Every so often a book comes along that I appreciate both as a reader—great plot, great setting and worldbuilding, great characters—but also as a writer and editor. Ilona Andrews’ Magic Bites, the first volume of the Kate Daniels series, is one of these. It’s an iconic urban fantasy, and it deserves that status.
Urban fantasy and crime novels have a lot of tropes in common. There’s a mystery to solve, often a murder. Setting is very important: it defines the tone of the series, and serves as backdrop and inspiration for the invidual novels’ plots. The protagonist is some form of cop or enforcer, and these days she’s often female. She’s tough, she has a uniquely ghastly history, and she has a tough name. Kate. Sarah. Mercy.
I lose track of all the Kates and Sarahs and Mercys. Wait, is this is the Kate with the K-9 partner, or the Kate with the werewolf partner? Are we in a world of hardboiled empirical science, or does magic work and our protagonist is a practitioner?
I won’t be forgetting this Kate at any time soon. She ticks the boxes: mysteriously and tragically deceased family, strong magical and physical fighting skills, quite a bit less strong social skills, smart mouth and few filters. She has connections all over her world, not all of them either legal or safe. She presents as a loner who has a big problem with authority, but she’s surrounded by friends and allies as well as enemies. She’s a chaos agent, a troublemaker, and an ultimate good guy.
What makes this series stand out for me is the depth and quality of its worldbuilding. The characters are traditional types, but they’re believable people—even the most outré magical beings have more than one dimension to them. They do their best to survive in a particularly horrific postapocalyptic wasteland: Atlanta in the midst of a catastrophic transformation from the mundane world we know to a world ruled by magic.
Magic and tech succeed one another in progressively shorter and more devastating waves. When the tech is up, machines work, electric lights come on, magical beings lose their power. When the magic is up, everything changes. High-rises crumble and fall. Parks turn into sorcerous woods. Weird and terrifying things populate the night.
People have found ways to live with the constant shifts in the way the world works. Cars, for example: regular gas-powered vehicles stop working when the magic is up, but clever mechanics have figured out other types of fuel and different ways to run an engine. Or else people resort to older modes of transport. Horses, mules, wagons. Feet.
I especially like the ley taxis. Traveling ley lines on foot can rip your feet off, but if you build a wooden raft and ride the line like a river, you can get up to ninety miles an hour before the tech comes back up and you’re stuck on mundane roads and waterways.
(Andrews knows equines, by the way. They have names and personalities, and if they’re pushed hard and far, they get tired. Big props for doing equines right.)
But I’m here to talk about shapeshifters, and Andrews’ world is full of them. There’s even one who can transform into any shape, size, or gender of human, though they (he, Kate thinks of him, even when he’s not presenting as male—this was a few years ago, before we got used to shades of pronouns) can’t transform into any other animal. Kate’s friend Jim is a were-jaguar. The Pack to which he belongs consists of a wide variety of animal shifters, from rats to the huge enforcer, the Kodiak of Atlanta. The King of Beasts, aptly enough, is a lion shifter. And yes, there’s a teenaged werewolf.
Andrews’ worldbuilding here is as meticulous as it is everywhere else. (Andrews, I will note, is a pseudonym; it’s two writers working as a team. And a most excellent team it is.) Shifters can be born to the offspring of shifters, or they can be first-generation—infected with the virus that causes transformation. They can be human to animal. They can also be animal to human, sometimes called “beastkin.” Those are very much not the done thing; they may be killed at birth.
Shifters can take three forms. Full human, full animal, and a monstrous intermediate form which is difficult to maintain. A beast-man who can speak in that form is exceptional. It’s a sign of extraordinary self-control.
Control is everything to a shifter. A shifter who has not mastered it becomes a loup, a creature of raw predatory hunger. All it exists to do is hunt, breed, kill, and eat. When it’s bred and/or killed everything around it, it turns on itself.
That’s your classic werewolf (or any other animal) curse. The antidote to it is the Pack. Pack code regulates everything its members do according to a rigid hierarchy and a set of inviolable rules. Those rules keep Pack members from turning loup, by teaching them to control their instincts.
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It doesn’t always work. A Pack member can still go rogue. But it keeps most of them alive and allows them function in society.
Kate Daniels is not a shifter. She’s something else, which is revealed as the series progresses. In the first volume, what we know is that she is a strong practitioner of magic. She’s refused to join the Order, which is sort of like the Knights Templar and sort of like the Men of Letters, but she was fostered by one of its members and trained by it in magic and in martial arts. She belongs to the mercenaries’ Guild and serves as magic-for-hire. She carries an enchanted saber; she knows her way around a spellbook.
