An Instruction in Shadow - Inheritance of Magic #2

 

An Inheritance of Magic is the second book in a new urban fantasy series by Benedict Jacka. Released 15th Oct 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley Ace imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. 

The author is talented and prolific. He knows how to write engagingly, and the world building here is very different from the Iron Druid chronicles. The story reads more YA(ish) than his other work, however, there are definitely non-YA descriptions and themes here, so sensitive readers should tread carefully. Happily the cat (Hobbes! ;) ) from book one, lives and is a great character in his own right (spinoff short stories, please, Mr. Jacka). Additionally and importantly, MC Stephen, who is basically an everyman James Bond with magic, now has a support "Q", his best friend Colin who is an appealingly nerdy sidekick who's also a dab hand with "real world" science he uses for good, dreaming up sigils with modern armour and weapons solutions, enhanced with drucraft.

That being said, there is also humor here, clever descriptive prose, nods to the sort of bureaucracy urban fantasy that brings Stross, O'Malley, Aaronovitch, Holt and the other boys in the band to mind, and further explanations of a really good magic system being expanded and refined. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 47 minutes, and is capably narrated by series narrator Will Watt. He has a well modulated classically trained voice and does a range of regional accents of both genders, well and seamlessly. His cut crystal RP voices for some of the Ashford reps are also slyly humorous, taking pokes at them aping the upper class they represent. Sound and production quality are very high throughout the read.

Four stars. Given the publisher, this will be on most library acquisition lists already. It's a solid follow up to the first book (which was difficult reading because of some violent themes and descriptions). 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Cat Who Saved the Library - The Cat #2

 

 

The Cat Who Saved the Library is an engaging bookish fantasy featuring literature and the love of reading, along with a return of the anthropomorphic cat from book 1, by Sosuke Natsukawa. Due out 8th April 2025 from HarperVia, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

This is a multi-layered book. On the surface, it's a fairly simple story with another young person who suddenly notices that many of her beloved books are going missing mysteriously. She's shocked when a talking tabby cat visits and asks for her help saving books. On a deeper level, the author has a lot to say about reading, and books, and the love of literature. 

There is a lot of literature name-dropping here and especially for young adult readers, there are numerous great works of western and eastern literature mentioned which will give hours of further reading prompts. 

The characterizations are very lightly rendered and most of them are not detailed at all. They're not all likeable, I found the titular cat, Tiger, to be supercilious and quite abrasive, for example. On the other hand, the author makes some valuable universal observations on the nature of friendship, interconnectedness, humanity, and what drives creativity. It makes an oddly endearing whole.

The translation from the original Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai was relatively seamless. It was easily understandable and relatable to readers whilst still maintaining a distinctly Japanese aesthetic. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 5 hours and 56 minutes and is capably narrated by series narrator Kevin Shen. He delineates the characters (of all ages, both sexes, plus cat)  well and distinctly. There were only a couple places where the dialogue was so fast moving that it's difficult to figure out out who was who in the scene. Sound and production quality are high throughout the recording. 

Four stars. It's an undeniably odd but engaging story. Especially recommended for book lovers.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.