Bastard Reaction: Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews

It was some years ago that I came across Ilona Andrews' interest in writing some spin-off novels in their Kate Daniels urban fantasy universe, a favorite of mine. As much as I would've liked to explore more of Kate Daniels' world, I was quite hesitant about a spin-off since, even though they have a myriad of great characters, I thought they'd have a tough time writing about someone who could measure up to that of Kate or Curran. I also recall that they looked for fan input to see which character we'd be most interested in; my choice was Julie (who I thought had a lot of potential). The one I wanted the least was Andrea... go figure.

Along came the authors' decision to write Gunmetal Magic, an Andrea-centric novel who's also Kate Daniels' best friend. I wasn't really excited about the news, in part because I really dislike Andrea's love interest Raphael in addition to my trepidation I just explained. It took some time to make peace with the idea, but I really got excited about this project eventually. I'm glad to say that my worries were for naught because Ilona Andrews wrote one kickass spin-off worthy of being included in their Kate Daniels sequence. As it happens, one of my favorites urban fantasy novels of 2012; best read after Magic Slays, the 5th Kate Daniels novel.

Gunmetal Magic follows Andrea Nash who's an emotional wreck now that she's lost her support, the rock she leaned-on in the form of The Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid ever since they found out she's a shifter. On top of that she's also dealing with her break-up with Raphael, which wasn't all that clean. She's been kicked out of The Order, dealing with her break-up, and due the particular nature of her shifting, she hasn't joined The Pack. For all intents and purposes alone with few exceptions. For the time being Kate and Andrea are working on their own new independent investigation company, and as "luck" will have it, Andrea has been hired to investigate some deaths at a location which Raphael is overseeing. And the fun goes from there.

Andrea's narrative voice is not that dissimilar from Kate's, which makes sense since they're not that different when you get down to the basics. And I'm not complaining. From that regard it brought some good continuity to the narrative style already present in the series. Andrea is a bit more unstable and emotionally expressive though, and more trigger happy...if you'll excuse the pun, which is good in my book.

I don't recall as much as I'd like since I read this 4 years ago (the above written back then as well), but I'll just say that I loved this novel. I thought the first half was stronger though, as Andrea was unhinged, kicking ass and taking names, including some sequences that are right at the top of my favorites in the whole Kate Daniels series.

I'll say though that I hate Raphael with a passion, not only his personality and his actions, but the actual character. More than that I hated how he influenced Andrea and changed her. There's a big contrast, at least to me, of the coolness and badassness when Andrea is by herself doing her thing, and her lesser form she somehow transforms into when Raphael is around. This was a big part of why I preferred the first half of the novel, since the later part featured their dynamic in a much more pronounced manner. Even more so when you compare it to the relationship of Kate and Curran, who are awesome by themselves but just as good (if not better) when they share a scene.

Needless to say, Raphael has been on my list of characters that need to die since his introduction.

Andrea is a good enough character to surpass these perceived limitations, and I'll certainly welcome another story about her. It certainly surpassed my expectations, and if not her, another spin-off novel might be more than welcomed...*cough* *cough* non-YA Badass Julie #FreeJulieLennartDaniels *cough* *cough*.

We managed to witness this world through a different set of circumstances, through a different character's eyes with different wants, worries, and challenges. That alone was worth the ticket of admission, but the novel satisfied more than that while retaining the formula that has worked so well and made Kate Daniels the success it's been.

Well, that's all I have for you guys. Gunmetal Magic is a very strong entry in the Kate Daniels series, and easily one of the best urban fantasy novels of 2012; action packed, badass, with plenty of humor... what else do you want?

Well of course, how about a signed copy! Suck it!

You can buy Gunmetal Magic on Amazon.

Make sure to follow @ilona_andrews & @GordonSm3 on Twitter and their website for more information.

Info on Clean Sweep: Book One of the Innkeeper Chronicles - Free Serial Story by Ilona Andrews (Mihir)

Due to their books Ilona Andrews have rapidly climbed the reading ranks within the urban fantasy world and my favorites list in the past couple of years. Their writing style as well as their humorous prose along with action-packed story-lines makes their books very addictive to say the least. I’m always looking forward to introduce new readers to their books and so when they announced this new experiment, I was excited to read another new story from this dynamic duo.

This serial story is titled “Clean Sweep” and is book I of the Innkeeper Chronicles. The blurb details were revealed to me by the authors via email & here’s what the plot entails:

“In a quiet Texas suburb, life is calm and peaceful, and that's just like Dina Demille likes it. But now something with long claws and savage teeth is hunting on the night streets, leaving blood on the manicured lawns. As an innkeeper, Dina knows she shouldn't get involved.

