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Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s Reviews > Magic Stars
Magic Stars (World of Kate Daniels, #9.5)
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Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s review
bookshelves: fantasy, urban-fantasy, vampires-and-werewolves-oh-my
Dec 13, 2015
bookshelves: fantasy, urban-fantasy, vampires-and-werewolves-oh-my
3.75 stars. Does anyone know what has happened with this Grey Wolf spin-off series from Ilona Andrews? Was Hugh just that much more exciting than Derek? Just wondering ...
Anyway.
Magic Stars begins the Grey Wolf series, a spin-off of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, in which Derek, a 20 year old shapeshifter who can turn into a wolf, takes center stage, although fans of Kate and Curran will be pleased to know that they make a brief appearance. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature.
This novella gets off to a quick jump start, with Derek on the job, tracking down a group of men who murdered an entire family. Derek’s actions when he finds these men are a mix of interrogation and revenge. He elicits the information that the men were after a mysterious glowing rock in the Ives family’s possession, on orders from a local warlock, but they were unable to find the rock.
As Derek approaches the Ives home a little later, he finds more trouble: three unfamiliar shapeshifters looting the home (the warlock is extremely determined to get hold of this rock fragment) and 16 year old Julie, Kate Daniels’ adopted daughter, also looking for the rock. Dang, this is one popular rock.
And that’s only the beginning of this night’s troubles. It’s frankly astounding, how many different types of near-fatal trouble Derek and Julie get into in one brief night together.
The excitement level in Magic Stars is high, with one magical peril quickly succeeding another, although the climactic scene felt just a little flat to me. The Andrews’ urban fantasy works are not necessarily deep or profound, but they are very well crafted and action-packed. Their world-building is excellent, becoming more intriguing and complex with each succeeding book, and with characters who are tough (both mentally and physically) and sympathetic but have human — or inhuman — flaws. Derek is embittered because of some painful past experiences that have left him deeply scarred, while Julie is accepting instruction in magic from one of Kate’s most terrible enemies, rationalizing that it’s a necessary risk and that she needs to learn more about both this enemy and his magic. *cue heavy foreshadowing of future troubles*
You will want to have read at least a few books in the KATE DANIELS series before you take on Magic Stars, the more the better, since there are several spoilers for key events from that series in this 64-page novella. Not that that stopped me or anything ...
Content advisory: Pretty much non-stop violence and a few F-bombs.
Anyway.
Magic Stars begins the Grey Wolf series, a spin-off of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, in which Derek, a 20 year old shapeshifter who can turn into a wolf, takes center stage, although fans of Kate and Curran will be pleased to know that they make a brief appearance. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature.
This novella gets off to a quick jump start, with Derek on the job, tracking down a group of men who murdered an entire family. Derek’s actions when he finds these men are a mix of interrogation and revenge. He elicits the information that the men were after a mysterious glowing rock in the Ives family’s possession, on orders from a local warlock, but they were unable to find the rock.
As Derek approaches the Ives home a little later, he finds more trouble: three unfamiliar shapeshifters looting the home (the warlock is extremely determined to get hold of this rock fragment) and 16 year old Julie, Kate Daniels’ adopted daughter, also looking for the rock. Dang, this is one popular rock.
And that’s only the beginning of this night’s troubles. It’s frankly astounding, how many different types of near-fatal trouble Derek and Julie get into in one brief night together.
The excitement level in Magic Stars is high, with one magical peril quickly succeeding another, although the climactic scene felt just a little flat to me. The Andrews’ urban fantasy works are not necessarily deep or profound, but they are very well crafted and action-packed. Their world-building is excellent, becoming more intriguing and complex with each succeeding book, and with characters who are tough (both mentally and physically) and sympathetic but have human — or inhuman — flaws. Derek is embittered because of some painful past experiences that have left him deeply scarred, while Julie is accepting instruction in magic from one of Kate’s most terrible enemies, rationalizing that it’s a necessary risk and that she needs to learn more about both this enemy and his magic. *cue heavy foreshadowing of future troubles*
You will want to have read at least a few books in the KATE DANIELS series before you take on Magic Stars, the more the better, since there are several spoilers for key events from that series in this 64-page novella. Not that that stopped me or anything ...
Content advisory: Pretty much non-stop violence and a few F-bombs.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
December 8, 2015
–
Finished Reading
December 13, 2015
– Shelved
December 13, 2015
– Shelved as:
fantasy
December 13, 2015
– Shelved as:
urban-fantasy
December 13, 2015
– Shelved as:
vampires-and-werewolves-oh-my
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Jan 10, 2019 12:03PM
As far as I know, they are planning on more Derek books. That might be on hold for now though as the one with Hugh really did take off much more.
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My guess is that with their new (and previously unexpected - it started as a joke!) focus on Hugh's series, not to mention Catalina's series and whatever else they're working on (maybe more Innkeeper stories? I'm not sure if Maud's story has ended), Derek has been sidelined for at least a while.
Yep, I'd expect so, too. After all, there is only so much even those two can write.
Ilona Andrews recently answered your question in this post: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/braining...Short version: Julie hate mail has put this project on hold for now.
People are so dumb. If you don't like a spin-off, JUST DON'T READ IT. Hate mail?! REALLY?! I can't even.
Janine wrote: "Ilona Andrews recently answered your question in this post: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/braining...Short version: Julie hate mail has put this project on hold for now."
Holy smoke, that’s interesting. I guess fans prefer their misguided characters in the form of Hugh. I’m not even sure I’d call what Julie’s doing misguided at this point. Highly risky, though, for sure.
The irony is that the same kind of people always preach about diversity and how every person is special and an individual but as soon as authors vary their characters and don't use the same old template for all the people within a story, they cry bloody murder. If they don't like Julie, nobody forces them to read the spin-off with her as MC - why do they have to ruin it for the rest of the world?! Just to get their will? And sending those mails, expressing their wish she'd be killed off - psychopaths, the lot of them!
