Download Cursed (Alex Verus, #2) Compiled By Benedict Jacka Released As Text

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Auch der zweite Teil der Alex VerusSerie hat mir wieder gut gefallen,

Alex muss die Fehler seines dämlichen und aufmüpfigen Lehrmädchens Luna ausbügeln, sich gegen eine Zauberin abgrenzen und einige seiner Freunde beschützen.


Was mir auch hier wieder gefallen hat, dass die Übergänge zwischen den Weißmagiern und den Schwarzmagiern außerordenlich fließend zu sein scheinen.


Für mich eine Serie zum Weiterlesen,



I really did like the second part of the Alex Verus series,

Alex must iron out the mistakes of his dimwitted and rebellious apprentice Luna, distance himself from a sorceress and protect some of his friends.


What I also liked here is that the transitions between the white magicians and the black magicians seem to be extraordinarily fluid.


A series to keep reading for me,
My new addiction. Have to pace myself or I feel like I'll blow through all the books in a week,

FROM THE POLICE BLOTTER
Subject: Benedict Jacka
Alias: Alex Versus
Location: Cursed
Date: Published, ongoing issues.


Charges:
Multiple counts of misdemeanor littering explanodumps,
One felony charge of plot deus ex machina,
Multiple felonies committed against women characters, including Classfelony of all females equaling damselindistress category, and additional multiple Classfelonies of Classic Female Stereotypes.


Consider charging in supernatural courts for crimes against love,

Warning: Has priors for for multiple trope violations, Repeat offenses in the book include Light/Dark mage councils, "mysterymanpowerbehindthebadguy" plot line, and "magic store" setting,

Incident report: See officer's summary,



Here's the deal, I read fantasy because I want a world that isn't like my own, As a nurse and a human being that participates in society, I'm immersed enough in currentworld angst and drama, I read urban fantasy because I like the idea of mystery and magic behind the everyday, and I'd like a new twist on familiar stories.


Alex Jacka is far, far too every day for me to enjoy, He is the sexism that I grew up with, He is the male gaze that evaluates women by their 'fuckability' Sara Gran, you are awesomesauce, He is the establishment that say women need to be rescued by men, He is the world where men have conversations, make decisions, analyze the future and act upon it, He is the world where women are limited to role of emotional impetusas helpmeet, as love interest, as protectorate in need of rescuing.



The bones of the story A dreary copycat Dresden'verse set in modern London, only without the detailed setting or local idioms that come through in more sophisticated series hello, Aaronovich.


It begins with the hero Alex, doing a favor for a major player on the Light Mage Council by hunting down a lethal magic creature.
They find it dead. It seques into a windy explanation of how Alex makes his living with his magic shop, and the inane customers and their requests.
Is he trying to be disdainful of his readers, or just trying to create inside jokes It was set off in dialogue snippets and didn't flow well, either emotionally or in the storyline.
Wasted space.

Alex introduces us to Luna, his sortof apprentice who carries a family curse that protects her so fiercely, everyone around her that she comes into certain physical range will have terrible luck, perhaps even lethal.
Luna has found a special man and wants to bring him round the shop to meet Alex, Alex meets with spider Arachne to discuss Luna, her boyfriend, and to examine the implications of the magic creature being drained of magic.
The next day, Luna's boyfriend takes ownership of a disastrous magical object and in general, acts like a jerk, Alex warns Luna of the danger, and she flounces off, Alex would be worried, except he just met Meredith, a beautiful woman on the run, It turns out she is an enchantress capable of manipulating emotion in others, Not too much later, bad guys kidnap some ladies to accomplish Evil Ends see Dresden, You can about guess where it goes from there,

That's about as far as I was able to go reading closely before my selfdefense mechanism set in and I was forced to skim.
A relatively ordinary, but vaguely interesting plot, several transparent doubleagents and an alliance with supposedenemies used in the last book means nothing about this book was surprising except Jacka's audacity.


As a side note, for those that are interested in romantic development, Jacka's view on the topic seems very cynical romantic entanglements all seem to be based on dysfunction and/or outright deception.
Normally not something that I would care overmuch about, it was troubling here because it dovetailed too well with his antifemale characterization.


Please tell me, younger readers, that you are alert to this and think it reprehensible Is it actually satisfying to read something that is such a palewatereddown version of quality, that participates in adding nothing new to the literary conversation except it's own commercialization This isn't just a flabby, retreaded story it's a lifeless story that propagates everything that is wrong with the genre.
It is a MUF indeed, the evil male doppelganger to the FlUF that focuses only on female clothes and her next love interest.


Spare yourself there's much better out there, If you want Dresdenesque, try the very well written sitelinkThe Markhat Files, London detective MUFsitelinkBen Aaronovitch, Women as People in UF, try sitelinkIlona Andrews or sitelinkWool Omnibus,

For more on the conversation about women and urban fantasy from Carrie Vaughn, author and another former Occidentalianwhat can I say, analysis was beat into us:
sitelink wordpress. com/


Cross posted at sitelink wordpress. com As I said in another review today, . . SCORE!. This week I've finishedbooks that I ratestars! I had trouble making time to get to this one, but burned through it once I got to it.
This is a good to great book in a great series with a great character, Alex Verus in definitely myUF character Harry Dresden beingby quite a margin,

There's a thread here called "Books to Read While Waiting for the Next Dresden Book", . . I found these recommended there, Seeing Jim Butcher's recommendation of them helped and I've really enjoyed the firstwith the next the last one in print so far on my shelf waiting.


