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October Daye / Inheritance - Essay Series Part Five: Long Series and How to Read Them

Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. [Full Audio Available Here] This is the fifth and final entry in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth boo...

Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews (Grey Wolf #1)

Scarred, solitary Derek Gaunt has separated from his Pack, and is truly a lone wolf. With no family he answers to no one; but is fiercely loyal to a chosen few. So, when several of those close to him are murdered, he’ll stop at nothing to hunt their killer through the magic-drenched streets of Atlanta.

Never one to be left on the sidelines, equally determined—some might say stubborn—Julie Lennart-Olsen soon joins in his pursuit; and what began as revenge turns into a race to save the city. Their search pits them against powers they never imagined and magic so old, it predates history. It may cost Derek his life, but there are things for which even he would risk everything.

TITLE: Magic Stars
AUTHOR: Ilona Andrews
PUBLISHER: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
YEAR: 2015
LENGTH: 64 pages 
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Yes

Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

MAGIC STARS is a novella starring Derek and Julie, set shortly before the events of MAGIC BINDS.

Derek is a pretty different narrator than Kate. He’s much more focused on what’s immediately happening. This is partly because, as a novella which fits in a specific place on the timeline without directly involving what Kate and Curran are doing, this is unlikely to appeal to anyone who hasn’t read the first seven Kare Daniels books. For anyone who has, however, it’s a welcome glimpse into a couple of prominent characters in a way that isn’t filtered through Kate. 

The plot revolves around Derek tracking down the shapeshifters who murdered a family. He’s very quickly joined by Julie and they team up to find who put them up to it. I enjoyed the story and it’s a good complement to the main series.

CW for pregnancy (brief mention), fire/fire injury (backstory), blood (graphic), violence (graphic), gun violence, body horror, self harm, child abuse (backstory), torture (backstory), rape (backstory), animal death (graphic), parental death (backstory), child death (backstory), murder, death (graphic).

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A teenage girl with blonde hair stands holding an axe, a hooded boy with a scarred face stands behind her, a grey wolf snarls below


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