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annathepiperThere are a few mixed reviews of Magic Bites up on Amazon, commenting that the heroine, Kate Daniels, has a humongous chip on her shoulder and mouths off to everyone she meets. Because of this, one can conclude that the reviewers in question did not care for Ms. Daniels as a character. And after I'd read those reviews, I was pre-disposed to not like her once I started the book. Don't get me wrong: Kate does have a huge chip on her shoulder and does indeed mouth off to everyone she meets, even a handsome doctor who asks her out. It does get a little tiresome on occasion.
But then I thought, would people be complaining nearly as much about this character if she was otherwise the same, only a man? And I thought that no, no they wouldn't, most likely. Also, especially after seeing the BSG Razor sneak preview last night, I was reminded that her thermonuclear smartassedness is one of the very things I love about Starbuck. Once I remembered that, I could hardly hold a similar attitude against Kate. ^_^
The book's got other things going for it, too. Andrews has an interesting setting that's both urban fantasy and futuristic, at some indeterminately "future" point in our world's timeline when magic has become active and comes and goes in waves against technology for whichever of them is dominant at any given time. She has an interesting take on vampires, making them almost more like zombies, near-mindless bloodsucking shells that must be navigated by a remote-controlling mind. And, extra special bonus points for having a were-creature love interest who is not, in fact, a werewolf.
It's not entirely perfect; I found the bad guy's motive for going after our heroine a bit thin. (But then, I think that's also part of how Andrews is apparently of the school of "explain the absolute minimum about your characters and universe that's immediately pertinent to the plot"--and there's a strong implication that the reasons for the bad guy going after Kate are things we'll learn more about as we go.) And, in otherwise excellently written prose, one lone grammar error admittedly set my teeth briefly on edge. All in all, though, this was fun, Curran was swoonable, and I will be coming back for Book Two. Three and a half stars.
But then I thought, would people be complaining nearly as much about this character if she was otherwise the same, only a man? And I thought that no, no they wouldn't, most likely. Also, especially after seeing the BSG Razor sneak preview last night, I was reminded that her thermonuclear smartassedness is one of the very things I love about Starbuck. Once I remembered that, I could hardly hold a similar attitude against Kate. ^_^
The book's got other things going for it, too. Andrews has an interesting setting that's both urban fantasy and futuristic, at some indeterminately "future" point in our world's timeline when magic has become active and comes and goes in waves against technology for whichever of them is dominant at any given time. She has an interesting take on vampires, making them almost more like zombies, near-mindless bloodsucking shells that must be navigated by a remote-controlling mind. And, extra special bonus points for having a were-creature love interest who is not, in fact, a werewolf.
It's not entirely perfect; I found the bad guy's motive for going after our heroine a bit thin. (But then, I think that's also part of how Andrews is apparently of the school of "explain the absolute minimum about your characters and universe that's immediately pertinent to the plot"--and there's a strong implication that the reasons for the bad guy going after Kate are things we'll learn more about as we go.) And, in otherwise excellently written prose, one lone grammar error admittedly set my teeth briefly on edge. All in all, though, this was fun, Curran was swoonable, and I will be coming back for Book Two. Three and a half stars.