Magic for a Price by Devon Monk

 So, the wells of magic in Portland are poisoned, the city is surrounded by hostile magic users, and the most powerful set of soul complements is in charge of the world magic authority, and wants to destroy or enslave Allie and her friends. Time to rock n roll, eh?

Allie, Zayvion, Terric and Shamus are barely recovered from the last battle, but it's time for them to step up and take on the coming wave of attackers. A conclave of all the concerned parties; magic users, the police and the Hounds, is called, and Zayvion nominates Allie to take charge. She decides that the first and most important thing to do is to clean the contamination from the magic wells, then to delay or stop the incursion of the Seattle magic users who are on their way, and finally to somehow or other defeat Leander and Isabelle.

Allie consults with her father's spirit, which is still possessing her at times, and he tells here that he believes that by filtering the magic through Stone, the gargoyle/magical construct, and then seeding the wells with the result, they can be cleansed. The wells have been sealed for a while now, and must be opened to cleanse them, as well as re-sealed so that the invading magic users can't tap them to attack with, so Allie decides that she and her three friends, with the addition of Dr. Collins, can get the job done, and they head off for the each of the wells, in succession.

I think this is the final book in this series, as things go more or less according to  Allie's plan, though not without pain and struggle along the way. Allie's dad's spirit is finally removed from her body, and she learns about most of the details of her missing past. Magic is clean once more, evil is destroyed, and most of the good guys survive the battles. And, by the way, the moral of this story, like so many others these days, is that you can't go it alone, you have to trust and love your friends.

Magic Without Mercy by Devon Monk

It's odd how my first impression of this book, upon reading its final passages last night, was that events were just stalled out. At the risk of giving away some spoilers, first, the magic plague that is killing people in Portland does not yet get cured, second, Allie's inability to use magic without becoming horribly ill is not solved, third, Isabel and Leander remain at large, trying for world domination. So, nothing happens, right?

Wrong.

While Allie and her friends are hiding out from the Authority, which has been taken over by the death magic user (and possible murderer of children) Jingo Jingo, they acquire one powerful ally in Roman, former keeper of the Gates, who trained Zayvion. He undertakes a mission to contact the Overseer (leader of the world's version of the Authority) to let her know what's happening in Portland, and tell her the truth about the plague. They also come up with a plan to take samples of all four types of magic from the wells, and have Dr. Collins (think of Hannibal Lecter with some of his figurative teeth pulled) analyze them to find out what's causing the infection and how to cure it.

They find that Davy, who has been suffering from the plague since its early days, has been changed somehow by Collins, into a being that is corporeal at some times, and ghostly at others, which isn't exactly a cure, but beats dying, perhaps. They are able to finally bring detective Paul Stotts aboard as their ally, and Zayvion and Victor restore some of his memories so that he'll believe what's going on in the city. Allie finds out that Stone, her pet gargoyle, is more important than she thought. Cody gets his memories restored, and his ghost is reunited with his body, giving him vast magical powers once again.

There are a number of other things that happen that would definitely be spoilers, so I won't relate them here. So, while the major plot elements and conflicts aren't resolved, and perhaps even escalate to the next level, lots of smaller events change the playing field quite a bit. Definitely looking forward to Monk's next book.

Magic on the Line by Devon Monk

The seventh in the Allie Beckstrom series, Magic on the Line seems like a transitional novel, part of a longer volume marking the change in leadership of the Authority from the old guard to the young turks, perhaps. After the battle with Leander and Isabelle and their minions at the Life Well, Allie's convalescence is cut short by her interview with Bartholomew Wray, the outsider who has been placed in charge of the Authority after the crisis. Wray and his cronies rub Allie the wrong way from the beginning, seeming to be more interested in a political coverup than actually getting to the bottom of the problem and protecting the public from the evildoers.

At the end of Wray's "investigation", his hand-picked team is primarily put in charge in Portland, and the former leaders are Closed (have their magical memories and abilities wiped), including Shamus' mother, Maeve, plus most of the magic users from Seattle who had come to help out the Portland Authority during the recent magic storm and resulting crises. Zayvion, of course, was forced to Close them, and he goes into a guilt-ridden funk for a time, which Allie has to work through with him.