But with her neighbors' lives at stake, she must make a choice: to remain neutral and stay safe or to risk everything, her magic inn, the safety of her guests, and her life to face an enemy unlike any she had ever expected to meet.”

The first chapter has been posted in parts HERE and HERE, and the first part of the second chapter can be found HERE. This book may or may not be related to the authors' previous work however the authors are being coy about it for now (keep an eye out for clues in the story). For the foreseeable future, the remaining parts of the serial can be found over on  this section of their website, be sure to check back every week.

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I originally posted this on Fantasy Book Critic, but wanted to share the information here since both Bastard and I are big fans of Ilona Andrews.

Mihir's Thoughts: Curran Volumes Vol 2.5

So I’m back as B. basically promised that if I didn’t get this review done he would unleash all types of spam-bots on my e-whereabouts. Like the previous post about the Curran Volumes, these were written exclusively by Andrew Gordon (one half of the excellent writing team that is Ilona Andrews). Gordon released two more Curran snippets, one after their character won in a fan voting against that of J.R. Ward a few months ago and recently when an awesome fan mailed them something pretty cool.

With such largesse, all us fans get some truly amazing scenes to read about. Both these snippets are set in the past; the first one is set after the events of Magic Strikes and one week before the events of Magic Bleeds. Read snippet over HERE.

In this snippet, Jim comes to Curran with some dire news about Kate’s past. All of this is already known to us readers as we have been privy to Kate’s thoughts and knowledge of her past through her POV, but it was interesting to see both Jim and Curran digest it. The event shown in the snippet has not been shown in the books. It’s not a big scene, however its importance resonates quite spectacularly as it shows the depth of Curran’s passion for Kate. At the same time we also get to see his foresight as well. As a reader of the books, we often see Curran and his actions from Kate’s viewpoint and so they are colored by her prejudices and her upbringing. So certain things, when viewed from Curran’s sight are not only refreshing but simply exciting. The snippet ends rather quickly and we are left to rue the events that would take place thereby further lengthening the twisted courtship process which takes place between Kate and Curran.

The second Curran POV snippet is set into the latter third of Magic Strikes; read snippet HERE. Once again we get to see events which we have read about but now from Curran’s eyes. This snippet is what the authors reveal to be “smexy”. Gordon’s not overtly comfortable with such scenes and he’s made it clear in the start, “I am not super comfortable with the smexy scenes. However, I was bribed with action figures by Diana G. I did my best to convey the Beast Lord’s thoughts and feelings but we men are simple creatures, not much goes through our head in these situations beyond “Boobies,” and “I got Snu snu” to quote Futurama. The scene where the guys are in pelvic casts, high-fiving each other is pretty spot on. With that said, please take it for what it is, warts and all.”

The scene involves Kate and Curran in a hot tub and we get pretty much what most readers wish for, the twist being that things end up a bit abnormally but considering its Kate & Curran they could be classified as normal. There’s not much I can write about this snippet without revealing what it’s all about. We do however get the depth of Curran’s passion and some might be a bit troubled by it but considering his character, this is pretty much in line. Once he’s set on something, he will do anything to get it done. On a separate note the authors also had to clarify a few things about the scene and one of their inside jokes about their author friends in a post the very next day. I thought this was a bit funny simply because of the level of fan discussion that prompted this second blog post. All things considered Ilona Andrews do have a very active and vociferous fanbase and sometimes they really do voice their thoughts to the extreme.

In all, these Curran snippets and scenes are very much appreciated and both Bastard and I hope that we get more of them along with the books. Lastly, this year sees the release of Andrea Nash’s solo book (titled GunMetal Magic) and a Kate Daniels novella (more info HERE). The book’s cover is different from the look of the Kate Daniels series and some info about it can be found HERE.

Update on the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews (by Mihir)

Originally the Kate Daniels series was going to be seven books long, however earlier this year the authors found that they would need the Andrea/Raphael spinoff novel to occur before the next book (Kate 6) for it to work, as detailed in this announcement over here. This was the original release schedule:

1) Andrea book—5/31/2012

2) Kate 6—2/2013

3) Jim/Dali book or Kate 7—Late 2013/2014

However due to a recent family emergency, the authors have revealed that the Andrea book will now be released somewhere in August 2012 and that way the next Kate Daniels book will also be release later than the planned release in February 2013. Their publishers have been very flexible with them and also helped them in this regard, so kudos to them.

Bastard and me would like to send our most sincere good wishes to both Ilona & Gordon and also their family members in this time of personal emergency, hoping that the emergency passes and they become well again. Hoping for the best, and we exhort people show patience and give their support to the Andrews in their time of need.

