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Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand |
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Magic In The Blood by Devon Monk Harper Voyager Supplied for review by Harper Collins New Zealand |
Reviewed By: Simon Litten |
| Magic in the Blood is the second book, and
second in a series, by new author Devon Monk. Magic in the Blood truly was a parson’s egg of a book: the setting of Portland, Oregon in late autumn was refreshing in its novelty; the rules around magic use and the cost associated with the use of magic were original; and the requirement that magic users needed to use magic to see spells in use was explored in a way that I hadn’t come across in a long, long time. To balance these innovations: I had no sympathy or empathy for the main character, who had a startling inability to learn from experience and was so self-centred it was a wonder she had friends; the world setting of magic, its use and replenishment had to be guessed at, indeed all this may have been explained in the first book, but for anyone who never read that the world was all new and moved in mysterious ways; and the author’s occasionally leaden style, such as referring to a café as Get Mugged (its name, but ten times in two pages!) reeked of a bad pun waiting to get out. So if you enjoy fast-paced, urban fantasy and don’t much care about the characters then Magic in the Blood is a book for you – but not for me. |
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SFFANZ is a non-profit organisation
and registered charity designed to bring together fans of the fantastic in New Zealand |
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Contact us by email at: enquiries@sffanz.org.nz |
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