The Veiled are now infected with a magical plague, and when one is able to escape from the wells where they have been confined, they infect the living with the disease, causing a horrible death among magic users, and merely flu-like symptoms among normals. Allie's friend and fellow Hound, Davy Silvers is bitten and infected by one, and a great deal of the time in this story is spent dealing with his illness, while trying to understand how it is spreading and how it may be stopped.

Allie is still possessed by her dad's ghost, but they seem to have worked their way to an uneasy yet handy alliance - he always seems to come up with some magical tidbit or contact she needs when the going gets rough. Allie, herself, becomes violently ill whenever she works any significant magic, though for some reason she really doesn't do a lot of investigation into why that might be. Stone, the gargoyle, also seems to be stricken with an odd malady, but Allie isn't all that curious about that situation, either. I think Monk was just overwhelmed with all the necessary plot elements to move the story in the direction it's going, and didn't have enough room in the paperback format to deal with all of it in Magic on the Line. The way the book winds things up makes it obvious that resolution on these and other issues will take some time.

Allie and her friends must rebel against the authority of the new Authority in order to save the city from the plague and malicious magic. We've seen this coming for a while now, as the old ways of doing business were getting a bit raveled around the edges. For the preternatural branch of the police to deal with some of the new threats, they're going to need to know more about magic than they've been allowed, and for Allie's Hounds to help her avoid getting killed, she's going to have to clue them in on reality, plus she's going to have to stop keeping secrets from her best friend, Nola, or lose that relationship. Change is in the wind.

Magic on the Hunt by Devon Monk

I had to grab a copy of Magic on the Hunt as soon as it came out, so I could find out what Allie and her allies were up to. The situation in magical Portland is still very unsettled, though the corporate Veiled have been imprisoned, as well as the beast-man Greyson. But it appears that Leander has managed to slip from the land of Death into the mundane world, and his megalomania can't mean anything good is going to happen.

It seems, in this book, that all of the "adult" members of the Authority have their own plots and power plays going on, while only Allie and the younger generation actually have the best interests of Portland and its residents at heart. Allie is still inhabited by the spirit of her dead father, which turns out to be a good thing several times through this installment, beginning when she and Zayvion are attacked at her apartment. Zayvion is knocked unconscious and Allie is immobilized by magic, as Dane, a close ally of Sethra (kidnapped head of the Authority), and his thugs interrogate her. But Dad's magic is somehow able to penetrate those bindings and the bad guys are temporarily driven off.

Throughout the book, Allie, Zayvion, Shamus and Terric repeatedly disobey or ignore orders from on high, and keep going from frying pan to fire in their efforts to stop Leander and find out what's really going on in the war of the wells. Making things more complicated, Allie's best friend Nola shows up in town, dragging Cody along, and she intends to move to the city permanently, so she can be closer to her boyfriend, head of the supernatural task force in the Portland police. Allie tries to protect her from the effects of the war, but Nola's a big girl, and resents Allie's interference.

Nothing really new or surprising develops with Allie and Zayvion's relationship, aside from some magical bits towards the end of the book. There are some good plot surprises that caught me napping, as far as the whole plot/counterplot thing. The only disappointment for me was that the ending seemed to leave us in another unresolved situation, leaving us waiting for the next sequel. I know that Monk has a story to tell and it's going to take a lot more pages to get to the end of it, but maybe just once we could get a longer "super-sized" book for our money.

Magic at the Gate by Devon Monk

There are just some things that just go directly to the pleasure center of the brain, such as that first plunge into the hot tub on a snowy winter evening, or the first gulp of Gatorade after a strenuous workout on the racquetball court. Getting to finally crack the covers on my new copy of Magic at the Gate, the latest in the Allie Beckstrom series, was one of those things.

The story picks up right where Magic on the Storm left us hanging on the edge of the cliff, with Allie stepping through the gate into Death, trying to rescue her lover, Zayvion's soul. Most days, the living can't, well...live...on this side of the gate, but Allie is fortunate in two ways. First, she's accompanied by Stone, her "pet" gargoyle, and by touching him constantly, she can actually breath the air in Death, for a time. Second, her father's spirit lives inside of her head, and he is also able to lend her some of his power to survive on the other side.

Her journey, while strange, is fairly uneventful until she reaches the place where Zayvion's soul is held in chains by Mikhail, a dead magician, while a crowd of the Veiled, other dead magic users, feeds on his energy. There are plots afoot, which her father has been a part of, on this side of the gate, too, as even the dead seem to have an agenda, including a return to power in the land of the living...Portland. Make what you will of that.

