Adult Review: Chosen by Benedict Jacka

Chosen (Alex Verus #4) by Benedict Jacka

Paperback, 304 pages

Expected Publication: August 27th, 2013 by Ace

Source: Publisher

I don’t publicly advertise that I’m a mage, but I don’t exactly hide it either, and one of the odd things I’ve learnt over the years is just how much you can get away with if you’re blatant enough. Hide something behind smoke and mirrors and make people work to find it, and they’ll tear the place down looking for what’s there.

Alex Verus is a diviner who can see probable futures—a talent that’s gotten him out of many a tough scrape. But this time, he may be in over his head. Alex was once apprenticed to a Dark mage, and in his service he did a lot of things he isn’t proud of.

As rumors swirl that his old master is coming back, Alex comes face to face with his misdeeds in the form of a young adept whose only goal is to get revenge. Alex has changed his life for the better, but he’s afraid of what his friends—including his apprentice, Luna—will think of his past. But if they’re going to put themselves at risk, they need to know exactly what kind of man they’re fighting for...

Spoiler free for the series.
I have really been enjoying the Alex Verus books.  I read the first three last year and was SO excited when I got this fourth book.  I really didn't want the series to end!  This series has been compared to The Dresden Files, which I haven't yet read, but own and hope to read soon.

Alex is a character that feels real to me.  I love a male point-of-view anyway, but Alex Verus just has a voice that I really enjoy.  He doesn't have a big ego and tries his hardest to stay out of trouble.  He will even admit that his best choice (and chance) is to stay out of conflicts.  Unfortunately it's just not that easy.  Trouble seems to find him.  Alex's divining (being able to see into different futures) is his special mage ability.  And it works amazingly well.  This allows him to know what will happen for any move he makes, bringing him to choose the right move and hopefully escape with his life.  He is one crazy multi-tasker!  

In this book Alex's past is catching up with him.  Something happened long ago and someone has come to take revenge.  This brings up a lot of right or wrong questions.  If someone is trying to kill you, how far do you go to defend yourself?  Especially when some of those attacking you are only doing so under orders of one whose revenge may be slightly misplaced?  There's a lot to think about here and even hours after finishing the book I'm still thinking about it.  It's a tough one...

I really felt a lot for Alex in this book.  I felt like it definitely  got more emotional than the previous books, bringing in his past quite a lot.  It also opened up a new plot arc that I predict will be one crazy ride. I felt like Alex was just getting hit life together, and suddenly things have started falling apart a bit.  I most certainly look forward to seeing where things go, and how he survives the next round of crazy that's sure to come his way.

Alex Verus is a quick thinking, street smart, butt kicking machine who is also funny, kind-hearted, bold and noble.  If  you haven't met him yet, you need to get on that pronto! 

Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes, all opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

Mini Reviews: Taken & Dead Mann Running

Taken (Alex Verus #3) by Benedict Jacka
Paperback, 320 pages.
Published Sept 4th, 2012 by Ace
Source: Publisher

This is spoiler free for the previous books in the series.

This is the third book in this series and I loved it just as much as I loved the first two.  This is a book sort of along the lines of Harry Dresden and is kind of a 'boy' book in the urban fantasy genre.  I tend to like the 'boy' books as they have less sex, a male main character, and there's plenty of action.  And Alex is one of my most favorite characters because he feels so real.  He's afraid at times and he says so, he knows he can't win every fight and tries to avoid them, but when he can't he jumps in with both feet.  He's a good guy, and he does his best by everyone around him.

This world is full of awesome magic as every mage has a different ability.  Alex just happens to see into the future and while you would think this may not be so helpful in battle, it is.  Alex wields his ability very well and can do some amazing things.  And in this book, like the others, he gets in some tight spots, but even when it puts himself in danger, he's always up for doing the right thing and helping people.

This is adult urban fantasy but other than fight scenes with a tad bit of gore there's nothing inappropriate for mature YA readers who are venturing into the adult genre's.

I most definitely suggest you pick up this series if you haven't yet done so, you won't regret it!