Mihir's Thoughts: Curran Volumes - Companion scenes to the Magic series

Hey everyone, I’m Mihir and I’ll be joining Bastard on this blog. Bastard is a person who according to his profile grew up hating reading and later on changed his mind. I on the other hand never knew anything else besides reading, first there were comics and mythological stories and since then it’s been a gradual progression to the current SFF genre. I’m hoping to complement Bastard’s thoughts, reviews and reactions with some of my own which will be in line with this blog’s theme and name “Bastard books and other crap”.

One of my favorite author pairs are Ilona Andrews, the husband-wife team of Ilona & Andrew Gordon who have shot up within the crowded ranks of the urban fantasy sub-genre. They did it by putting out one the best series currently being written, the Kate Daniels “Magic” series. There have been five books along with three short stories out so far. I have reviewed them previously and they can be found over at Fantasy Book Critic here, here, here, and here.

What I like about this series is it has a terrific main protagonist, great characterization which includes the large character tale cast, an awesome magical-post apocalyptic world & over all a mystery at the root of the saga. This series is now in my top three urban fantasy series and one which I will follow all the way to the end.

Now there have been several reviews all over the blogosphere about the books and the short stories but I’ll be focusing on a hitherto unspoken part of the series, the Curran Volumes. There are currently two of these volumes out currently and they have been written by Gordon Andrews exclusively. These pieces feature a fascinating look in to the mind of the one of the most ferocious and scary characters in the books, the Beast Lord Curran Lennart.


In Curran Volume I, the readers are given access to four pivotal scenes spread across the first four books. The first snippet is the one wherein Kate meets Curran for the first time; the second third and fourth ones are from the remaining three books at a certain pivotal time in each of the book. Now three of these scenes have already been read by the readers of the books albeit from Kate’s viewpoint but it is refreshing to re-read them from Curran’s viewpoint. Since we are privy to his thoughts certain plot points come to the fore much more quickly than in the case of the books wherein it occurs at a slower rate, lastly the fourth scene which is not featured in the books is a scene which happens off stage during the third book and helps Curran solve some of his doubts and gives clarity to the climax of that book.

In Curran Volume II: Fathers and Sons, a short story is featured which focuses on the climax of Magic Bleeds. It basically starts in tandem with the last few paragraphs of the book and then expands beyond the book to feature a very powerful scene which showcases why Curran is the beast lord and how powerful he truly is. This event is not shown in any of the books and is not referenced so far in the saga, however it is important for fans of the series to read it as the events which occur will have powerful implications in the pack setup and for the remainder of the saga.

Both these volumes aren't that long, the first volume is of 18 pages in PDF form while the second volume is 20 pages long but even though they are on the shorter side, for fans these stories are gold as they are completely devoted to Curran, his thoughts and his way of life. The first volume has very little action but focuses more on character interactions in each of the stories.

The second volume more than compensates for the action as it has an awesome action sequence and on an emotional level it was very fulfilling to read as well. The second volume in my opinion is the better of the two but that’s just me and I would heartily recommend that fans of the series get their hands on these two volumes as soon as possible.

Both the volumes are available on the author’s website over here and here. They are available in various formats for the reader’s preference and should you be so interested there’s also a 99 cent version available for people who want to reward the authors for their efforts on the same page. Lastly I would like to add the fact that these volumes are meant to be read after reading the books as otherwise new readers will be not be able follow much of what is happening.

Bastard Superpower, Kate Daniels Followup

Just here to provide you with unquestionable evidence of my superpowers. As such, I'm taking full blame for those fans that feel they got screwed over by the delay of Kate Daniels; which they shouldn't be.

Let me know if all of this is in my head, and am simply delusional. One can never tell. But, I promise to try and control myself just in case.

No Kate Daniels Next Year?

I'm a huge fan of the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, second only to Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files as my favorite Urban Fantasy series.

A bit of bad news for Kate Daniels fans, there will be no new book in the series until February 2013. There will be though a spin-off featuring Andrea next year instead, which should alleviate some of the pain. Also, it has been confirmed that Kate and Curran will indeed appear in the spin-off. Story wise, the spin-off takes place between Magic Slays and the next Kate Daniels book.

For myself, the Andrea-Raphael story-line hasn't been of much interest to me. But I have to admit that I'm quite curious on what the authors have planned for the spin-off, so a bit excited for that.

Anyways, you can read the full details in Ilona Andrews' blog. And please, don't give them too much shit since they seem like very awesome people.

For those Urban Fantasy fans who haven't tried this series yet, well you should be ashamed of yourselves. And if you did and didn't like the first book, then read the second one, it's much better, trust me.