![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seanan_mcguireIndustrial Magic, by Kelley Armstrong.
Spectra, paperback
560 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, everybody loves a witchy girl
Currently in print
***
At the end of Dime-Store Magic, Paige and Lucas were, if not riding off into the sunset together, at least riding off into a slightly less terrible-looking future. After all, they had defeated the bad guys, secured Savannah's freedom, escaped the Nash Cabal, and -- perhaps most importantly -- managed to find each other, two unlikely romantics in an unlikely, but absolutely perfect, romance. They're the ultimate in mixed-race relationships, at least for this universe, where the witches and the sorcerers have been at war for centuries. But they work. They work disturbingly well. I adore Lucas and Paige.
Industrial Magic opens with Paige doing her best to create a new Coven, a Coven where witches will actually be strengthened and supported, rather than weakened and suppressed. It's not going terribly well, maybe because Paige got kicked out of the original Coven (bad), Savannah's mother was a dark witch (worse), and Lucas is a sorcerer, as well as the son of the head of the world's most powerful Cabal (worst of all). Paige doesn't actually know what it means to give up, so she keeps trying, and it's wearing her away a little bit at a time. And then Lucas's father, Benicio, contacts her with the news that someone is killing supernatural teenagers...
From bad to worse in just a few words, and the hunt is on. It probably doesn't help that neither Paige nor Lucas is very good at this 'relationship' thing. And then there's Jaime Vegas, celebrity necromancer, who's having a little bit of a haunting issue. (Jaime was mentioned in Dime-Store Magic, but this is her first appearance 'on-screen.' She narrates book seven.)
Paige remains among my favorite of Armstrong's narrators; the only one with a prayer of unseating her is Jaime, and that would require Jaime getting a second book of her own. Paige's relationship with both Lucas and Savannah is sweet, sincere, and above all, believable. She makes mistakes, but they're the sort of mistakes that people actually make in the real world. It's incredibly refreshing. By the time Armstrong got to Industrial Magic, she was entirely confident in what she was doing, and it shows in the complexity and solidity of the text. This is a damn good book.
It's hard to talk much about Industrial Magic without going into spoilers. Armstrong continues to explore her expanded universe, and continues to allow her characters a lot more freedom of movement, shuffling them around the country as the plot demands. There's a beautiful richness of setting in this book, one which makes its inevitable violence and tragedies all the more moving. Also, the sex remains deeply fun, and important without overtaking the plot that it's a part of. Plot with porn, not porn with plot. Yay!
At this point, we're solidly into the series and solidly into the world. I can't recommend this book highly enough, although again, please do not read this book without first reading Dime-Store Magic. This is, alas, our last book with Paige (for the time being, anyway); next up is Eve Levine, Savannah's mother, and our adventures in the afterlife. See you there!
Spectra, paperback
560 pages, dark urban fantasy/supernatural romance, everybody loves a witchy girl
Currently in print
***
At the end of Dime-Store Magic, Paige and Lucas were, if not riding off into the sunset together, at least riding off into a slightly less terrible-looking future. After all, they had defeated the bad guys, secured Savannah's freedom, escaped the Nash Cabal, and -- perhaps most importantly -- managed to find each other, two unlikely romantics in an unlikely, but absolutely perfect, romance. They're the ultimate in mixed-race relationships, at least for this universe, where the witches and the sorcerers have been at war for centuries. But they work. They work disturbingly well. I adore Lucas and Paige.
Industrial Magic opens with Paige doing her best to create a new Coven, a Coven where witches will actually be strengthened and supported, rather than weakened and suppressed. It's not going terribly well, maybe because Paige got kicked out of the original Coven (bad), Savannah's mother was a dark witch (worse), and Lucas is a sorcerer, as well as the son of the head of the world's most powerful Cabal (worst of all). Paige doesn't actually know what it means to give up, so she keeps trying, and it's wearing her away a little bit at a time. And then Lucas's father, Benicio, contacts her with the news that someone is killing supernatural teenagers...
From bad to worse in just a few words, and the hunt is on. It probably doesn't help that neither Paige nor Lucas is very good at this 'relationship' thing. And then there's Jaime Vegas, celebrity necromancer, who's having a little bit of a haunting issue. (Jaime was mentioned in Dime-Store Magic, but this is her first appearance 'on-screen.' She narrates book seven.)
Paige remains among my favorite of Armstrong's narrators; the only one with a prayer of unseating her is Jaime, and that would require Jaime getting a second book of her own. Paige's relationship with both Lucas and Savannah is sweet, sincere, and above all, believable. She makes mistakes, but they're the sort of mistakes that people actually make in the real world. It's incredibly refreshing. By the time Armstrong got to Industrial Magic, she was entirely confident in what she was doing, and it shows in the complexity and solidity of the text. This is a damn good book.
It's hard to talk much about Industrial Magic without going into spoilers. Armstrong continues to explore her expanded universe, and continues to allow her characters a lot more freedom of movement, shuffling them around the country as the plot demands. There's a beautiful richness of setting in this book, one which makes its inevitable violence and tragedies all the more moving. Also, the sex remains deeply fun, and important without overtaking the plot that it's a part of. Plot with porn, not porn with plot. Yay!
At this point, we're solidly into the series and solidly into the world. I can't recommend this book highly enough, although again, please do not read this book without first reading Dime-Store Magic. This is, alas, our last book with Paige (for the time being, anyway); next up is Eve Levine, Savannah's mother, and our adventures in the afterlife. See you there!