Dead Mann Running (Hessius Mann #2) by Stefan Petrucha
Paperback, 352 pages
Published: September 4, 2012 by Roc
Source: Publisher

This is such a great series! It's not something I would have ever picked up on my own but once I started reading the first book I was completely hooked.
This book is different for many reasons, but number one is that the main character is a zombie. No, these aren't of the brain eating variety. In this world they (the government or whoever) can bring people back for various reasons, one is if someone has been proven innocent after they have been given the death penalty. Once they are brought back they have diminished brain activity, rot can set in causing loss of body parts, muscle, skin, etc. They have to work hard to keep their brain working well. Hessius Mann has a better working brain than most, but he still has trouble with his memory. His body is also not in the best shape ever either. Walking or running far just doesn't work so well for him. While he may not be the typical guy for the job, he does a surprisingly good job at it. He has a sense of right and wrong and wants to protect the people, dead and alive.
This book isn't as freaky as the first was and wasn't scary really, but it had plenty of gross bits. There are a lot of nasty zombies (called chakz) with missing parts, but there is a part with some experimentation that would make about anyone cringe.
This had pretty much constant action with very little down time. It was easy to keep reading and hard to put down.
This is what I call a guy UF. Oh plenty of girls will like it, I certainly do, but its light on the romance (pretty nonexistant) and heavy on action and gore. I think there are plenty of UF books that work for men and women, but some men are preferring a more manly book without the romance. I think this would fit that category.I wouldn't recommend this for YA readers unless you've already ventured into adult horror.

Disclosure:  I received both books for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

Review: Cursed by Benedict Jacka

Cursed (Alex Verus #2) by Benedict Jacka

Mass market paperback, 304 pgs.

Published May 29th, 2012 by Ace

Benedict Jacka's acclaimed Alex Verus series continues with Cursed.

Since his second sight made him infamous for defeating powerful dark mages, Alex has been keeping his head down. But now he's discovered the resurgence of a forbidden ritual. Someone is harvesting the life-force of magical creatures—destroying them in the process. And draining humans is next on the agenda. Hired to investigate, Alex realizes that not everyone on the Council wants him delving any deeper. Struggling to distinguish ally from enemy, he finds himself the target of those who would risk their own sanity for power...

Cursed is the second novel in the Alex Verus series and one I was really looking forward to.  Alex Verus is such a great character to read about because he feels real in the sense that he's afraid of things and he's smart enough to try to stay out of danger, but at the same time he's not too afraid to jump in when he knows it's the right thing to do, and he doesn't let his fear drive his actions.  He's a fast thinker and uses his ability to see into the future to maximum ability.  This makes him a pretty great mage because of his fast thinking and being able to see what his actions will do makes his final decisions pretty perfect.  

I think I liked this one even better than the first, but that's really no surprise.  I'm now settled into this world and have a good idea of how things work and how Alex thinks as well as how his abilities work.  Alex definitely shows us a bit more in this one as he struggles with a bit of a romance issue and we get to know more about his relationship with Luna.  

This was a very fast read as it was easy to keep reading it.  There wasn't anything confusing or overwhelming but it was pretty constant action with just enough downtime to compute everything that was going on.  

If you haven't yet started this series I highly recommend you do so as you are certainly missing out!

  

Disclosure:  I received this book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

I currently have a giveaway going for this one with a guest post by the author.  Be sure to check it out HERE.

Guest Post by Benedict Jacka and Giveaway

Today I have Benedict Jacka on the blog for a guest post.  When he needed some ideas of what to write about one of them was that I was curious about his process.  I've been working on writing again lately and haven't yet quite figured out what works for me.  So I've been very curious about what works for others.  So here he is with his awesome post! (Also be sure to read to the bottom because there's a giveaway!)

Also, I LOVED these books!  My review of Cursed will go up next week but my review of Fated is HERE, check it out!

The Process - From first idea to first draft 

First is the initial idea. These come unpredictably and in numbers, and they range from very incomplete to very vague and usually both. Often they’re just a single sentence, something along the lines of “this sort of character doing that sort of thing”, and they’ll usually be heavily based off whatever movies, books, TV shows, or games I’m occupied with at the time. Out of everything I read or play or watch, about 99.9% of it slips right by, but one bit out of a thousand sticks in my mental filter and hangs around to become an idea.

Once I’ve got an idea, I sit on it for a while. I have a lot of these ideas, and I don’t keep close track of them – at any one time I’ll have a sort of mental folder of anywhere between five and ten of them somewhere at the back of my mind, and from time to time I’ll take the folder out, shuffle through, play with one a bit, then stuff them back again. Sometimes I write these ideas down, but just as often I don’t – I tend to find that if I need to write an idea down to remember it then it probably wasn’t that important anyway. If the idea’s good then it’ll stick around long enough that it’ll start growing, merging with other ideas and adding extra bits onto itself. Eventually it’ll get to the point where it’s occupying enough of my mental space that it’s beginning to push into my daily thoughts, and at that point I’ll move on to the next stage.

