Magic Bites

Kate Daniels, Book 1

By: Ilona Andrews

Narrated by: Renée Raudman

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

When magic is up, electricity dies, cars stall, and skyscrapers tumble; when it's down, phones and guns work, and defensive spells can't protect your house from the creatures who stalk the streets. Equally dangerous are the competing factions of The Pack - a highly organized and military clan who governs Atlanta's were-bears, -wolves, and -hyenas - versus the Masters of the Dead, power and knowledge-hungry necromancers whose minds control hordes of blood-crazed vampires.

This is home to Kate Daniels, a mercenary who investigates when things get out of hand. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. But when her guardian is murdered, she must choose between doing nothing and staying safe, or pursuing the dangerous entity who killed him. Kate is way out of her league; but who ever said the right choice was easy?

©2007 Ilona Gordon and Andrew Gordon (P)2009 Tantor Audio

Great Start to a Paranormal Fantasy Series

I actually read most of the books in this series years ago and wondered how they would hold up later on and in audio format. I was pleased to confirm that this is still a great paranormal series. I particularly liked the world-building because the authors put in more detail regarding the setting (magic vs. tech), characters and their abilities (were-animals, vampires, power words, etc.), and other paranormal elements (weapons, methods of transportation, etc.). There's also a lot of foreshadowing of information and events that don't get revealed or come to pass until much later in the series. The story has substance and keeps you engaged from beginning to end. Kate is a pretty likable female protagonist in that she is a sassy badass who holds her own but isn't infallible. This book begins as she starts to realize there's more to life than just what you do to pay the bills, and it's interesting to witness her character growth as she forms various types of relationships with others and sometimes is successful while other times she utterly fails.

Although this book is still good in audio format, the narration is far from stellar. The narrator is able to do fine with pacing and interpretation, but she's pretty bad with accents and pronunciation at times, which I found pretty distracting. She's also not the best with character differentiation when multiple characters are involved, which is this whole book.

I solid recommendation to fans of paranormal fantasy.

i really enjoyed

both the story and the narrator. Kate is an awesome character who combines sass and intelligence.

Difficult to Get Through

Magic Bites is a typical Urban Fantasy that ticks most of the boxes, but I just didn't like it. The first half is plain boring. Kate learns that her guardian was killed, and yet we get very little context with which to understand the significance of Greg's death. Did he take over legal guardianship when she was 16, but never lived with her? Had he raised her since she was 6? Would have been nice to know! Many scenes dealing with his death lack emotional death and impact -- the conversations with his ex-wife have no emotion at all. That's part of what makes it hard to connect with Kate early on in the story.

The next problem is that the book has too many minor characters with small roles and little impact. No other character really becomes important until Kate meats Curran halfway through the book. I get that Kate is a loner, but it would have been nice to have a rival, or a frienemy, or someone for her to play off of during the first half of the book. I forgot a lot of character's names because they were so unimportant.

The second half gets more interesting and exciting, as the author actually develops the relationship between Kate and some other characters (Curran, the wolf, and the doctor guy.) The plot also picks up, as the clues start to come together and we actually get some idea as to what is going on. This almost saves the book, but it's too little too late.

I was going back and forth on whether or not to abandon the book, and then the little things caught up to me, because I wasn't that attached to Kate. It was the sullen, pessimistic air and the rapey atmosphere that finally pushed me over the edge. What do I mean by "rapey atmosphere?" Well, the author could have had bad werewolves go mad and kill people, but no, they also turn their daughters into sex slaves. Vampires? In this book they are just rotting corpses controlled by a necromancer. And yet, certain types are rape crazed too. A bad guy leaves Kate a severed head and a threatening note. In that note, he feels the need to brag about having sex with "half-breed" women. Does every bad act in this story have to come with a demeaning/violent comment about women and sex? Even the good guys make comments like this when trying to "distract" the bad guys. And The Pack "tests" Kate by calling her a whore, propositioning her, and then trying to grab her. During Kate's dinner date, count how many times she comments on men checking her out, or women checking her date out, or women checking her bodyguard out, or her date checking her bodyguard's date out. The cloying sexual fixation in every situation, good or bad, combat or dinner date, really annoyed me. And it's almost completely negative/unhealthy/creepy. I'm moving on.

