Magitek

Rift Chronicles Series, Book 1

By: BR Kingsolver

Narrated by: Rachel Dulude

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

My name is Danica James. I'm a cop with the Arcane Division.

Most mages have the ability to manipulate the elements - fire, water, air, earth, electricity. My magic only works on machines and electrical devices. They call me a magitek. That doesn't help much with demons and vampires, let alone criminals with lethal magikal powers.

Contains mature themes.

©2020 BR Kingsolver (P)2021 Tantor

Good pg-13 fun

This is a fun book--likable characters, action packed, mystery, intrigue, demons and weapons oh my!

Contrary to the comments of another reviewer I have to say this book had no graphic sex scenes. There are exactly two scenes of a sexual nature, both of which involve magic, almost no actual touching, and almost all clothing remains on. There is reference to the existence of BDSM, which I guess some might consider "deviant". But even so, it was just a background topic, no 50 shades. This book is really quite tame.

That being said, one of the main story arcs involves investigating human trafficking rings and there is plenty of graphic violence (though no more than you'd find in any detective TV show--plenty of equally gruesome murder scenes in say, Castle.) So yeah, mature audiences for sure, but this is no bodice ripper.

The book did not work for me

I enjoyed the Rosie O'Grady's Bar series a lot and thought that I would enjoy this series also, but the sexual deviancy of the plot and a little too graphic descriptions kept me from enjoying the book. The alternate history did not help the story. Others may enjoy the book, since it has an interesting heroine and involved plot, but it should have an adults only rating.

There are that many comma's.

The overall story was entertaining and the narrator had a great voice. But the cadence of her speech was off, she paused in almost every sentence, like there were comma's every 4th word. It got to the point that it was distracting.

Great. Fast paced. Girl power.

Good kick butt cop story with fantasy Sci fi themes. Nothing is explained too much at first but if you just go with the flow it is explained enough eventually. Will listen to the next one soon :)

Engaging beginning

Fast paced, fun start to the series. Good world building. Interesting story points left open without being a cliff hanger.

Great start

Thai was an overall fun listen with an amazing narrator. The only reason I hesitate to give it 5 stars is because there is minimal actual character changes due to the course of the story. It felt like the characters were only inconvenienced by events taking place and not pushing them to grow as people

Love it

Great story I loved it. I can’t wait to read the rest! Very creative and interesting stuff

Interesting take on magic

I like the theory/story line of the book, the idea of magic and rifts are interesting - but the book itself was a little lacking for me. Right it’s free to listen with an audible membership so I listened though the whole story. The main character felt kind of cold to me, very matter of fact and sort of detached. The story around her / the world around her is totally interesting and kept my attention more than the main characters voice (not the narration - but tone the MC had in her thoughts). The ending was good and I liked how most things were sort of resolved in the book while others aren’t, giving a slight air of muster to the reader. I do want more passion from the MC (if I ever get around to listening to the next book) and am curious to see how this will all end - but not ‘spend a credit on the next book’ curious.

Very entertaining!

Ultimately th plot line didn’t matter that much compared to the vivid and engaging descriptions of all the different types of beings and their behaviors. A we bit of sex (mostly implicit) but a lot of violence discussed very casually by the most entertaining first-person narrator. The reade was spot on. Going to look for another….

Pleasantly surprising

Don't judge a book by its cover art.

I was kind of expecting a cookie-cutter bodice ripper in the style of urban fantasy. While there were SOME steam bits...The driving core of the story is definitely more a mystery that can cross into passions and the madness it can drive a suspect to. The lead struck me as distinctive and interesting, and I thought the setup for a longer, more over-reaching mystery across a series was well done. I'm looking forward to the next book more than I would have expected to what I grabbed for a 'guilty pleasure'.

riveting

A great new storyline and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.