So, where are we Alex is still the same retiring, nonoffensive, low powered mage about town we came to know and love in sitelinkFated.
Of course now he has a sort of, . . rep. The Battle Mages that can knock down buildings if they want to be restrained are a little slow about crossing this "low power diviner".
Strange

that.

As the book opens Alex has been contracted by a Council Mage to help in tracking down a human killing creature.
After all Alex can see paths into the future, a handy thing when a slavering, toothed and clawed beast might be planning an ambush to rip your entrails out and make use of them as food, decoration, garters or whatever.


From here Alex and his apprentice get involved in things that are actually dangerous,

Sound good It is, Great story telling, great characters and lots of twists, There's humor here and that's something a lot of UF authors go for but only a few pull off, Yep a good book and highly recommended,

I just may have another series I'll be waiting to snatch up as soon as they're published, . . cool, but I hate waiting,



Update note: I think the series has held up, I've read all that are in print and look forward to the next which is due out soon, I can recommend these. I did enjoy this one, though not as much as the first and not enough to rush out and buy the next one.
I'd love to reread this and the first and then continue on but it was a while ago I read this one and it hasn't reeled me back in at all.
I think there's a fair few in the series now though

I do like the characters though as they're a little cheekier and there's some great action sequences to keep the book entertaining.
Loved it! Better than the first book, Still funny, but there were some hard lessons learned, Mr. Jacka explores his really interesting magic system, and the consequences of Alex's magic abilities were very interesting, Plus, this one had quite a few surprises, I definitely plan to continue with this series, Reread:

These days, fond memories and revisiting old friends seems to be the only way to fill my heart, Granted, a sure dose of blood and viscera and dark wishes tied to nasty curses is a close second, but best of all is a fine combination of both!



Original :

This series is rapidly becoming my latest favorite mindcandy, doing wonders to cleanse my palate between heavy tomes of fiction and generally getting me rearing to go.
It's entertaining, solidly written, thoroughly charactergrounded, and the magic system, while slightly unoriginal, is very fun, Seeing the future is rather beast,

I could probably read all of these in a single sitting, as long as I had all the proper plumbing hooked up.
Saline solution, waste ejecta, etc, I'd almost be willing to be a test subject for one of those chairs from Idiocracy, What can I say It's just one of those hugely addictive series,

I should have known better before picking them up, but oh well, . .

: Second in the Alex Verus urban fantasy series set in London, Camden Town to be exact, and revolving around a mage who just wants to be left alone.


My Take
Luna makes me nuts, Huh, I guess that means her name is accurate and prophetic She wants Alex to introduce her to this magical world, but she also refuses to accept anything he says that she doesn't like.


The arrogance of man provides so many possibilities, In this case, Jacka makes use of man's "superiority" to lesser creatures, Animals with magic abilities. After all, they're just animals incapable of thought, love, dreams,

There's a nice bit in here about how a monkey's paw works, its origin, and a list of worries about it.
Hmm, Cinder is brighter than I thought, Oh, wow, then there's a nasty case of be careful what you wish for,

I do like this series, It still hasn't warmed up for me, but Alex's ideas of right and wrong are so perfect, He doesn't care about a person's words, he's more interested in their actions, You can declare yourself a Light mage, but its the actions you take that confirm or deny it,

I can definitely see lots of possibilities with Alex Verus, and I'm looking forward to reading sitelink Taken.


The Story
Two invasions of his shop, and Alex is caught, Desperate to remain independent, the Light and the Dark mages have their own ideas of how Alex's independence will work,

And they'll use his loyalty and sense of friendship to do it,

The Characters
Alex Verus is a diviner, able to see thousands of possible futures at a time, who just happens to run a magic shop in Camden Town.
Until lately, he's managed to steer an independent course, Now, he's becoming an irritant,

Luna Mancuso is between sensitive and adept and very much wants to be a part of the magic world, so Alex takes her on informally as an apprentice.
Only, he can't decide between friend, apprentice, or lover, Martin is Luna's new friend and a cocky, thieving little bastard, Starbreeze is an Air elemental with a very, very short memory and is "as dumb as a box of rocks".
Arachne is a tenfoottall spider who both weaves and designs clothes,

Cinder is a fire mage working with Deleo, the former Rachel, is a water mage and a former apprentice of Richard Drakh's along with Alex.
Meredith is an enchantress she causes you to feel and want things, Jadan is a Dark mage who found a "foolproof" method of extracting magical energy from magical creatures, David Sonder is a time mage,

The Council is the ruling body of Light Mages, Remember, "light" is just a term, Vaal Levistus is a Council member very angry over what Alex caused him to lose in Fated Belthas is a Council member who thinks he'll do better.
Garrick is a magical mercenary he works for the person who pays, Ilmarin is Council security,

Sensitives are a step up from normals, They can "feel the presence of magic", Next up are the adepts who can "actually channel magic in a subtle way", Then there are the mages, Arrogant, selfabsorbed, if they see something they want, they take it, Elsewhere is a world not a place to which you can only travel in dreams, Where you can touch people through dreams, through their minds, It can be an escape or a trap,

Currency is flexible within the mage world: favours are a favoured method of payment and people may be sold or taken as slaves.
Mages tend to specialize and exchange services, Items which can be sold include artifacts and components,

Shireen and Tobruk were apprentices under Richard Drakh who died,

The Cover
The cover is sparking in blues with London Bridge as the background,

The title revolves around Luna, for she is Cursed you know, .