Besides the Order and the Pack, there are the People. They’re necromancers, and they control one of the creepiest manifestations of vampires that I’ve seen in the genre. I’d actually include them in the Bestiary, and not as bat shifters. They’re undead and essentially immortal, but they’ve lost all their humanity and much of their human form. They’re devoid of consciousness. The People control them, use them as servants and couriers. If they escape that control, like the loup, they succumb to pure and mindless lust for blood.
Everything, really, is about control. The world is losing it at a rapidly escalating pace. The various organized groups of humans and magical beings fight an ongoing battle to preserve what order they can. They can’t control or reliably predict the waves of magic and tech, but they try hard to hold space and protect their own.
Kate skates along the edges of these different and often conflicting forces. She ends up working for the Order, but not quite as one of them—more as a consultant. She both uses and is used by the People. She allies herself with the Pack, not exactly willingly or happily, but they keep being thrown together.Whether they like it or not, they have a surprising amount in common.
Kate is a fine example of the loner who finds herself a chosen family. It’s not what she might have thought she’d choose, but it accretes around her. In her way she’s a catalyst, a connector: a force that brings together the disparate forces of the world.
She makes a lot of trouble, but most of it is in a good cause. Fighting evil. Protecting innocents. Making the world better. Mostly. One way or another.
Judith Tarr is a lifelong horse person. She supports her habit by writing works of fantasy and science fiction as well as historical novels, many of which have been published as ebooks. She’s written a primer for writers who want to write about horses: Writing Horses: The Fine Art of Getting It Right. She lives near Tucson, Arizona with a herd of Lipizzans, a clowder of cats, and a blue-eyed dog.
Someday I really need to give this series a try. Someday!!
Celebrinnen will appreciate this one =)
Sounds tasty but exhausting.
I loved this series, and her new series “Kate Daniels: the Wilmington Years” is just as good, one book in. I taught writing for years, and, if any of my students had trouble writing action, fights, or battles, I always suggested this series. It’s a master class on how to write all kinds of action.
Sonofthunder@1, oh, you know me too well! ;)
Thank you, Judith, for this article! I absolutely love this series. In fact, I have not read anything by Andrews (this, the Hidden Legacy books, the Innkeeper series, the Edge series …) that I have not enjoyed, but Kate’s remains the favourite. My best friend introduced me to Andrews’ worlds by getting me “Magic Bites” for one birthday and now I have finished this series and most others while she still hasn’t. I second everything said in the article and the previous comments – the worldbuilding is great, the characters wonderful and nuanced, the plots interesting, and humour permeats it all. For all their excellency, I have not seen Andrews’ books featured much on this site, except a few random mentions here and there. So it was really a treat to read this article. And to have a “Supernatural” reference was a cherry on the top!
A beast-man who can speak in that form is exceptional. It’s a sign of extraordinary self-control. … So it is. And then there’s Curran who changes just one of his hands into a paw …
I’ll add to the enthusiasm for this series; it’s great!
I love this series and have started the “the Willmington Years”. I’ve read everything they have written. Here is a place where the name seems female and singular but the correct pronoun is definitely “they”.
These books are an adventure read with characters that have backgrounds and reasons for how they act and interact.
Just a couple of my favorite things: The meet cute with Curran “Here Kitty”, and her mammoth jenny, Cuddles
Ilona Andrews are wonderful authors. World building and marvelous characterizations are highlights of their writing. Each series they write is a little different but those two things remain consistent/constant. I learn new things because of how well researched the writing is. Plus the writing is smooth and keeps enticing you to just read a little more. I would read any thing they wrote but I admit the Innkeeper series is my favorite.
I echo what the others have said! Ilona Andrews’ books/series are the best. This review has been posted to their FB page. Prepare for the BDH
Lovely article and I second everything that was said. I love this book series and it’s my all time. Also, LOL, BDH member here, and you were warned we’d be coming 😂.
The Kate Daniels books are incredible. The emotion the authors they can bring forth is astounding. I have been brought to tears several times, held my breath as I read through a fight scene, and laughed at the turn of a phrase. I have read and taught many types of books. These authors are at the top of my list and an automatic purchase no matter the genre. I am also a proud BDH member.
BDH member too, but I was reading here before I found Ilona Andrews. They manage to make their different worlds quite distinct, and all are well thought out. As others have said they do good fight scenes, have wonderful turns of phrase (“Ripper Cushions”), but they also have their characters consider things like the responsibilitiees that come with power. For those of you who don’t like romance, be wary it is there in all of the series, as are the realities of relationships.