Allie is able to bargain with Mikhail to take Z's soul back, but she has to pay a steep price to do so. I kept thinking Monk was going to pull a trick out of ancient mythology, and let Allie lose the soul forever because she looked back at the wrong moment, but tradition was not satisfied. After getting Zayvion's soul back in his body, he still is in a coma, which allows the author some time to let Allie get to know the survivors of the battle during the wild magic storm a bit better, and to begin to work with them to deal with the latest threats to the city.

Dozens of the magic storage disks that her father invented were stolen by the folks who betrayed the Council during the battle, and someone has been using them to give the Veiled an energy source that makes them able to manifest more solidly on this side of the gate, and to work magic here, as well. Gates are opening up all over town, and the remaining good guys are being run ragged trying to close them down before creepy crawlie nasties get through.

Lots of great action, a few good reveals, and plenty of conflicts left to resolve, mysteries to solve. My only gripe is that it was over too soon.

Magic on the Storm by Devon Monk

The fourth book in Monk's Allie Beckstrom series is pretty good, but I'm not certain it was quite as good as the previous novel, Magic in the Shadows. Allie has been training with the magic users of The Authority for a few months now, though we don't get to read about what that training really entails, it's just mentioned in passing here and there. She's been training with Zayvion and perhaps some others in physical self-defense, learning to use swords, knives and other implements of mass destruction. She's also gotten a building rented for her Hounds to use, where they can meet, or stay when they've nowhere else to go.

There's a storm brewing...literally and figuratively. The magic users in the Northwest have become aware that there's a massive wild magic storm brewing, much like the one that cost Allie a big chunk of her memory and some downtime in a coma in the first book, Magic in the Blood. There's also a storm brewing within the Authority, itself, between the factions which have different ideas about how magic should be used and who should control it.

Allie's old enemies, Chase and Greyson, are still out for her blood, and her father's ghost. Greyson has been confined by the Authority. The magic users are trying to figure out how to free him from his half man/half beast state, but Chase can't wait, and when the wild storm causes magic to surge, she breaks him loose. Allie, Zayvion and Shamus try to track Greyson down and either recapture or kill him, but in the middle of a storm, anything that can go Murphy's way, will.

Before you get all excited about running out to buy this one, I gotta tell you it ends in a cliffhanger, to be continued in the next book, Magic at the Gate. I'd hang on till you can read them both straight through, knowing what I know now.

Magic in the Shadows, by Devon Monk

Monk's Allie Beckstrom stories just keep getting better and better. She may be really hitting her stride now. In the third book in this series, Allie has mostly recovered from her last adventure, and she's supposed to begin training in the proper use of her magic with a member of the Authority, Maeve. She also has a date with Zayvion Jones, which one would think would just pass quietly, normally, but it just isn't in the cards for anything to go smoothly where Allie is concerned. Allie is also haunted throughout this novel by the ghost of her father, and she's not quite sure whether his spirit is trapped in her brain somewhere, or if she's merely delusional.

On the way to the restaurant with Zayvion, they get sidetracked when Allie hears someone or something being attacked in an alley. As a result, Allie draws the attention of a sorceror who has been transformed somehow into a monstrous beast, which not only eats flesh, but likes to slurp up magic, too. Dinner at the restaurant goes fairly smoothly, except that as they are leaving Allie can't resist fiddling with the magical chains that bind one of the stone gargoyles out front, and the gargoyle goes missing...for the moment.

Once again, there are multiple plot threads here as Allie juggles responsibilities. She needs to work out her relationship with her father's company and ex-wife. Her friend from Magic to the Bone, Nola, shows up in town to try to take custody of a mentally damaged magic user who was involved in Allie's father's death. She must learn to control her magic so as to pass the Authority's test. Detective Stott needs her to Hound the source of some nasty blood magic. One of the Hounds, Danny, needs her help to rescue his girlfriend, a fellow Hound, from her involvement with some nasty bad guys, and the rest of the Hounds have become her responsibility with the death of Pike.

We begin to see Allie grow up a bit in this book. She has to learn to trust her friends more, take advice from people who care about her, and absorb a lot of information about the true history of magic, and her place in its community, in a big hurry. Plenty of action here, and once again as Allie solves some of her problems, she gets a whole new bag to deal with.


