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A review by peterkeep
Blood Tally by Brian McClellan
5.0
Brian McClellan's urban fantasy follow-up is super solid.
It's got a good main story line that stays a step ahead of you as you read, good action/fight scenes, and interesting new characters. Olivia and Eddie are nice additions to round out the little group, and I hope we see a bit more of both.
I'm really enjoying the world and stories Brian has created here. I'm not super well-read for other urban fantasy series (I've read some Dresden, and one or two Iron Druid books), but I think the "Repo-man" angle is a fun way of approaching mysteries and cases from an angle that isn't super normal. The host of necromancers, witches, vampires, and other supernatural creatures is big enough to be interesting, but detailed enough to be seem realistic. There's a good backdrop of lawyers and accountants and cops and business deals that are intertwined into this fake-version of Cleveland...I think it's not really the same as what Max Gladstone does in the Craft Sequence, since it's not as much magical-realism as it is realism with some magic.
Alek's backstory is more and more interesting: as he's contracted to search for a runaway thrall (i.e. slave), he's forced to continue to confront and dig into his own slavery background. His relationship with Maggie and her own history flirt at the edges of the main conflict of the book. Alek's work-life balance is a mess, but it's fun to watch.
Anyways, all of this to say that if you want to watch a punchy collections agent try to maneuver his way through vampire politics and missing-persons cases, this is the one for you!
It's got a good main story line that stays a step ahead of you as you read, good action/fight scenes, and interesting new characters. Olivia and Eddie are nice additions to round out the little group, and I hope we see a bit more of both.
I'm really enjoying the world and stories Brian has created here. I'm not super well-read for other urban fantasy series (I've read some Dresden, and one or two Iron Druid books), but I think the "Repo-man" angle is a fun way of approaching mysteries and cases from an angle that isn't super normal. The host of necromancers, witches, vampires, and other supernatural creatures is big enough to be interesting, but detailed enough to be seem realistic. There's a good backdrop of lawyers and accountants and cops and business deals that are intertwined into this fake-version of Cleveland...I think it's not really the same as what Max Gladstone does in the Craft Sequence, since it's not as much magical-realism as it is realism with some magic.
Alek's backstory is more and more interesting: as he's contracted to search for a runaway thrall (i.e. slave), he's forced to continue to confront and dig into his own slavery background. His relationship with Maggie and her own history flirt at the edges of the main conflict of the book. Alek's work-life balance is a mess, but it's fun to watch.
Anyways, all of this to say that if you want to watch a punchy collections agent try to maneuver his way through vampire politics and missing-persons cases, this is the one for you!