questions of the human condition. Ms. Andrews makes a compelling argument that there are somethings worth fighting for. That the life of one little girl is worth a thousand soldiers who might die trying to save her, and if it wasn’t then this isn’t a world worth living in. Violence has become such a common occurrence in our lives that we hardly bat an eye at it anymore. I appreciate Ms. Andrews taking the discussion to the next level and challenging her readers to think deeply about our blase acceptance of violence.

Mercenary Kate Daniels stumbles across a young starving street kid whose mother has disappeared in a coven spell-gone-horribly-wrong. She takes it upon herself to find the little girl’s mother and ends up discovering a plot to unleash monsters from celtic mythology on the world. Kate is also enlisted to find maps of the city that were stolen from the Pack, to provide information for the People who want to control the new breed of undead that have appeared, and to obtain magic blood to save the witch Oracle. In the midst of all this, a Flare is coming; Once every seven years Magic runs rampant unleashing all sorts of monsters and madness. In the face of impossible odds, Kate gets by with a little help from her friends.

The heroine Kate is a tough cookie who, despite an argumentative nature, has a depth of character and understanding that makes her not only sympathetic to the reader, but also makes her someone to look up to; heroic in the true sense of the word. The villains are bent on world domination, and as such they are not multifaceted. More interesting are the secondary characters that help or hinder Kate in her quest. These actors illustrate the inner struggle to do the right thing in the face of horror and apocalyptic violence. Do we chose the easy way – every man for himself? Or do we risk everything against impossible odds for the honorable path? Among these fascinating secondary characters are Red, a young street kid, Curran, the leader of the shapeshifters, Ghastek, the vampire pilot, and Bran, mythic warrior.

In the first book I was a bit concerned about Curran in the role of potential “love-interest,” but he’s grown on me in this book. He’s still a violent bastard, but he shows a bit of his softer side in protecting the little girl and showing a bit of gruff caring toward our intrepid heroine. I especially like his comment (p186):

“You’re fun to play with. You make a good mouse….I was always kind of partial to toy mice.” He smiled. “Sometimes they’re filled with catnip. It’s a nice bonus.”

“I’m not filled with catnip.” [said Kate]

“Let’s find out.”

The image of this 700 pound lion playing with a catnip toy is adorable. But then, I’m partial to cats.

Magic Burns is also full of Ilona Andrews’ trademark lyrical descriptions. It’s beautiful to read.

Twisted steel skeletons of once mighty skyscrapers jutted like bleached fossil bones from the debris. Here and there a lone half-eaten survivor struggled to remain upright, all but its last few stories destroyed. Shattered glass from hundreds of windows glittered among chunks of concrete, (p24).

And, of course, the world building is fabulous. I love the idea behind it: What would happen if magic took back the world from technology? From Ms. Andrews’ FAQs on her website, but also in the book, I just can’t find the page:

Theory said that magic and tech used to coexist in a balance. Like the pendulum of a grandfather clock that barely moved, if at all. But then came the age of Man, and men are made of progress. They overdeveloped magic, pushing the pendulum further and further to one side until it came crashing down and started swinging back and forth, bringing with it tech waves.

And then in its turn, the technology oversaturated the world, helped once again by pesky Man, and the pendulum swung again, into the side of magic this time. The previous Shift from magic to tech took place somewhere around the start of the Iron age. The current Shift officially dawned almost thirty years ago. It began with a flare, and with each subsequent flare, more of our world succumbed to magic.

I thoroughly, completely, and totally recommend Magic Burns to EVERYONE. Read Magic Bites first. It’s good. But this book is even better. I can’t wait to read the 3rd book in the series, Midnight Games, (2009 – noooo!!!!), and every single other book that Ms. Andrews gives us in the years to come.

And the ending is so very, very good. I just reread it and realized that I completely missed the best part. Subtle, I am not. I want you to read this book so that I can gush about it with someone. Pleeeaaaassseeeee. Reeeaaaadddd iiiiittttt. You will love it. I promise.

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Tags: Book lovers & reviewers, vampires, Urban Fantasy, Ilona Andrews, Shapeshifters, Magic Burns, Witches, mythology, Magic Users

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