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Magic in the Blood, by Devon Monk

One of the things I like about this book, the second in the Allie Beckstrom series by Monk, is that it very closely reflects something that I've noticed is true about life. If you have a set of problems or challenges, and you begin to work your way through them, you can probably overcome or eliminate a certain subset of those problems, but in the meantime, some other ones will come along, and you'll end up, in any given short time period, with a new set of problems, consisting of a few of the old, plus a few of the new, with another subset of both new and old problems solved. At least, that's how it appears to me, most days.

So Allie begins this book with some old problems, such as her memory loss from overuse of magic, the ambiguous nature of her relationship with Zayvion, getting settled in a new apartment after the old one was trashed in Magic to the Bone, figuring out where she fits in the business empire her father created and willed her a controlling interest in, meeting with the police to clear up some details surrounding her last case, deciding what type of relationship she may have with her father's widowed fifth wife, and so forth.

And then we have the new problems. One of them is actually an old problem which resurfaces, when a criminal named Trager, who Allie testified against to put away in prison for thirty years, is released early. He corners her on a bus, and threatens her life if she doesn't bring him a man named Pike, a fellow Hound who was also instrumental in convicting Trager. He also works blood magic on her which connects and binds her to him, so he can summon her whenever he wants.

Allie also has an encounter of the strange kind with her father's ghost, who warns her about mystical things which are happening in the city. She also begins to encounter some other, more malicious, ghosts, which show up whenever she's working magic and "eat" her magical energy.

At her meeting with the police, Stott, the head of a somewhat secret special department within the police force which deals strictly with magical crimes recruits her to help him solve the mystery of the abductions of several young girls. Her old Hound friend, Pike, recruits her to help him lead The Pack, a loosely bound group of fellow Hounds who try to provide each other with backup and support.

Despite her challenges, however, Allie begins to rethink her lone wolf stance, and to realize that she has some friends and allies, which may perhaps counter the opponents that just keep cropping up. She risks becoming a pawn in a political and magical struggle, and must learn some new coping skills quickly to survive the coming battles. This second book in the series is, I think, an improvement on the first, and I can only hope that the sequels continue to build.

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Magic to the Bone, by Devon Monk

Magic to the Bone is the debut novel in an urban fantasy series by Devon Monk. The heroine, Allie Beckstrom, lives in a world where magic has been harnessed and controlled for use in many ways in which electricity is used to power our lives. Although it's not explicity stated, it seems that magic tends to pool in places where many people congregate, like the big cities, and there are "dead zones" in less populated areas. Most of the action in this novel takes place in Seattle, but Allie does get away a couple of times to her friend Nola's farm near Bend, Oregon, where the magic is thin, at best.


Allie is the daughter of a powerful businessman who has made his fortune in the technology that harnesses the magic for everyday use. She's also a Hound - a person who has the talent to track magical effects back to their originator, which comes in handy when someone misuses magic. When an acquaintance of hers is attacked by magical means, she traces the signature of the magic back to her father, who of course denies any involvement. The next day, her father is murdered by magic, which a number of other Hounds track back to Allie, and the mystery begins.

This book is a little confusing. It jumps right in, and explanations of the fantasy world, its history, and Allie's place in it seem to fall a little haphazardly amongst the events of the novel. To further add to the confusion, one of the prices Allie pays for using her own magic is amnesia, which she attempts to control by writing important things down in a notebook. But, when things get hot and heavy - in the plot and in her personal life - she forgets to write them down, and it causes some odd situations.

For example, her memories of her college days studying magic are pretty sparse, and she believes that she really wasn't very good at learning how to do complex magic. But her friend, Nola, has a totally different slant on those days. Incidentally, one of the things Allie has apparently forgotten is how she came to know Nola, or at least Ms. Monk has failed to inform the reader in this book. Nola mentions in passing that Allie was better at magic than her memories indicate, but it's left as a throwaway comment of sorts, and never thoroughly explored.

Allie seems to have a problem with impulsive behavior where romantic relationships are concerned. In the course of the story, she begins a new one with Zayvion, a rather mysterious fellow who her father hired to follow her around (we don't ever find out why), and who had a previous business relationship with Allie's stepmother, and who may or may not be part of a super secret group of magic policemen. This new love affair yoyos through most of the story, and might continue as the series does.

Interesting premise, interesting characters, and plenty of potential for further adventures. There are several more books in the series already published, which I intend, cautiously, to read.

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