Next I start writing notes. I do less notes now than I used to, and that’s mostly a matter of efficiency – over the years I noticed that I just wasn’t using most of the notes I wrote and decided it wasn’t worth spending so much time on them. Usually the finished product ends up looking absolutely nothing like the notes, but the notes are important all the same – even if I don’t end up following them, they make me think about the questions that need to be answered before I can write the story.

Things that get sorted out at the note-taking stage include:

• Character names – I spend a while trying to decide on names for new characters and in some cases I’ve got notebook pages covered with literally dozens that I’ve gone through and discarded.

• Possible scenes and elements to include – often only about half of the list will make it to the final manuscript, but there’s usually a few that get all the way through.

• What’ll happen in the book, in broad strokes – what the general feel of the story will be and any major plot twists.

The note-taking stage is where a lot of my stories are killed off. Either the book doesn’t seem interesting enough, or problems emerge that I can’t see how to fix, or (most often) the whole thing just doesn’t satisfy me for some vague-but-important reason. If the idea gets past this stage, great! Now the real work begins.

The next stage is to design the story’s main structure. This feels a lot like designing the blueprints for a building, or the skeleton of a living creature. Nowadays I tend to draw diagrams, red and blue and green pens marking different story strands and tracking the scenes, with notes in the margins on what’s going on in the meantime. I can usually get about the first third of the book onto an A4 page – the rest will have to sort itself out on the fly.

Next stage is to begin writing the book. This part – anywhere between the book’s beginning and up to about 1/2 of the way through – is the bit I find the toughest. I have to simultaneously write the first half of the story (and do a good job) while also planning out everything that’s going to happen in the second half. If I’ve made any mistakes in the note-taking and designing stages then this is where they’ll show up, and they’re costly when they do – often a book will stall in this period and I’ll have to spend days or even weeks puzzling over it before I figure out the problem. Usually I’ll have to retrace my steps and go back a few pages or a chapter, and the old version has to be abandoned – my hard drive’s littered with version 1.0s and 1.1s that’ll never see the light of day. I always know when I’ve fixed the mistake because the book speeds up immediately.

The next stage is the last half of the book, and compared to the first half this is pretty straightforward. If I’ve done my job right most of the really major decisions have been made and it’s just a matter of putting in the hours and doing a bit every day. Once I’ve finished (which I will, once it gets to this point – the worst is over and it’s just a matter of time), then it’s time to celebrate! Get a nice meal, go out with friends, give the book a quick edit and send it off to my publisher (if I’m lucky) or my agent (more likely).

So the book’s done, right? Well, no. Next comes the edits, and there’ll be at least three full rounds of those, spread out between all the other stages on the long road to publication. But from this point on it starts to get more and more technical and I’m honestly not sure most people would be interested in the details (and besides, this piece is nudging a thousand words already), so I’ll leave that for another time!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your process.  To be honest, the first bit of what you said is basically what I do as well.  Especially all those ideas.  I agree, if it's worthwhile you won't be forgetting it.  Sometimes I manage to combine a few of those ideas... 

 Benedict Jacka is the author of the Alex Verus series. Fated and Cursed are both now out (Cursed just released!).

Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future--allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none...

 Benedict Jacka's acclaimed Alex Verus series continues with Cursed.

Since his second sight made him infamous for defeating powerful dark mages, Alex has been keeping his head down. But now he's discovered the resurgence of a forbidden ritual. Someone is harvesting the life-force of magical creatures—destroying them in the process. And draining humans is next on the agenda. Hired to investigate, Alex realizes that not everyone on the Council wants him delving any deeper. Struggling to distinguish ally from enemy, he finds himself the target of those who would risk their own sanity for power...

You can find Benedict Jacka on his Website.

The Giveaway:
The generous folks at Penguin are offering up one copy of Cursed to one lucky person!
Open to US only
Must be 13 or older to enter.

To Enter:
Fill out the rafflecopter.  If for some reason it doesn't work please leave a comment telling me so.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with Benedict Jacka and Give@way ENDED of FATED!

Today I'm lucky enough to have the author Benedict Jacka on the blog.  He is the author of Fated which I loved and reviewed HERE.  He was nice enough to answer some questions and the publisher is offering up one copy of Fated to one lucky person!

