Magic Bites

Magic Bites is book 1 in the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews.

In this urban fantasy series, magic is contantly competing with technology for supremacy in the world.  As it fluctuates back and forth, the people of the world have adapted to both by having access to both magical and nonmagical items: for example, feylanterns when magic is in control and electrical lights when tech is in.  However, it seems like magic is currently in the lead, since Kate comments on how "[f]ew people owned cars that ran during tech.  There was no need to invest in them, since it was plain that magic was gaining the upper hand" (page 90).

Magic also brought back the creatures of legends: vampires and shapeshifters.  Part of a group called The People, the vampires were piloted by necromancers - or necronavigators - who would use them to spy on others from the safety of their office.  The necronavigators would keep the vampire like a pet, feeding and raising them, but the mindlink between them would prevent the vampire from mindlessly destroying everything in its path during bloodlust.

The Pack, the faction of shapeshifters, were led by Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, who ruled over all the different alphas and their small groups.  He was, of course, a lion.  Most of these creatures were were-something (ie, werewolf, werecat, etc) which were creatures born human who could turn into an animal.  However, there were also some creatures who were born animal and could shift into a human.  Corwin was one such animal, a cat-were.

Another major player in this world is The Order: known as The Order of Knights of Merciful Aid.  These people were trained and devoted to the destruction of harmful beings to humanity; unfortunately, they were also a form of justice unto their own.  If enlisted, they would destroy anything that threatened humanity - even if it was your elderly aunt who would turn in to a harpy and sit in your tree. 

Due to the fanatical nature of The Order, Kate dropped out before she became a full-fledged member.  It was her failure to follow in the footsteps of her guardian that caused the rift between her and Greg.  Armed with her magical saber, Slayer, she is determined to find out who killed Greg, even if it means going back to The Order.

During the investigation, many interesting clues come out as to what Kate actually is.  Her connection with the undead and being able to cross a blood ward to destroy a powerful vampire hint that she has blood ties with Roland - the legendary father of the undead.  However, a standoff with a necromancer at the end of the book suggests that her actual father was much more powerful than Roland.  And much older.  It explains why she destroys any traces of her blood left behind with fire and why she never allows Nataraja (the vampire leader) to force her to show her full power.  Unfortunately, the nature of Kate's ancestry isn't explored any further in this book.

I found this book to be an easy read and I liked how the author left some things to the imagination (like Kate's history) and is gradually doling it out in small doses.  Since I read a lot, there are times that I'm able to guess the storyline before it happens - which can ruin surprise endings if I have it figured out well in advance.  I did like how Crest was painted poorly and ended up innocent in the end; I had him pegged as suspicious from the moment he met Kate, so I was surprised that I was wrong.

I love new angles to old stories, so I'm excited to see how this pans out.  The next book in the series is Magic Burns, but I'm not sure if I'll read that one next or another one.  I downloaded some cool new books on to my Kobo that I'm really excited about, so right now it's a case of not being able to choose which story to read.  For the sake of continuity, I may read the next one, but we'll see.