Magic Shifts

Magic Shifts is the eighth book in the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. The implications of the ending of the last book play off in spades in this installment. There is so much going on and it all weaves together brilliantly. The impact of Kate's claiming is starting to be revealed, how the Pack is handling their shake up plus where Kate and Curran take their life next, all combined with the breathless action and interesting mythology that I love about these books. This far into the series I still have no idea how the writers manage to pack so much depth into less than 350 pages.

Kate and Curran are relationship goals. For whatever reason pop culture tends to portray unhealthy relationships on tv and in movies more often than not. show more It is refreshing to have two main characters who love each other for who they are, embracing their strengths and weaknesses, work together on their problems, are supportive of each other through the bad and good, and do it all in a, for this world, healthy manner. Both characters have grown through the series and they've done it together.

This is easily my favorite book in the series so far. About the only thing missing was more of Roland. Somehow I doubt that will be an issue in the remaining two books. show less

I delayed reading this book for a while as I knew the previous " I am your Father and I may need to kill you" story in the last book, "Magic Breaks" was originally meant to be the end of the series and I didn't want to spoil what I'd already read with a faint-hearted extension requested by the publishers. I was also a little disappointed in and frustrated by the last book.

I should have had more faith in the writers. "Magic Shifts" does exactly what the title implies, it shifts the series to a new level - completely rebooting it.

So how do you reboot a series?:

You don’t wallow in nostalgia, repeat storylines, make things a similar as possible to the original but with a few decorative twists.

You do make the present valuable and the show more future something to hope for; introduce new threats, new uncertainties and new opportunities to collaborate; dare to let your characters grow, let their actions have consequences, let their lives have meaning beyond kill-the-bad-guy save-the-world try-not-to-die.

When we first met Kate as a misfit mercenary, calling “Here, kitty, kitty” to the werelion Beastlord in "Magic Bites", she was alone and in hiding, taking on all-comers because she had nothing to lose and she knew her doom was coming for her one day. She was afraid of her blood and ashamed at being good at nothing but killing.

At the start of "Magic Shifts" as Kate rides home through the Atlanta night, sword on her back, blood on her clothes, we immediately see how she's changed: she's comfortable in her own skin, reconciled to her power and happy to use it.

“…the night shadows watched us and I watched them back. Let’s play who can be a better killer. My sword and I love this game.”
She's also not alone. She now has a family, friends and a city to protect. At the end of the last book, she has turned her whole world upside down - a truce of some sort with her father, a responsibility of some sort for the city she claimed, a life completely outside of the Pack, even a house in the suburbs. She and Curren have gotten past the will we won’t we? stage into the more interesting how will we stage. Of course, she still has this I-have-to-save-everybody reflex, she still behaves as if she's invulnerable, although the evidence shows she isn't and she still worries about the monster she might become. I guess that's what makes Kate Kate.

Curren is having fun in the suburbs, free from the politics of being Beastlord and enjoying being underestimated by strangers who see him as Kate's muscle.

This is a fast-paced action-packed book that starts with a battle that's really more of a slaughter - two against thirty isn't really fair when the two are Kate and Curren - and the violence escalates from there. We get new monsters, a new baddy an interesting new ally, all wrapped up in a puzzle that uses characters from earlier books in new ways. One of my favourite pieces was Kate meeting her I'm-the-most-dangerous-being-in-the-world father at Applebees for a family dinner. That started off as funny and became quietly menacing.

Although the pace is fast, it's always perfectly controlled. .When I reached the penultimate chapters I thought “Oh no - cliffhanger ending” I should have known better. What I got was a perfectly executed, action-packed, denouement that delivered a satisfying conclusion to the puzzles in the book, followed by an epilogue that deepened the emotional impact of ending and opened intriguing possibilities for the next book.

This is how you do Urban Fantasy when you’re at the top of your game.

I won't delay in reading book nine. show less

I'm constantly amazed that this series never flags -- it's consistently excellent, hilarious, fierce and delightful. The adventures are wonderfully unpredictable, Atlanta continues to decay, and the nearly nonstop action is perfectly offset by absurd, mundane moments that perfectly capture difficult familial relationships.

