CHOSEN

TITLE: CHOSEN

AUTHOR: BENEDICT JACKA

Pages: 320

Date: 13/10/2013

Grade: 5

Details: no. 4 Alex Verus

            Received from Orbit

            Through Nudge

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This is the fourth book in the Alex Verus series, and while it can be read on its own, I’d advise anyone to read the three previous titles – “Fated”, “Cursed” and “Taken” – first.

Recently life has been easy and peaceful for Alex Verus. It may be a bit crammed sharing his house with three young adepts but our Mage finds he quite enjoys having Variam, Anna and Luna treating his apartment as their home. Alex is starting to feel that maybe he has atoned for the sins of his past; maybe now he can leave the darkness he’s been trying to get away from behind him and start a new, brighter future.

Of course things are never that easy. And just when it seems that the past is well and truly behind him it returns to hunt him down for the one thing he has never been able to forgive himself for.

And those hunting Alex won’t give up until they have their revenge, and he is dead. They refuse to listen to him and are determined to achieve their goal, even if it means going through those who would stand with Alex.

Alex has to confront his past and make some very difficult choices. If he manages to win this battle he might lose the few people he has grown close to. If he doesn’t win, he won’t be around to tell the tale or assist his friends. Caught between a rock and a hard place, there are no easy options for our diviner.

This is by far the darkest Alex Verus novel so far. While the story is still written with a light hand and there still are moments of light relief and humour, be it of the dark variety at times, this is the book in which the reader learns the truth about Alex’s time with the dark mage Richard and about what happened to make him run away from his master to face a life of solitude and uncertainty. And it is not a pretty picture.

In fact, that is one of the things that make this book such a very good read. There are no easy answers here. There is no clear distinction between good and bad, dark and light. There is no doubt that what happened in the past was very, very wrong. And it is quite easy to understand why those who are hunting Alex want their revenge. And yet, while his pursuers are unaware of this, the reader knows that Alex no longer is the person he was ten years ago and can’t help rooting for him.

While this is a work of fantasy it poses some interesting questions; is it possible for a person to redeem themselves? Are we allowed to go to any length in order to protect ourselves? What exactly makes a person either good or bad, and is it even possible to make such a clear distinction? Like I said, interesting questions and something I could ponder about for hours.

I like where Benedict Jacka is going with these books. With every subsequent title Alex becomes a more rounded character. And Jacka doesn’t take the easy way out; he doesn’t try to make his main character look sympathetic regardless of what he has to do, isn’t afraid to show Alex warts and all and leave it up to the reader to make up their minds about him. Others may disagree but I only find myself getting more interested in this character and everything he comes up against with every subsequent book.

And talking about subsequent books; the final chapter in Chosen seems to indicate that the best, and in all likelihood, darkest part of this tale is still to come. Bring it on! I can’t wait to see what will happen next.

TAKEN

TITLE: TAKEN

AUTHOR: BENEDICT JACKA

Pages: 319

Date: 23/09/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 3 Alex Verus

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Alex Verus’ life is running as smoothly as the life of an independent mage can run. He’s running his shop and training his apprentice Luna and trying to live his life as quietly as he can but it isn’t as easy as it used to be to keep his anonymity. His recent adventures and rather unexpected victories have brought him to the attention of the wider community of mages. So, when he is invited to travel to Fountain Reach to be a supervisor during a tournament for apprentice mages he isn’t too surprised. But since the past few times when he did accept requests for help from other mages have only lead to danger and brought him close to losing his life, Alex has no doubts when he reclines the mind-mage’s offer, despite her best efforts to control his thoughts.

When he is subsequently asked to look into the unexplained and suspicious disappearances of apprentices Alex does accept the invitation. And before he knows it Alex finds that he and Luna are on their way to Fountain Reach after all, where they will have to combine their efforts with two independent and initially very hostile apprentices.

While apprentices continue to disappear, Alex finds himself in an environment where spells don’t work as well as they should, facing an unknown opponent who seems to know his every move before he makes it, facing an long time enemy determined to kill him once and for all and not finding any clear clues as to why the young mages are disappearing or who is responsible.

And once it does become clear exactly what is going on, who is behind it and why it seems that Alex may at last have found himself an opponent he won’t be able to defeat.

This is the third Alex Verus book and just like “Fated” and “Cursed” this is a face-paced, thrilling, original and at times very funny story. Alex Verus is a wonderful main character. He is very likeable but by no means perfect; he has his quirks, his weaknesses and his pride to balance his inherent goodness and inclination to help those in an even weaker position than he is. As a diviner, Verus can’t so much predict the future as determine all the possible futures ahead of him depending on what choices he makes. And because he doesn’t really have any other magical powers, this ability to stay one step ahead of those around him comes in very handy.

I love that these stories are set in a London I recognise. This is the real world into which a magical layer has been incorporated in such a way that it is almost possible to believe that it really exists. I also like that while these books are clearly inspired by Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and this particular book has one or two features that reminded me of Hogwarts, the stories are fresh and original and don’t own anything to anyone except Benedict Jacka, the author who wrote them. On the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me at all that these books come with a recommendation from Jim Butcher. If either Harry Dresden or Alex Verus would cross the Atlantic I could see these two get into all sorts of adventures together.

As this series progresses Alex is picking up some rather interesting side-kicks. There is Luna, who because of her curse has to stay well away from all direct human contact. And in this book Anne, an apprentice life mage and Variam, an apprentice with control over fire are added to his unlooked for collection of strays. I can only hope that these three youngsters will be around in future books because they really add an extra dimension to the story.

Like I said, this is the third book in the Alex Verus series. And while it is perfectly possible to read this book as a stand-alone I would advice anyone to read the two prequels first. Apart from the fact that you’ll get more out of this book if you’re familiar with the background story, the earlier books are just too much fun to miss out on.

If you’re in the mood for an urban fantasy with a healthy dose of magic and lots of heart-stopping moments you could do a lot worse than to pick up this book. I would be surprised if you didn’t find yourself getting lost in this almost real, magical world only to surface after the mystery has been solved, danger has been averted and the story has been told.