Thanks so much for being on my blog Benedict! Fated was such a pleasure to read and I am very eager for more of Alex!
The world you've created in the books is fascinating and I'm curious, where did you draw on your inspiration for it? (Authors often hate this question but I can't seem to stop asking it. I've gotten such great answers in the past!)

No problem - glad to be on here!

I can see why they'd hate the question - it's a hard one! For the Alex Verus series, about half of it comes from all the books, films, series, and games I've ever watched or read. The other half comes from the setting - my childhood growing up in London and the sense of the city. It's hard to put into words, but there's something about London which makes me think of stories and magic.


When it comes to Alex, do you see yourself in him at all or is he totally different from yourself?
Hmm . . . tricky one. We're probably more similar than different. I used a lot of my personality traits as a starting point for Alex's character, but they've developed in a different way since they're all filtered through his (much more violent) history. We do have the same sort of approach to solving problems, though.


What was the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome when writing?
*laughs* Getting rejected over and over again! Writing's not a job for the easily discouraged. I'm not even going to go into how many books I had rejected before Fated was published, but let's just say it was a lot!

The road to publication is definitely a long a difficult one!


Do you have a favorite character to write?
Probably Alex himself. His personality's a natural fit to mine and so it's very easy for me to figure out what he'd do in any situation. Also, I love coming up with ways for him to use his divination magic to get out of whatever overly-lethal trouble he's in this time.

Oh yes, I think I would have fun figuring that out as well! 


Or a character that's particularly difficult to write?
Deleo's scenes were very hard. This is because she's insane. Since I'm not insane (as far as I know) it's tricky to put myself in her shoes. Luckily she snaps back and forth between psychotic episodes and periods of lucidity so at least she has some spaces where she's not full-on-crazy.

And I loved how she was done!  The insane pieces along with the parts where she's lucid were done very well and added a nice element to the story.  I'm sure it was difficult though!

In Fated do you have a favorite scene and if so can you give my readers a bit of a tease?
Ooh, hard to choose. Maybe Alex's final confrontation with Khazad. It's probably the darkest and the most vicious scene in the book, but it shows Alex's character really well - both his vulnerability (Khazad plays with him in a very cruel cat-and-mouse fashion) and also his dangerous side (Richard picked Alex as an apprentice for a reason).

Oh yes, that was one intense and crazy scene!  I loved it!

We're lucky enough that you have three books from the Alex Verus series coming out this year. I love that it is being done more often because quite often a year between books results in me losing interest. If it's only a few months then I'm still excited and eager for more of the world and characters. How did you get lucky enough for that happen? Did you have three books already finished when they sold, or how did it all come about?
It was actually a publishing decision by Orbit, for the reason you just described - it's a lot easier to build up momentum for a series if it's getting released at three-month intervals. I wrote the first draft of Fated all the way back in 2008. In 2009 I started to get interest from Orbit, in 2010 I rewrote it, and in the same year I was offered the contract for all three books and got to work on Cursed and Taken. Fated's been sitting waiting for publication for a long time!

Yay!  I'm so glad they are doing that more!  I love having three books that I can read closer together, I hope they do it more often!

And the three books come out this year but will there be more of Alex Verus in the future?
If I have any say in it, definitely! I'm plotting out Alex Verus #4 at the moment.

Oh good!  I'm sure that three won't be enough for me. ;)

Can you tell us anything about what will happen in Cursed, the next Alex Verus book, or is it still a secret?
A lot of Cursed is about the relationship between Alex and Luna - although probably not in the way most readers are going to be expecting! There's a lot more about magical creatures and their place in the world (especially Arachne) and we get to see an item that's referenced to in Fated, along with exactly what it can do.

I'm definitely anxious to see more Luna and more magical creatures?  YAY!

Okay, so if you lived in Alex's world what would you like to be, or what ability would you like to have? I have to say that Alex's seer ability was far more useful then I would have ever imagined... it helps that he's a fast thinker too though, not everyone would be able to all that he can do, that's for sure!
Hehe, everyone has a different answer to that one. Probably air magic, just for being able to fly. Although Alex's abilities might just be more useful in the long run!

Yes, being able to fly would be great!  I would be traveling the world... But you're right that Alex's abilities sure would be useful!

I see that you've traveled a bit but you always end up back in London. Of the other places you've lived, or even just visited, which was your favorite and why?
Probably China. I spent half a year there in a small city in Anhui province. It was the first time I'd spent a really long time in a completely different culture and it was quite an experience - especially since there were 200,000 people in the city of whom about 5 were from outside the country! Luckily I speak a little Mandarin but it was still very very different from what I was used to.

