9 out of 10 – I liked it, can you tell?

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment. Harry Dresden is the best and technically the ‘only’ at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal capabilities, they come to him for answers. For the ‘everyday’ world is actually full of strange and magical things – and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a – well, whatever.

Take your standard noir detective with a sarcastic frame of mind and a weakness for helping damsels in distress, add in wizardry, vampires, werewolves, talking skulls, pizza loving fairies and all things paranormal and this is what you get. A quirky, fast paced and thrilling ride through a Chicago you never thought possible. Trying only to pay the rent, when the police are stumped on a case Harry helps out, while also trying to find a missing husband. Things soon get complicated when it becomes obvious there’s black magic afoot – and the council of wizards suspect Harry. Already under the Doom of Damocles, a form of wizardly probation for past transgressions, Harry has to risk execution to discover who the Shadowman is – and why he’s killing people.

This is a superb debut – and only the first of many. Great characters, a mystery that twists and turns like a corkscrew and above all, Harry, a wizard with a world weary sense of humour, who takes life on the chin.

3 and half out of five

Urban fantasy / magic realism in London. We’re dropped into a body in present day London. Eventually we come to realise that it is the body of Matthew Swift, sorcerer, deceased. Or he was, until now. Bless, he then finds out all his friends are dead, killed by the same thing that killed him – a shadow known as Hunger. Quickly found by a bunch of ‘concerned citizens’ he begins to track who he suspects had him killed, and the author begins to reveal just how Matthew came back – and what he is now. Come be we, come be free.

While not a totally original concept the voice and style of this piece is beautiful – if difficult to read in large chinks at a time. London is both faithfully described and an entirely new and otherwordly place, if only you know its secrets. Unfortunately the lavish description sometimes slows the pace to a crawl. The author likes to keep things from teh reader too – which seems odd as it’s written in First Person – so the narrator is Matthew Swift. And he doesn’t tell us what he knows. Indeed, it was several pages before I knew the narrator was male, and dozens before I knew his name. And Matthew knows what he is, at least partially, but the reader is kept in the dark. Tricky to pull off in first person without annoying the reader, and only partially successful here, for me at least. Every time he revealed something I asked myself ‘Couldn’t you have told me earlier rather than making a big mystery about it?’

Still, an engaging book, stylishly written.

6 1/2 out of 10.

Ramus and Nomi are Voyagers, a select Guild that seeks to explore the untamed wilds of Noreela and reveal them to them the past and rest of civilisation. They obtain some documents in a strange language, papers that seem to suggest that there may be something at the top of the Great Divide, a mind-bogglingly high cliff that runs across the southern plains. But whether it is true remains to be seen – no one has ever climbed the Divide and returned. As Voyagers, the promise of exploring uncharted territory is too much. With a small group of mercenaries, the set out to discover what lies at the top – something that might re-write history.

This book, for me, was split into three very distinct thirds. In the first we are introduced to our leads – Ramus and Nomi. The world-building here is rather heavy- handed in places. Do I need to know how too cook every meal they eat? The habits of every plant and animal? An exaggeration – but not by much. Of course, many readers love these things, so bear in mind this niggle is just my personal preference. Then again it’s maybe a little on the light side in others (what haunts the shadowy nights, exactly?). The pace is slow as they start out on their adventure. The characters are well-drawn if a little on the bland side, though they become stronger as we get to know them. But there is a simmering tension between the two that drew me on.

And a third of the way into the book something delightful happens – the tension explodes, in a way that while surprising ( and for me fantastic – I love a good twist), is also fitting – the seeds having been sown with skill earlier. The middle third of the book rolls along at a much better pace, the author relying less on the outlandish nature of the planet and more on his characters, which become more interesting ( if not exactly likeable) as we carry on.

Sadly for me, this improvement that had me dying to see the end falters when they reach their goal and find what they are looking for. While it’s a pretty epic pre-climax, the ending itself has little to no resolution. Some things that played a large part in the proceedings and should, really have become clear were just…left. And while I like an ambiguous ending at times, some concrete outcome to chew on is preferable. There’s little here, which left me feeling rather deflated and as though the author wasn’t sure how he could end it satisfactorily and so just stopped.

All in all, this a good adventure book ( great for those who love exploration tales, or who need to know every detail of the planet), solidly written, sadly let down by an ending that just didn’t quite deliver it for me.