Jacey Bedford's Journal

Audiobook read by Will Watt

Stephen Oakwood is looking for his dad. Stephen’s magic use has brought him to the attention of The Winged, a mysterious group who hold the key to his father’s location. This continues directly from the previous two books, so not the place to start with this series. The narration is good. Stephen has taken a job as bodyguard to Calhoun, the heir of the Ashford family, At the same time he's trying to build his magic by raiding wells of power illegally, and making more sigls for himself, for both defence and offence. His long-term quest to find his father is resolved early in the book. He also seems to be finding more favour with his estranged mother and is becoming more involved with the Ashford family generally, though he's still wary of them, and rightly so. The head of the family – his grandfather – doesn’t seem to care much for him and only sees his value in how he can be used. There is a secret magical society, the Winged, alternately seeking to recruit or kill him. He must choose a side, his family or the Winged. He doesn't much care for either. I thought this was going to be the third book in the trilogy, but the ending is - if not a cliffhanger - not really resolved, and it seems as though this is going to be a series rather than a trilogy. To be honest, I'm a fan of Jacka's writing in general, but this was a little disappointing. It reads a bit like a middle book. It meanders, but doesn't really go anywhere. Sure, by the end of it, Stephen's life is moving into a different phase, but he's not settled. Sure, he foils an assassination attempt (on Calhoun) and kicks arse in a major set-piece fight or two, but there are no major wins. Stephen learns a few things, but he still doesn't have all the knowledge he needs. So there's obviously going to be a follow-on. Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus novels were a buy on sight series for me, this series less so. Stephen is not such an engaging main character as Alex, maybe because Alex had made all his coming-of-age mistakes by the time the series started, and in this series we're living through Stephen's uncertainties and missteps.

Narrated by Will Watt.

Stephen Oakwood is a young, talented but inexperienced drucrafter, living alone and scratching out a living as best he can in modern day London since his father disappeared three years earlier. Drucraft (magic) involves working with essentia and creating sigls which act like spells powered by the wielder's will. This is set against warring magical factions within magica\l families and unbeknownst to him, Stephen is an Ashford. Unfortunately he has huge gaps in his knowledge of the magical world, and this leads him to cross a couple of the younger Ashfords who begin a vicious feud. The book is a series of lessons and discoveries as Stephen struggles to strengthen his drucraft so that next time the Ashfords hit him, he won't be helpless. I enjoyed this though not having seen the word sigl in writing I thought 6the narrator was mispronouncing 'sigil'. It turns out that instead of 'si-jil' the word sigl rhymes with giggle. Which is a pity because it really niggled. (See what I did there?) Anyhow, the first book came to a reasonable stopping point, if not quite an ending, so I'm already listening to the second.

This final Alex Verus book is almost all magical battle as the Light Council goes to war against Anne (Alex's lover) who has been possessed by a powerful jinn-like thing with an army of jinn to call on. Alex signs up for the fight with the intention of rescuing Anne, while the Council wants her deader than dead. Swinging into the fight in the side of the council is Richard Drakh, dark mage and once Alex's apprentice master. Alex doesn't trust him, of course. Richard has been his enemy all through this series. You just know that the final showdown will be in here somewhere - and you'd be right.

The council, rife with internal politicking, still doesn't trust Alex - its only one book ago that they had a kill order out on him, and some of the mages he used to class as freinds are no longer on his side. Luna, his one-time apprentice, now a mage in her own right, is along for the fight and also hoping to rescue their friend, Variam (also possessed).

 There's one problem that might prove insurmountable - Alex knows he's dying. The immensely powerful Fateweaver has replaced his missing hand, which gives him a real edge as it helps him to nudge the futures he can see in the direction he wants them to go, but the Fateweaver is gradually taking over Alex's body creeping up his arm to his shoulder, and when it reaches his heart, that will be that. But the Fateweaver was made for battles such as this, and so Alex ends up in the forefront of the fight.

 Alex has come a long way in twelve books. He started out as a mild magic shop owner in Camden Town, but circumstances led him to gather a few trusted friends around him and to cross swords with the Council and with Richard Drakh. He's always tried to be on the side of the light, but he's done a lot of dark things in order to save himself and those he loves. How will it all turn out? Though I got a little tired of all the battle sequences after a while, I found it a satisfactory end to the whole series.