Book Log 6/2013 - Benedict Jacka: Fated – Alex Verus #1

Enjoyable urban fantasy romp set in London and featuring Alex Verus, a mage whose main magical talent is that of a diviner, someone who sees all possible futures and can therefore (usually) figure out what to do next. His actual magical talent – other than that – is fairly low-key, but don't underestimate him. He keeps a magic shop, the Arcana Emporium in Camden Town, where canal meets railway line, meets leyline and generally tries to stay under the radar of more powerful magicians, particularly the dark ones, having had a nasty experience in his past.

Unfortunately a bunch of powerful magicians, opposing factions of the dark and the light, have decided Alex's talents can help them to unlock the secrets of a powerful artefact and both he and his friend Luna, herself under a longstanding family curse, are drawn into danger. If the artefact doesn't kill them the magicians trying to get at what's inside it will. Alex has to face up to his dark past if he's going to have any future.

Alex is an engaging protagonist, a genuine nice guy with decent values. Comparisons with Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels are inevitable, and also with Kevin Hearne's Atticus O'Sullivan (Iron Druid) books, but it stands up well. This is the first in what looks to be an ongoing series and I'd be happy to read on.

Book Log 7/2013 - Jim C Hines: Libriomancer - Magix Ex Libris # 1

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, and has the ability to magically reach into books and acquire objects. His speciality is SF. He's currently working as a small-town librarian and part time cataloguer for the secret magical society, the Porters, for which he used to be a field agent until he broke some serious rules. Unfortunately when you reach into books, they sometimes reach back. Forbidden to use magic, all he has left of his former life is a magical and somewhat neurotic fire-spider called Smudge who has a tendency to burst into flames at the first sign of danger.

When Isaac is attacked by a bunch of vampires he's saved by Lena, a tough, sexy, magically created dryad who brings bad news with her, her lover, Vainio's former shrink, has been taken by vampires and Lena needs Isaac's help in a rather strange way.

But this attack is just the tip of a very nasty iceberg. There have been other attacks on Porters. Isaac's own former friend and mentor has been killed and Gutenberg (yes, that one) the founder of the Porters and the only controller of unstoppable automatons, is missing. Isaac and Lena have to trace the dark power behind the vampire attacks before there's an all-out, bloody war between the vamps and the Porters which will expose the magical world once and for all, and not in a good way.

This is fast paced, extremely readable and Isaac is a complex character, sympathetic despite his failings. The magic system is neat. Anything that's been written about can be brought into reality (one of the vamp species is instantly recognisable because they sparkle!), though generally Libriomancers are limited by the physical size of the page of the book, so Isaac can grab a laser pistol from a space opera or a syringe of truth serum (from Barrayar as it turns out), but he can't draw through a tank. But there are limits and it's not as if each book is an unlimited cornucopia. There's always a price to pay and fir Isaac, who has transgressed before, that price is his sanity, presuming the bad guys don't kill him first.

Maybe this was not the book to read immediately following the first Alex Verus novel and shortly after reading the first Iron Druid novel. Comparisons are inevitable - and also with Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels - but despite the urban-fantasy, lone wizard-on-the-edge trope, each stands up in its own right and I'd be happy to read on in every series.

Book Log 8/2013 - David Feintuch: Midshipman's Hope - Seafort Saga #1

Without a doubt this is Hornblower in space, with all the self-doubt and stiffness that characterised CS Forester's somewhat wooden hero. Stuffed full of Victorian Values which seem to lean towards spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child, and focuses heavily on 'hazing' – apparently an American tradition of tormenting cadets in various nasty and pointless ways to toughen them up – all of which I found actively distasteful. It's not that I object to an author putting a character through hell, I don't, but usually it's for a plot-related reason and caused by the bad guys. Not so here. Oh, yeah, and in the future there's still capital punishment in the space navy. Hanging, would you believe?

Feintuch also makes a big thing about Christianity having had a renaissance in the future with all disparate branches now being united. That's always bound go down like a lead balloon with me, though I admit to not being unbiased in this. Even so it doesn't strike me as being realistic as many Christians move towards secularism

Anyhow, the plot fairly rattles along (with pauses for introspection). Nicholas Seafort is 17 and this is his first space assignment. In this book we see him trying to live up to what he thinks he should be as he's thrown unexpectedly into a position of responsibility, trying to lead men more experienced than himself. As I said, Hornblower in space, specifically Midshipman Hornblower in space. For me it blows its believability completely with a series of unfortunate and unlikely events which not only kills off the captain and his two senior lieutenants, but then also removes the 4th in command via a very quick-acting cancer. As if that wasn't enough – upon reaching Hope Nation – guess what? Yes, that's right, the bigwigs have been killed off and Seafort is actually senior to the officer left in charge and therefore in charge of the whole sector. I'm all for the occasional coincidence, but that's a lot to swallow

To be fair I know a lot of people appreciate Feintuch a lot more than I do, but this is not for me and I won't be reading more Seafort books.