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Sunday 25 September 2011

Review: MAGIC MOURNS

MAGIC MOURNS in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology by Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, Charlaine Harris and Meljean Brook
Book 3.5 of the Kate Daniels series

Genre: urban fantasy

About Must Love Hellhounds:
From New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris and Nalini Singh and national bestselling authors Ilona Andrews and Meljean Brook, tales of man's worst friend...

In these hound-eat-hound worlds, anything goes... and everything bites. Follow paranormal bodyguards Clovache and Batanya into Lucifer's realm, where they encounter his fearsome four-legged pets, in Charlaine Harris's The Britlingens Go to Hell. Seek out a traitor in the midst of a guild of non- lethal vampire trackers, one that intends to eradicate the entire species of bloodsuckers, in Nalini Singh's Angels' Judgment. Find out why the giant three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades has left the underworld for the real world-and whose scent he's following-in Ilona Andrews's Magic Mourns. Embark on a perilous search for the kidnapped niece of a powerful vampire alongside her blind- and damn sexy-companion and a hellhound in Meljean Brook's Blind Spot. These four novellas by today's hottest paranormal authors will have hellhound lovers everywhere howling.
Source: Info in the About Must Love Hellhounds was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6286042-must-love-hellhounds on 05/06/2011.

Review:
This review is only going to talk about Magic Mourns by Ilona Andrews out of the four stories in this anthology. For the hound part which is the theme of this book, Ceberus made a nice appearance in the story. This being a short story, it is also a very quick read. It actually felt like a 2-minute read! Despite the space constraints of a short story, Magic Mourns managed to be well structured with an introduction, a central dilemma and a satisfying ending. Something that I found a lot of short stories fail to achieve. Having said that, I am a long-time Kate Daniels fan, therefore, I might have taken for granted all the cultural nuances of the story which might confuse those reading into the world of Kate Daniels for the first time. In other words, I am biased. I therefore suggest that you do not read this short story if you haven't read the first three books in the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews yet. Besides, you'll be cheating yourself out of a wonderful reading experience if you skip straight to this short story!

The openning salvo sees Andrea rescuing Raphael from Ceberus which is comically drawn in this picture by chibi. And it's action after action until the end. Awesome!!

My favouritest part about this short story is when it explained the "apples" to me. I wondered about those "apples" when it got mentioned in another Kate Daniels installment, not sure which book it was now. And I really liked it that, that mystery was explained in this short story! Magic Mourns also gave insight into the nature of one of the characters which I also really liked! Another kudos to the Kate Daniels series! However, it also spewed a whole slew of questions!

Empirical Evaluation:
Character Development = 5
World Building = 5
Plot = 4
Story = 4
Pace = 5
Ending = 4.5
Story Telling Quality = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

10 comments:

Tales of Whimsy said...

Sounds cool. Glad you enjoyed it :)

Emily said...

I loved this story! As an aside, the excerpt from the full novel starring Andrea that's on the author's website right now is INTENSE. I wanted to smack Raphael in his big stupid forehead and yet I still hope they live happily ever after. May is so far away!

Cherry said...

Juju at Tales of Whimsy.com - Thanks for dropping by Ju! :)

Emily - Thanks for the heads up... didn't know that there is more tidbits at the author's site... will be heading there now... :)

TheReadingPenguin said...

Awesome! I heart Kate Daniels!

Cherry said...

fairypenguin - Yes, I'm a Kate Daniels fan too... I'm biased that way :)

Blodeuedd said...

I'd like to read this one cos of the Kate Daniels story :)

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Oh I want this anthology. I've heard that the stories are part of the series the authors have going, so I haven't got it yet as I've not started the series. :) But I will one day!

Cherry said...

Blodeuedd - Lovely two-minute read, Blodeuedd!

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) - My suggestion is, start the Kate Daniels series (urban fantasy), and you have wonderful reading time waiting for you :)

Jenny N. said...

Good to know that you liked it. But it's one of the things I don't really like about short stories where I might get confused and have to read a series first before reading the short story.

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Cherry I have the first Kate Daniels book here to start the series. :) I really look forward to it with all the amazing things I've heard of it. :) Thanks!

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