Book review: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
Title: Magic Bites
By: Ilona Andrews*

*Ilona Andrews is a pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team, Ilona and Gordon Andrews.

Published by: Ace Books
First published: 2007
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Part of series: Kate Daniels

Short summary of the book: In a world where magic and technology don’t play well together, a young mercenary (Kate Daniels) navigates life in Atlanta while trying her best to hide a well-kept secret coursing through her veins. When her guardian, Greg, is brutally murdered, Kate faces a hard choice: to do nothing and run away or pursue the killer and bring justice to Greg.

Magic + technology = bad

In Magic Bites you meet Kate Daniels; a strong-willed, mouthy, out-of-luck mercenary with a little bit of authority issues. Also, she can kill you with her saber (aptly named Slayer) faster than you can say “cool sword”. She’s a trained killer with a dangerous secret, the kind of secret that will get a girl killed if it got out.

The book introduces you to a complicated world where the technological progress has advanced to a point of no return, a magical apocalypse as the book puts it, where technology and magic is put up against each other in an unceasing and dangerous fight for dominance. In shorter terms: magic and technology can no longer exist at the same time.

“Magic could not be measured and explained in scientific terms, for magic grew through destroying the very natural principles that made science as people knew it impossible.” (Ilona Andrews, 2007).

When magic reigns, technology is useless (and vice versa). Magic comes without any kind of forewarning and the people (and creatures) of Atlanta has learned to adapt to the fluctuating waves of magic and the lack of technology when magic is up.

With the magic waves comes a dangerous paranormal force that physically feeds on technology, physically tearing down structures like skyscrapers, leaving a large number of buildings (even larger sections of the city) uninhabitable. Some buildings have been reinforced with magic to avoid the destruction.

Magic Bites is the first out of ten novels in the Kate Daniels series and a solid, entertaining and action-packed first entry. It’s been a great series to read so far, though I haven’t read the entire series yet (I’m currently finished with book five and can’t wait to start book 6).

I have to admit it took a few chapters before I found myself properly engulfed in this world. Like a lot of first entries in series, book one is a lot of world-building and “laying the foundation” for the rest of the series. But after I got past the first few chapters of world-building and introduction to the different characters, it didn’t take long before I found myself immersed in the fantastical world of werewolves, vampires (not the sparkly kind) and magic. I ended up having a serious problem putting the book down!

If you’re like me who love the urban fantasy genre and enjoy reading other book series like Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files or Deborah Harkness’ All souls trilogy, I am pretty sure you’ll enjoy Ilona Andrew’s Magic Bites and the rest of the trilling Kate Daniels series!

 By  Lenora R. Skrede Gjerde

Sources:

Andrews, Ilona (2007) Magic Bites. Ace Books: New York.