Book Description
Sabina Kane doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to family. After all, her own grandmother, leader of the vampire race, wants her dead. So when she arrives in New York to meet her mage relatives, the reunion puts the fun in dysfunctional. Not only is mage culture completely bizarre, but everyone seems to think she’s some kind of ‘Chosen’ who’ll unite the dark races. Sabina doesn’t care who chose her, she’s not into destiny.
But the mages aren’t Sabina’s only problem. In New York’s Black Light District, she has run-ins with fighting demons, hostile werewolves and an opportunistic old flame. Sabina thought she’d take a bite out of the Big Apple – but it looks like it wants to bite back.
Book 2 in The Sabina Kane Series
Review:
THE MAGE IN BLACK picks up almost immediately after the events in Red Headed Step-child. Sabina and Adam (and Giguhl the demon/cat) are on their way to New York to embrace her paternal mage heritage after being betrayed by her maternal vampire side. Once there, she ruffles more then a few feathers including the local werewolf pack, a demon fight club, and the mage council itself.
The Kum-N-Go’s roadside-chic interior was bathed in a sickly fluorescent glow. The aroma of stale smoke, urinal cakes, and rotgut coffee had me breathing through my mouth on the way back to the ATM. It was my turn to pay for gas, so getting cash took priority over raiding the snack aisle for the moment. –Opening of THE MAGE IN BLACK
The world building that I fell in love with in Red Headed Step-child is back portraying the Dark races (vamps, weres, mages, and the fae) as the children of Lilith and Cane. Keeping with biblical apocryphal, Vampires are vulnerable to the forbidden fruit (Sabina loads her gun with apple wood bullets). Very cool. And there are references to prophecies of Lilith’s return which finger Sabina as the Chosen one.
In THE MAGE IN BLACK Mages and Vampires are, to quote Buffy, really unmixey things. Millennia of distrust and jealousy have brought them to the brink of war. As a half-blood, Sabina Kane is the embodiment of that animosity which makes her a hard character in every sense of the word. She’s physically formidable, emotionally jaded, and self-destructive when it comes to personal relationships. Wrap that all up into one person and she can be hard to take. Without fail, you can expect her to be brash, sarcastic, and aggressive regardless of the situation. Sometimes I liked her behavior, other times I found her off-putting.
Overall, THE MAGE IN BLACK is a fun, gritty urban fantasy with a brutally tough heroine who never seems to catch a break. The tone never gets too dark with the addition of the mischief demon Giguhl. And there is an interesting romantic conflict for Sabina with the mage Adam and the vampire Slade. The ending is less of a conclusion, and more of a set up for the next Sabina Kane novel, Green-Eyed Demon which is due out March 2011. Despite some minor flaws, I’m looking forward to it.
Sexual Content: References to sex. A graphic sex scene.
My Rating (out of 5):
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.
Click HERE to read an excerpt of THE MAGE IN BLACK
Product Details
- Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (April 1, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 031603780X
- ISBN-13: 978-0316037808
- Cover Art: Craig White
*Disclosure: I received this book courtesy of Orbit books
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Great review! I really have to give this series a try. I've had the first book sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time.
ReplyDeleteI have tons of (presumably) great books on my shelf too. I'm trying to start mixing older books with new releases.
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