My favorite writing duo deliver another winner in this 8th (8th!!) installment of the Kate Daniels series. There might have been even more action than normal in this one; the number of fights made my head spin.
Everything that I have come to expect in these books was there-the action scenes, the tough talk, the humor and the romance. But the thing with the strokes, the dire warnings of what a quick healing would do, and then only touching on it a few times after that seemed like a sloppy way to inject some relationship drama without any fallout. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want fallout. For a minute, I thought there was an amnesia storyline coming up, and I was thinking, "Don't make me hate you, book." So I was glad nothing much came show more of the rapid healing. I just wondered why that part was there if they weren't going to really do it up. Unless they plan to revisit it in the next book. Which I hope they do not do.
There are new creatures our heroes haven't come up against before and some neat new characters that I hope to see in future books. This series is really getting a pileup of characters I want to see more of. I could do with a lot more Christoper, Andrea and Raphael, for starters.
If you like urban fantasy and haven't tried this series yet, give a whirl.
But don't start with this book.
Because that would be silly. show less

The Kate Daniels series was originally plotted to end at book seven, culminating with the classic father confrontation ("I am your father"). While Magic Breaks had a satisfying ending, there was material that felt like it was catering to new readers (in response to a hardcover edition) as well as providing Easter eggs for fans, such as 'guest appearances' by former characters, making it a less than stellar read. Apprehensive of the next, I delayed ordering.

Silly rabbit.

Magic Shifts hits its first fight within three or four pages and doesn't let up until the epilogue. Fast paced, it's filled with plot lines that open up the series to continued development. Kate Daniels and Curran the ex-Beast Lord have moved with their adopted daughter show more Julie to a new section of Atlanta, giving the Andrews a new setting to play in and new interpersonal dynamics to explore (it becomes a bit of a running joke how often Kate and Curran run into people that say, 'yeah, the Beast Lord is such a jerk'). In book seven, Kate experienced the potentially trope-ridden 'power-up' syndrome, but the Andrews compensated in very clever ways. I thought Saiman's refusal to help Kate both fitting and clever, and giving her a head injury helped limit her physical prowess One of those obstacles involved a new area of mythology, a particularly great idea since it broadened the world-building. But the new beings didn't exist in isolation; they had implications for some local creatures as well. Just really interesting stuff.

On a personal level, I appreciated the general lack of teenage angst that played a role in earlier stories, as well as pulling back on Kate's "I don't want people I love hurt" mentality. We've also passed beyond the self-doubt phase of Kate and Curran's relationship as well, and instead start to see the push and pull of an equal--and respectful--relationship. That puts the focus back squarely where it belongs, in my opinion--on the clever world-building of shifting Atlanta, the myriad of problems it creates, and the external relationships effecting Kate and Curran's lives.

As always, the humor made me chuckle. In an era of stagy self-awareness, it is often misused, but here it is appropriate to character and situation. Kate herself is challenged by admitting emotional intimacy, but there were a couple of scenes where her attempt being funny is quite touching because she is trying so hard to minimize fear and loss.

This one kept me up far past a sensible bedtime, just so I could find a good place to stop. But I never did... until the end.

Re-read 09/16 in preparation for the release of #9. Still holds up. show less

This is the kind of book that makes me want to sit down and re-read the series all over again.

The problems that Kate & Curran have this time don't seem to be connected to what they've done or who they are this time. But the Andrews weave in a lot of back story and explain a lot of the 'why' in events of previous books.

I have to admit--I think there is a lot more going on to and with Roland than a need to kill Kate just because his children always turn on him. I was fortunate to be in the audiobook version when he was telling his tale at Applebee's and I am no longer getting a 'supreme, evil being' vibe. Well, I am, but that's no longer ALL I think is going on with him. I see some twisty-twists happening over the next couple of books. show more Roland may surprise us.

The Andrews team is currently putting out some of the best fantasy that I've read and I refuse to qualify it by naming it urban fantasy. It's just very, very, good fantasy. And if you haven't tried the audiobook versions of this series, do yourself a favor. Rene Raudman is superb. show less

Wow, the world-building! I probably sound like a broken record typing this on every single review, but this series literally gets hotter and hotter with every book. I don't know what I'm going to do after I get to the end of the next one and have to wait with everyone else for book ten to come out!

This one featured Kate and Curran (SO glad to see them in the action together this time after spending a lot of time apart in book seven) trying to figure out the mystery around the disappearance of a missing shapeshifter. As usual, nothing in the Atlanta world is ever as simple as it seems, and the details in this one wound up being extremely intricate and fascinating to work out.

My favorite moments: Curran adjusting to suburban life. And it show more adjusting to him. LOL. Nice friendly family dinners. Applebees. Phone call pictionary. Just a hilarious one, in places. Very much looking forward to the next!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less