Posts Tagged: jacka

So there’s this guy who lives in London and has a magic shop, and he’s not really a mage but he has a really cool magely power: he can see into the future. Not the future, but all possible futures, which gives him a bit of a clue sometimes, not just that stuff is going to happen, but what makes it happen and therefore how to facilitate it or evade it. So whenever he gets into a tight spot (which seems to happen quite often), all he has to do to get out of trouble is to peek into some of those many possible futures and see which ones have him escaping, and work out how that comes about. And for a while I just thought: that’s a neat idea.

But when he’s able to use that ability over and over, it becomes both repetitive and, frankly, too easy. I like magic that has costs and rules and isn’t just a get-out-of-jail-free card for any slightly sticky occasion. And given that he also has a sort-of invisibility cloak and a helpful air elemental who whisks him about at great speed as needed – sorry, but that’s just not an interesting use of magic, to me. The worst moment, I felt, was where he had to evade a a warded door, and the author says cheerily: well, when you know what will trigger it, you also know how to avoid it, adding smugly: think about it. And it never is explained, because the next thing, our hero is on the other side of the untriggered alarm. To my mind, that’s just lazy writing. [Caveat: maybe it gets explained later in the book, who knows.]

So I gave up quite quickly. It’s a shame, because to be honest there’s nothing wrong with the book at all in other ways: it’s well written, with some good action scenes (mage battles!), interesting characters with potential and some nice humour. And it’s probably my fault for being way too serious about this and it’s all intended as jolly, light-hearted fun, which maybe those less critical or grumpy than me will appreciate. Plus, it’s said to be similar to the Dresden Files. Now, I may be the only person left on the planet who hasn’t read the Dresden Files, so odd references in this book to wizards in Chicago just whizzed right over my head. But if you like The Dresden Files, this book might be just your cup of tea (or possibly the similarities might irritate the hell out of you). But this wasn’t for me. I got to the 19% point before giving up. One star for a DNF.