Kate Daniels Series

Published: 2007 - 2018

Amazon: Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1)

BOOK BLURB

The world has suffered a magic apocalypse. We pushed the technological progress too far, and now magic returned with a vengeance. It comes in waves, without warning, and vanishes as suddenly as it appears. When magic is up, planes drop out of the sky, cars stall, electricity dies. When magic is down, guns work and spells fail.

It’s a volatile, screwed-up world. Magic feeds on technology, gnawing down on skyscrapers until most of them topple and fall, leaving only skeletal husks behind. Monsters prowl the ruined streets, werebears and werehyenas stalk their prey; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst for knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.

In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But sometimes even trained killers make friends and fall in love, and when the universe tries to kick them in the face, they kick back.

MY REVIEW

Kate lives in a world where anything is possible. A world where words have power. Where adoration gives way to hope, hopes to prayers and prayers to god-like powers.

This ten book series knocked me off my feet with its incredible world-building and carved itself a cosy little niche in my heart. It has got the apocalyptic setting down to a pat, it’s got mythical beings taking forms and messing up our definition of a normal life and it has got a wonderful set of characters doing their best to maintain the precarious balance of the world.

It is one of my favourite urban fantasy series. Definitely the only series where even after ten books featuring the same lead characters, I find myself wanting more and more. Narrated from the POV of a kickass female lead, Kate Daniels; she would rather let her sword do the talking, a through and through woman of action. And she pulls it off with enough witty humour and grim determination that one cannot but be amazed with her. Her skills and powers grow with the series and she herself grows more awesome. And adding to the awesomeness is her self-proclaimed protector, the werelion, Curran Lennart.

The initial books may feel a bit heavy on the descriptive side and that’s cause a lot of effort is given to the world-building. It is an important aspect in any fantasy book. I’m sure any The Lord of the Rings fan would agree with me on this. Here, the setting is of an apocalyptic Earth, except instead of natural disasters or zombies, it has been run by anything and everything that one can imagine. You’ve got were-animals, zombie-like vampires, demi-gods, actual gods from Norse to Slavic gods, even Rakshasas with a flying chariot that is reminiscent of one used by Ravana. The authors have definitely done their research well.

The books are episodic; each deals with a different ‘paranormal’ issue in a way that it never gets boring (trust my word for it). However, all the books slowly build up to culminate in an eventual climax in the last two books. Safe to say, there’s hardly any lull to the action. The story is simple enough yet entertaining, it does not get overly complex so I would recommend it to anyone who is new to the fantasy genre. The action scenes are well-versed and detailed and there’re plenty such scenes over the course of the series. New characters are added in almost every book and new villains as well so it hardly becomes dull (although it may be a problem always remembering who’s who but there are enough character guides for this series online). There is plenty of witty conversations and humorous situations that keep things light and the reader happy. One has to read just one book and it’ll be hard to put it down.

The main series came to an end this August with 10 books. There is one currently ongoing spin-off series Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant, #1) and various other novellas featuring different characters as leads listed HERE

I’m writing a collective review so you may not find all the elements that I stated here in one book. However, being that all the books have been rated 4 or higher out of 5 stars by me, it is definitely worthy.