Saturday, April 20, 2024

Book Review: "An Instruction in Shadow" by Benedict Jacka

 

The ultra-rich control magic—the same way they control everything else—but Stephen Oakwood may just beat them at their own game in this exhilarating contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.

Stephen Oakwood has emerged victorious against the schemes of his aristocratic family. Now he finally has the opportunity to do what he’s been wanting to do for a long time: track down his father.  

But doing so won’t be easy. Stephen’s not so isolated any more, but the contacts he’s making in the magical world—everyone from the corporation he works for to the mother he’s just beginning to reconnect with—all have agendas of their own. And now a new group is emerging from the shadows, calling themselves the Winged. Their leader, the mysterious Byron, promises that he can show Stephen how to find his father...but he wants something in return.

Following that trail will throw Stephen into greater danger than he’s ever faced before. To survive, he’ll need to use all of his tricks and sigls, and pick up some new ones. Only then will he be able to prevail against his enemies...and find out who’s really pulling the strings. - from Netgalley.com

This eARC was provided by Netgalley.com and I am providing an unbiased review.

This is the second book in the this series by Jacka, and continues pretty much following the events int he first book. Stephen is still trying to find his father, and figure why his newly-found family is .. well, dysfunctional. While doing all of this he has to handle work, sigl-making, attacks/raids from other people, and groups coming out of the woodwork - all with their wants, needs and for some reason, him.

I felt this part of the series slowed down a bit, and helped explain a bit more of the magic system, than was explained before. It also shows the development of the MC as he has to "find himself" in order to decide how to react to all the chaos going on around him. I am not sure I liked how all these entities are all going after him, considering I did not ever catch what is special about the MC - except he has a rare skill of finding wells (sight?) and maybe of making his own sigls. So that gets a bit boring, but otherwise the story is a pretty good read.

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