MAGIC BURNS - ILONA ANDREWS

[drosdelnoch]

An Epic Writing duo and huge fans of David Gemmell's, this is the place to discuss the writing prowess of this husband and wife team. What is it about their writing that grabs you? Why is this work similar to David Gemmell's? And perhaps the more important question, why should people vote for Ilona Andrews?

[Jayden]

As with her first book, Ilona Andrews didn't disappoint.

Her hero is witty and interesting, she's easy to care for, and even though I usually don't like first person all that much, her writing is gorgeous and draws me right into the story.

I liked Magic Burns even better than Magic Bites, it having a fast-paced and very interesting plot, a great background, some mythology mixed in and a great cast of characters all around. They are all very believable and easy to feel with.

Ilona's writing style reminds me strongly of Patricia Briggs, and as I love both of their stories, both urban fantasy and with witty and great writing, they are my personal favourites for this genre.

The books are fast and easy entertainment, and over way too soon for me. I'm looking forward to reading her third installment of the series.

Unfortunately, her writing reminds me nothing of Gemmell's, not of his style and not of his works. Other than great characters I don't feel they have much in common, so no shortlisting her for me. Sadly. It's a really good book and I would recommend it to all lovers of Urban Fantasy.

[Crisp]

To look at you might think this was just "Buffy in Atlanta" but it isn't. The main character is a heroine with a past (but because it is written by a lady, not in a pervy way) and the rest of the characters are nicely 3-D. I agree with Jayden on most of her points but not with respect to how Gemmell-like it is. Even though it is set in a modern day world, I think that characters that you can feel quite close to but still hold a mystery AND the attention grabbing fighting made it quite Gemmellesque for me, as well as the obvious heroicism going on all the time. Ilona Andrews is obviously a fan of DG and has been inspired by him. This is not something that I would normally pick up but I am really glad that I did and will keep an eye out for her next book.
Not in my top ten but I liked it.