Magic Bites introduces us to Kate Daniels, a mercenary who’s working in an Atlanta that is in flux – in this world sometimes technology is in charge, but during others magic holds sway. To cope with this, Atlanta has a number of agencies to tackle the supernatural as well as criminal threats. Kate works for none of these, preferring to go it alone, but when her mentor and father-figure (who’s no pushover himself when it comes to monsters) is murdered and both the People (undead) and the Pack (shapeshifters) are implicated, she finds herself trying to navigate the tricky path of getting answers without getting herself killed.
This was a decent introduction to the series, with Kate being a likeable heroine who’s suitably tough and smart-mouthed, and the world in which she’s living is a pretty interesting one. I like the idea of the city in flux, and I’m intrigued to see how this develops as the series progresses. There are enough hints dropped to make me interested in what her backstory may be (and what exactly the deal with her blood is), as well as that of her badass smoking sword, Slayer, that seems to have something of a life and appetite of its own. I’m also incredibly glad that the vampires within are not sexy, even if Curran, leader of the Pack, is cut from the same template as most of the love interests you’ll find in this genre.
A successful first outing, I’ll be back for my second soon.
Yay! The series gets better. I always warn people that the first book is a bit rough.
To be fair, most of my favourites didn’t really get going until at least a few books in, so Kate Daniels is in good company. It’s perfect r adding for in between heavier stuff.
*perfect reading. Stupid phone!
Ha! I knew what you meant. You can really see the Andrews improve their craft as the series goes along. I like the second book, but I think the series really gets going in the third book. The fourth book is probably the one I have reread the most.
Ilona Andrews are by far my favourite paranormal fantasy writers, and Magic Bites is their first, and roughest book. I always tell people to read the first two Kate Daniels books before they make up their mind about whether to read the series, and so far, not a single one hasn’t gotten hooked. I’m used to paranormal fantasy series taking up to three books to really get good (The Dresden Files being a notable exception in that I suffered until book 4 before I was convinced it was worth my while), but I think the Kate Daniels books are good from book 2, and pretty much almost get better from there.
With some of their other series, as they have become more proficient writers, the books are just great from the get-go.
I’ll definitely be reading more, and I know what you mean about Dresden (it took me some time, but once I got into them, I got REALLY into them).
I really enjoyed the Hidden Legacy series, which was my first Ilona Andrews. I’ve read a quite a few in this genre, and can’t believe I hadn’t gotten around to this before, but yay for future reading!