I have a friend living in China right now and my aunt lived there for a few years as well.  It's so beautiful, I know that!

I'm an eclectic reader, but I love unique worlds with characters that POP, what book (or series) do you recommend?
One that I read when I was much younger that's always stuck with me is The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane. It's an urban fantasy written back when hardly anyone knew what 'urban fantasy' meant, with a set of wizards trying to save New York from a multi-universe threat involving an invasion by dinosaurs. Oh, and the main characters are all cats. If you're an animal lover and a fantasy lover, you'll like it!

Oh I looked it up and it sounds very different!  I'm definitely going to have to read it!

Thanks so much for being on Benedict! I'm looking forward to reading much more from you. And one day I'll travel to London and I'm hoping that you'll 'just happen' to be having a book signing right at that particular time so I can get my books signed. Or you could always have a US tour too. ;)
Heh, I'd love to have a US tour - maybe it'll happen some day! If you ever do come to London look me up so I can plan a signing in advance. And thank you for the very nice review and for doing this interview. I'll keep on writing the Alex Verus series - hope you'll keep on reading them!

I will most definitely let you know if I can make it to London, it's been a dream for a very long time!  And I can't wait for more Alex! 


In the meantime, I have a blog (http://benedictjacka.co.uk/) that I update regularly with a series called the Encyclopaedia Arcana that describes the background to Alex's world, as well as news and reviews and updates - the most recent is an email exchange between me and Jim Butcher. If you'd like to find out what's going on with future books, take a look!

About Fated: 

Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future—allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none...

The Giveaway:ENDED

The awesome folks at Penguin/Ace are offering up one copy of FATED to one lucky person!

Open to US only (sorry international folks!)

Must be 16 or older to enter

Ends 3/28/12

To Enter:ENDED

Leave a comment and remember to include contact info! 

Review: Fated by Benedict Jacka

Fated (Alex Verus #1) by Benedict Jacka
Adult Urban Fantasy
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pgs.
Published Feb. 28th, 2012 by Ace
Source: Publisher

Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future--allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none...

Fabulous world building, a terrific setting, a complex and unique main character, Fated is the fabulous start to a brand new series.   


On the cover Jim Butcher says that Harry Dresden would like Alex Verus.  I haven't read the Harry Dresden books yet (shame on me!) but have the first seven or so.  I'm quite certain that it's a series I'll adore.  But I can't compare the two.  I do know that Jim Butcher is suppose to be a fabulous author though and his little blurb gave me some confidence in the book.  But I gotta say, this book should be able to stand on it's own without any big time author telling us it's good, cause honestly it's downright fabulous!


Alex Verus has a distinct personality.  I immediately liked him and his ways.  He's a mage with the ability to see into the future and no other magical abilities.  I soon learned that his seer abilities are much more useful then I would have thought.  He can look into the future when fighting an opponent and know which direction he/she will come from, which powers they'll use, etc.  He can take things apart (think: dismantling a bomb) and see what the future outcome would be by snipping this wire, etc.  This ability along with his smarts (and he's very smart!) gives him more power then you would think against mages that can shoot fire,  for example.  He's a very fast thinker (anyone who can be looking into futures while in battle is most definitely a fast thinker) and does quite well when put in tough situations.  He's been through a lot in his past which has given him a healthy fear of the dark mages.  He's quite determined but knows when he has no bargaining chips saving himself from certain disaster time and time again.


Benedict Jacka has created a very unique world.  I love the mages and the history and the abilities.  I love the supernatural creatures that we've seen so far like the air elementals and the ginormous spider that spins the latest fashions.  

The book felt quite fast paced once we really got into it.  In the first quarter or so Alex was sometimes a bit long winded when telling us about things.  Like his abilities (or lack of abilities) and how things worked.  While it got a bit long it did 'fit' his personality and added to that distinct part of his personality.  It was most certainly the way Alex talks and for that reason I can forgive his more lengthy explanations.  The last half was pretty constant action and I felt like the climax went on for quite awhile.  This wasn't a bad thing, but certainly was frustrating when I couldn't keep reading to see what happened.  


Overall this was a fantastic start to a new series.  Alex Verus is quick witted,  kick ass, and has completely stolen my heart.  I'm already eagerly awaiting the second installment in the series, Cursed (expected publication of May 29th, 2012). 

This book may have crossover appeal to older YA readers.  


4/5 stars!


Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.