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Magic Claims
by
Ilona Andrews
arcanepunk fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by Nancy Yost Literary Agency (NYLA) on June 13, 2023 and has 240 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Must Love Hellhounds, Dark and Stormy Knights, Angels of Darkness, Hexed, Fate's Edge, Hex Appeal, An Apple for the Creature, "Magic Gifts", Gunmetal Magic, Innkeeper Chronicles, Steel's Edge, Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, Magic Bleeds, Magic Slays, Magic Rises, Magic Bleeds, Burn For Me, Night Shift, Magic Shifts, Magic Binds, White Hot, Wildfire, Iron and Magic, Magic Triumphs, "Gerard Demille and Helen Meet", "Diamond Fire", "Sweep with Me", Clean Sweep, Sweep in Peace, "A Mere Formality", Blood Heir, "The King of Fire", Sapphire Flames, "A Misunderstanding", Emerald Blaze, "The Cool Aunt", One Fell Sweep, Sweep of the Blade, "Silent Blade", Fated Blades, On the Edge, Bayou Moon, "George and Jack in School", Sweep of the Heart , Magic Tides, Small Magics, "The Wilson Building", "Conlan’s Birthday Text", "Dabwaha", "Don't Fight with Fate", “A Bit More of Roman”, “Getting Distracted”, "Sgt Munoz Had to Go", Ruby Fever, "Regina", Magic Tides, "The King of Fire", "Sandra", "No Heroes", "Purpose", "A Mere Formality", "I Will Explain Everything", "Sanctuary", "Kind Regards"
Second in The Wilmington Years arcanepunk fantasy series and revolving around Kate, Curran, and Conlan Lennart. The focus is on a besieged town, Penderton.
If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the Kate Daniels World books on my website.
My Take
Time-wise, it’s been six or seven years since Curran stepped down as the Beast Lord. And can you blame him? Kate? Wanting some peace and quiet? A chance to raise their son as a regular person?
I reckon when you have the dangerous, stabby Kate for a mother and Curran for a father, you turn out like Conlan. That kid cracks me up. He has such an adult thinking process. That scene with the chocolate bar. Yeah. Okay, okay, so most of the shapeshifters crack me up. I loved that scene in which Hakeem is told not to poke it with a stick. Kate’s response will have you rolling.
It’s a fascinating world Andrews has created. A completely different kind of apocalypse combining magic and technology. It’s also an interesting concept of waves — magic that goes under to technology, then technology going under to magic — much like our climate changes that weave back and forth over the millennia.
That’s the big picture. In the today of this world, Andrews paints a picture of changes wrought by nature taking back from the humans.
Unfortunately, Erra does make some really good points. How convenient then that Ned shows up.
Andrews provides some back history on how Curran became Beast Lord and how the Pack itself is run. That background on Kate’s family is fascinating, and every time I read about Roland’s vision of how “his path was so glaringly obvious that any rational being had to follow it”, yeah. No. It does make for a good point when Jushur talks to Kate about her father.
Jushur also makes some good points that run parallel to Erra’s. Poor Kate. Fated. It does lead to a good bit of introspection by Kate and by Curran.
Andrews is definitely setting us up, or rather setting up the Pack of Atlanta, and I am dying of curiosity as to how that will fall out. There’s the talk about Jim’s behavior and how he’s screwing up, the dwindling health of the Pack, Ascanio’s reaching for the role of Beast Lord, ooh, mama, this will be fun.
Andrews is using first person dual protagonist point-of-view from Kate’s and Curran’s perspectives. I do like Curran’s philosophy: “When we stop liking it, we’ll do something else.”
Oh. Yeah. It’s right generous of Penderton. Pshaw. Their citizens are dang lucky that Curran and Kate are such crusaders, as Andrews reveals those negatives piece by piece.
It cracked me up when Curran describes Kate’s family — powerful, homicidal psychopaths. Kate does decide to come out of the closet, so to speak, although she is hiding in a closet when she chooses to reveal her power to Claudia. The things Kate makes that vampire do, lololol.
There are a few rules that are being bent here and a few that will be turfed out completely. It fits right in with Kate and Curran’s future plans.
Yep, it’s a Kate and Curran story all right with plenty of action and a whole new ballgame home-wise. I am going to miss out on those school interactions in Wilmington . . . yet, I am going to enjoy this new world.
Baby rhinos, mastodons, camels, stag-moose, oh my.
The Story
Kate and Curran have just settled into their new home and their “low profile”, when a local businessman approaches them with an offer they can’t refuse.
A mysterious evil has spawned in the nearby forest and is holding a defenseless town hostage. The “due date” is rapidly approaching.
It’s exactly the kind of fight the Lennarts can’t resist, not for the prize the town offers, but for the people who will surely die if they ignore it. If they succeed, they’ll be rescuing an entire community and can build a strong new base for their family and the Wilmington Pack. If they fail . . . well, fail is a four-letter word.
The Characters
Wilmington is . . .
. . . where the Lennarts now live in their fort. Kate Daniels, a.k.a. the Consort, Blossom, or Stabby Kate, is married to Curran Lennart, a First (and a Panthera atrox as is Conlan) and the former Beast Lord. Their eight-year-old son, Conlan, is a precocious lion shifter and prince of Shinar, who loves his Grandfather, Roland, the Builder of Towers, Nimrrad im’Shinar, the man who created the first vampire. The fort just outside Wilmington is finally renovated. Grendel is Kate’s attack poodle, who turns into a black hound. Cuddles is Kate’s mammoth jenny. Sarrat is Kate’s sword made from the bone of her grandmother (Magic Breaks, 7).
