Chosen

“Chosen,” the 4th Alex Verus book by Benedict Jacka is better than the third. It held me as well as the first two did.

In this one, Alex’s past is about to come back and bite him on the arse, big time, and it does so in the form of the Nightstalkers, a group of adepts motivated to take out dark mages because the sister of one was killed by Alex’s former master. Naturally, they don’t believe Alex has changed.

This book was interesting in that it showed how some people are incapable of changing their minds even when the facts are being rubbed into their face.

Alex has grown and changed. He is not the youth who was apprenticed to a dark mage. He is an independent mage who would, frankly, rather just be left alone.

The Light Council appears on the periphery, and with every passing book looks more and more unappealing and unpleasant. One thing this series does is show that the lines between light and dark are not distinct.

Highly recommended.

Fated

“Fated” by Benedict Jacka, was recommended to me by Carol on Goodreads, as she knows I love Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series.

In “Fated” Alex Verus is a wizard. A diviner who can see all the threads of the immediate future and work out the best one to use. A relic has been found, and it may contain an artefact of great power. A selection of wizards, all of them not very nice, regardless of their chosen path, all want Alex to figure out how to access it.

So far, so fantasy. Where “Fated” differs is that, unlike a lot of fantasy novels, dark and light are not clearly delinated. In this world there really isn’t much to chose between either side. Most of the wizards are a despicable bunch of outright wankers.

The pace is fast and furious. I sat down to have a look at it to decide if I actually did want to read it, and was hooked by page 3. There’s a nice little Harry Dresden/Jim Butcher joke on page 3 by the way. See if you can spot it.

I like Benedict’s portrayal of Camden, where Alex lives in London. A lot of people view it as all ‘peace, love, and mung beans’. Benedict’s portrayal has a more gritty vibe. More ‘ peace, love, and hand us your wallet and no-one has to get hurt.’.

This is a rare 5 star review from me. And I’ve already reserved book two from my library.