Fun story, questionable pronunciation

I'm a long-time Ilona Andrews fan. This book was just as entertaining as their others, though it seemed like they read several Anita Blake books just before writing it and borrowed heavily from that style. The narrator's accent was inconsistent, but that wasn't the worst part. For the love of god, please make sure your narrator can say the word "wolf" before giving her a book predominately about werewolves, or you'll have a book about "werewoofs" instead.

Love the books, dislike the narrator immensely.

I have read the entire series around 10 times and still love the characters and writing. I purchased the audiobooks for road trips and I have to say that the narrator is incredibly distracting. She seems to misunderstand who Kate is and as a result Kate sounds incredibly whiny and shaky. Julie sounds around 5 years old and Raphael sounds like a moron.

Her accents are also awful. Nearly every character sounds the same. I don’t understand why the authors stuck with her after hearing her read for this one. The rest of the books I’ve heard so far (we are currently listening to book 3) haven’t gotten any better with regard to ‘being Kate’ or any other character.

A brilliant start to the series

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I've been a huge fan of the Kate Daniels series for years now and it honestly gets better and better with every book. There aren't many series that I reread on an annual basis but this one is always top of that list.

Kate is a brilliant main character, she starts out as quite a loner but quickly gains friends and allies as the series continues. I love that she's fierce, determined and incredibly protective of the people she cares about. This series also has some of the best side characters you'll ever come across, they're all so vivid personalities that it's impossible not to care about them.

This series is full of action, Ilona Andrews is constantly finding unusual mythologies to dip into to add depth to her world building, there are plenty of humorous moments to lighten the tone when the story turns darker and the characters are absolutely fantastic.

What does Renée Raudman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I'm still fairly new to audiobooks so this was the first time I've listened to this book (even though I've read my print copy 4 times previously!) but I enjoyed Renee Raudman's narration and liked hearing the characters brought to life.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I tend to get easily distracted when reading audiobooks but this one held my attention from beginning to end. I was making excuses to find activities where I could spend time listening to the story.

Buffy does blood magic

The start of a ten book arc, this is a diverting urban fantasy. I’m writing this review after having listened to all ten ... and then listening to this one again.

Book 1 is a bit slow, needing to lay the groundwork for the magic-tech shifting universe, which comes at the expense of character development or plot complexity. But, I can see Easter eggs, proof that the husband-wife authors worked to storyboard the arc and tease the slow burn. This is a rather dystopian world where magic waxes and wanes, in both daily and yearly cycles. After centuries with technology largely predominant in the world, magic once again rolled through, decimating sky scrapers and tech and forcing people to cope with a schizophrenic world of sometimes magic, and sometimes tech. That premise, combined with the interplay of were-animals, unique vampires, and godlike beings makes for a dark, gruesome, and engrossing world.

I like that Kate and the other women in the series are fierce and flawed, and not defined simply by the men around them. Kate is a little too one-note in this first book. Her Buffyesque snark and odd mix of strength and vulnerability doesn’t really come through yet, perhaps because she shines brightest when she’s interacting with Curran, Gastec, and the rest of the, eventually, regular cast of characters.

Romance is merely flirted with ... and won’t be realized until several books in, but that’s more realistic than a deep and abiding love hitting from day one. Any romance is more of a bonus, secondary to Kate, who into this generation is born to wield Slayer, instead of being the Slayer... although I guess she is that too.

Never gets old

I've read the book several times and I have to say it's still one of my favorites. Being able to listed to the story and hear the narrators interpretation of the voices gives the story that much more life. There are a few times where the pronunciations for certain words don't match how I hear them in my head, but over all I can definitely see myself listening to this multiple times.

Fantastic Series

I saw this series on audible and it had so many good reviews I bought the first two books so that I could start at the beginning and I was not disappointed. This series is incredible, Kate is a badass but one you like, you never know what is going to happen. You stay at the edge of your chair or in your mind waiting to see what will happen, you can't guess. It keeps you enthralled. Kates father is several thousand years old, (Spoiler Alert) He killed her mother and tried to kill her at birth. She has in essence in the first book been in hiding so that he can't find her but events come into play that out her. She is friend to the pack, The largest group of shape shifters in the country. The world in in upheaval, it fluctuates between magic and tech and the people never know when it will change. She meets Curran the beast Lord and boom chemistry. But they have alot of animosity towards each other. He gives her Dereck to act as a body guard. He turns into a wolf. But Kate has her own remarkable traits, she can make her blood turn into body armer or a weapon. She has been trained all her life as a warrior so that one day she can go against her father. I loved Kate, Curran, Dereck, Julie, Angela, et.al. they are like a family. You will never know what is going to happen. Read this series, you won't be sorry.