Aunt Erra (Magic Bleeds), Grandfather’s sister, a.k.a. the Rose of Tigris, is working with the government in secret. Julie/Julia Olsen-Lennart is Kate and Curran’s adopted daughter (Magic Bleeds, 4).Leo had been a soldier under Erra with a farting, smelly, slobbering dog who feared Erra. Shalmaneser im’Shinar had been Kate’s suspicious grandfather.
Paul Barnhill is the Lennarts’ general contractor. That boy is gonna be rich!
The Wilmington Pack
Keelan is a wolfshifter, a descendant of the werewolves of Ossory, and Alpha of this branch of the Atlanta Pack’s HQ. Da-Eun is his beta. Jynx is a bouda who helped out in Magic Tides, 1. Andre and Hakeem, of the cow-paw painting party; Troy is the red-haired werejackal and medmage; Luiza; and, Owen, a massive werebison, who gets caught up so easily in emotions. Helen.
Darin is a merman from Magic Tides, who wants to be part of the Wilmington Pack.
The Order is . . .
. . . its common name. It’s full name is the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid. Claudia is the Knight-Protector in charge. There had been a five-man team: Isaac Silverstein, a knight-pathfinder, was the only survivor. The others were Taylor, a knight-enchanter, and three knight-defenders: Tim was the senior defender, Jeremiah, and Sander. The Order’s main headquarters is the Citadel in Wolf Trap where Damian Angevin is the grand master.
The Farm is . . .
. . . the People’s headquarters in Wilmington where the powerful Barrett is in charge. Only a necromancer can be a navigator, who can control vampires. Jushur, son of Kuzzura, a.k.a. Akku the Owl, had been Roland’s spymaster. Ritmush is Jushur’s son who has already pledged himself to Kate (Magic Tides).
Penderton is . . .
. . . a town made up of a number of merged towns since the Shift. Eugene “Gene” Dowell is the mayor. Ruth Chatfield is the city clerk and finance director. Heather Armstrong is the interim wall guard captain. Solina is one of the mermaids rescued in Magic Tides. Edward “Ned” Calloway, Solina’s grand-uncle, is a canny man with his fingers in a lot of pies and employs a good bit of Penderton. Nereda is their leading medic. Town guards include the young Foster, the old Ian, and Jenny. Sanders is the builder union president. Brighton is an idiot citizen. Selma Butler was a town guard in the last flare. Jimmy Codair was the first tribute.
The Pale Skull Queen is fae. The Agers are the hunters and shapeshifters who woke in our world, having gone to sleep in theirs. Mona is one of the mastodons.
Atlanta
The Pack was . . .
. . . once led by Curran but Jim is the new Beast Lord. He has a son. Mahon, the Bear of Atlanta, is the Alpha of Clan Heavy and stands in as Curran’s father. Martha is Mahon’s mate. Andrea, Kate’s best friend, had been a knight and is now mated to Rafael Medrano and heads up Clan Bouda with him. Ascanio Ferara, a Bouda, is making a bid to be Beast Lord. Aunt B had been the previous Alpha of Clan Bouda. Karter Byrne is the new Alpha of Clan Cat since Jim became the Beast Lord. Doolittle is their medmage.
Assistant Director Luther Dillon is with Biohazard in Atlanta and one of Kate’s friends. The protective organizations now are the Forest service, the National Guard with its Magic Rapid Response units, mercenaries (including the Mercenary Guild based in Atlanta of which Kate and Curran own a piece), the Order, the Covens, and the Atlanta Order led by “Uncle” Nick Feldman, who is in love with Desandra, the Alpha of Clan Wolf.
The Red Horn gang had been an issue in Magic Tides. Aaron, a former knight-enchanter, had wanted to be a god (Magic Tides). The wereboar incident was in Magic Tides. A First is a descendant of the original shapeshifters and is incredibly powerful. Aenocyon dirus is a Dire wolf shapeshifter.The Shield of Mush Azebtu appears to be a movable defensive shield.
Andorf had been a crazed shifter that Curran took down. Flares are potent magic waves that come every seven years, each time irrevocably changing the world. Shapeshifters who aren’t in a pack are loners, small family units in unclaimed territory, or loups. Cutting Edge had been Kate’s investigative business in Atlanta. Mishmar (Magic Breaks) was a hideous prison of Roland’s. An alsany is an eighteen-inch tall human whom we met in Magic Rises, 6. The Shar is an urge to claim land that has been bred into Kate’s family.
The Cover and Title
The cover is has a gorgeous teal-green background of mist and trees. The foremost tree still has leaves of mostly orange and some yellow. Curran’s gray lion head rises up over the black-haired Kate’s right shoulder. Kate, wearing a scoop-necked black tee and jeans, is standing at a slight angle with her arms crossed. Her legs have disappeared in the yellow-green title leaving only the brownish orange carpet of leaves occupying about a fourth of the cover. The author’s name, also in yellow-green, is at the top.
The title is truth on both sides of this “war”, for Magic Claims so many.