IA is an automatic buy. When I just cannot find a book that holds my interest, I go back to IA and mostly to the KD series. I have re-read the entire series multiple times and although Bites is good, it is actually the weakest of the bunch, so be prepared for more excellence. The way they describe their worlds is so compelling and although the characters can be flawed, they don’t do that stupid thing; reckless yes, but not stupid. I am a huge fan and would recommend them for an intriguing read.
Jazzlet @11, when I first read “The Sweep of the Blade”, I laughed SO loud and long at “ripper cushions”! Helen is a delight!
I read a lot, sometimes books, ebooks or audiobooks. This series I have in all three and most of this authors books I reread almost annually. Even after rereading it can still make me laugh and cry that is how talented this husband wife writing team is. I am very excited about the new Kate Daniels Wilmington year, stories that are being written.
Of the probably thousands of books I’ve read these remain a favorite. I highly recommend any of the Ilona Andrews books to everyone. No matter your usual reading preference you will enjoy.
I’m glad you enjoyed this series. Clearly a lot of people love it, because I picked it up based on the many strong recommendations. I thought the first few books were great fun, and filled with promise. Unfortunately for me, I eventually bowed out 7 books (and numerous novellas) deep in the series due to deep frustration and apathy.
I agree that the world building is great, with interesting takes on the various were-beasts and vampires. Where it fell flat for me was ultimately the shallow characters, repetitive stories, and lack of forward progress in the main storyline. There was plenty of “case of the week” type stories, but the real focus of each book was about Kate and her impossibly gorgeous/badass boyfriend. In typical romance-novel-with-Fantasy-window-dressing fashion, each book has to have some reason why she is fighting with her boyfriend, followed by the inevitable reconciliation at the end of the book because it was all a misunderstanding. This same cycle is repeated every book, with the plot having different details but the same general story recycled while the overarching story treads water.
The most fantastic part of the story was how powerful the main characters plot armor was. That at least, truly had a strong element of Fantasy to it.
The men are drop-dead gorgeous bad-asses with hearts of gold who absolutely worship the ground their SO walks on, and despite being hyper macho are actually big softies who clearly spend a lot of time thinking about their relationships. The suspension of disbelief was difficult to manage at times.
What irked me the most about this series though is how romanticized violent jealousy is. The men all beat the crap out of each other over the women, and the women all roll their eyes but privately love it. Yes, they’re werewolves and fight like literal dogs for dominance, yadda yadda, but it got old quick. I was in a relationship was an extremely jealous woman, and while she was never violet, there is nothing even remotely romantic about her jealousy issues. Every relationship in these books are seriously unhealthy, but presented as romantic and sweet.
I wanted to like this series, I really did, but when it was clear the same story was going to be retold AGAIN in book 7 with nothing of substance happening, I couldn’t take it any more.
I’m glad that so many other readers enjoyed these, but I felt like someone out there may need to hear these criticisms. Had someone provided me with this info, I could have avoided a lot of wasted reading time.
If you like silly romance with great worldbuilding, low stakes, violent jealousy as romantic gestures, and impossibly badass protagonists, then this is great mindless fun. If you want a little more, like story progression in each book, you may find yourself as frustrated as I was.
I found this series as well as thier Innkeeper series a few years ago. I can’t express enough the excitement as books draw you in. I devoured the Innkeeper series to start. The books are like a technicolor of characters. They are so well written. You can visually see in your mind what you think they could look like. These books are by far my favorite in series and Authors. I can’t wait to see what they write next.
@16 I think it depends on what tropes you come to a series for. The nature of a series often is to be repetitive, and genre Romance has a strong component of fantasy in the wish-fulfillment sense. It’s what it is and what it’s for. Readers look for that and embrace it when they get it. It’s a comfort read. You know what you want and you trust the author to give it.
If that’s not your jam, that’s fine. Lots of other books and series will be. I am glad you weighed in for those who are looking for other things. It’s good to know, thank you.
@18 Thanks for your comments. :-) I agree with you on all points. And I hope I didn’t come off as being TOO negative, as I did have a lot of fun with the series at first. I think that those looking for the Urban Fantasy/Romance formula you mentioned will find it here, and no doubt be quite happy with it.
One thing I was remiss in not mentioning: I read the books/novella’s back-to-back. I think perhaps this series and others like it are best served by reading them sporadically. Often a binge reading experience may tend to highlight a series (perceived) flaws since one is consuming so much of it in a short time. Had I spaced these out more, perhaps with other authors/series in between to break it up, I may well have finished the series.
TLDR: don’t binger this series unless you really like the formula.