Extremely slow to begin

I almost returned this a few times but stuck with it. I did not love this book. It was just ok and hope the second is better.

Hard work to begin with but well worth the effort

Ilona Andrews is a new author for me but I will certainly be listening to more of her work

This book is the first of the Kate Daniels series and has a few problems to begin with - its almost as if you had missed a book and started with book 2 and I found it hard to follow - in fact had to go back and re-listen to the first couple of hours before I really got it and still feel like I missed some bits, but then the book gets going and its hard to put down.

Our heroine is a great character who really grew on me. Starting as a loner but she gradually bonds with a few others who will doubtless feature in future books. I have high hopes for the series being a good one.
Similarities to Jane Yellowrock or Mercy Thompson are definitely there

I liked the narration which seemed well suited to the book and I loved the story, it wasn't at all clear how this was going to pan out until well into the book but was gripping once the action really started.

Different take on Vampires in this book - definitely they are different creatures to the normal ones in this genre.

The book itself is a complete story but obviously there are more books in the series and I will be downloading book two shortly to see where this this takes Kate and hope I have found a new series to keep me going for a while

Not great at all to be honest...

I'm honestly confused why this got good reviews lol. It was written in a fantasy-detective style voice which could have been interesting but sadly it ended up being dull. There was so much info-dumping my brain ended up glazing over which made it a struggle to get to the end of this book and I'm not sure I remember what the storyline was actually about now. The protagonist was unlikeable- I guess her banter was meant to be witty but was just cringe and usually involved throwing insults over someone's appearance (overweight, balding etc) which felt uncomfortable. I regret spending a credit on it.

Absolute perfection

Wow. Wonderful Absolute Perfection is what this story is. The best heroine out there? Probably. Best story out there? Probably. Best written story out there? Probably. The story is so good it doesn´t even need humor to cover or make us forgive the flaws. There are no flaws. And no one should miss out on Kate Daniels. Even the narrator is perfect.

So happy to see these in Audible, Finally!

So I’ve read the series and every time a new book is released I like to re-read and immerse myself in this fabulous world.

I purchased the audiobooks some years ago, when I had two small children and I now find Renee’s voice such a comfort.

Lost the audiobooks in a move 18m ago and I was so sad and frustrated that Audible still didn’t have the complete series.

Happily spending my credits as soon as I saw these are now in.

introduction to an Awesome series

You are entering a world that grows over time with 10 books and various novellas for the side characters. The authors are amazingly talented and their descriptions wisp you into the world of Kate Daniels. I love this series and every one of their others series too. I recommend you give it a go.

My fav book UNSUITABLE VOICE

I returned to listen to my fav series fot first time instead of reading them again. imagine my disappointment in hearing the voice chosen for the lead character.

Trigger warning - sexual violence

I really love the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andres, so have been working my way through their other series trying to find one I like. I am not the fan of Renee Raudman as a narrator that the authors are, but have trained myself to bear her. However, this must have been earlier in her career as there are repeated mispronunciations that can be jarring. While all AI series tend to include a great deal of combat and violence, this book features many descriptions of sexual violence which could be triggering for some - and me, kicks me out of the world of entertainment. This series feels darker than the others, not sure it's for me.

Excellent book

Love the writer of this book. Such an imagination. It's brilliant, the tale weaves its way, throwing out hints and false trails. The dialogue is highly entertaining. Kate is my kind of hero.

Disappointed after Hidden Legacy

Having just read the Hidden Legacy series, I found this a little slow going with lots of long winded explanation needed. Even with lots of explanation I still feel a bit lost. Also it lacked Romance for me... Hoping the next instalment is better
Renee Raudman is excellent as always though.

Gripping!

This book grabs you, drags you along, ties you in knots and spits you out at the end feeling like you've been through a full workout.

This was gripping, not at all what I thought. Recommended!