David Mack returns readers to a world of global tension and sorcery in The Iron Codex, the second installment of his Dark Arts series. Set in 1954, several years after the conclusion of The Midnight Front (and World War II) the world is still in turmoil, magical powers are still the weapons of potential mass destruction and the world is at the beginning of the Cold War.
New York Times bestselling author David Mack’s Dark Arts series continues as the wizards of World War II become the sorcerers of the Cold War in this globe-spanning spy-thriller sequel to The Midnight Front.
1954: Cade Martin, hero of the Midnight Front during the war, has been going rogue without warning or explanation, and his mysterious absences are making his MI-6 handlers suspicious. In the United States, Briet Segfrunsdóttir serves as the master karcist of the Pentagon’s top-secret magickal warfare program. And in South America, Anja Kernova hunts fugitive Nazi sorcerers with the help of a powerful magickal tome known as the Iron Codex.
In an ever-more dangerous world, a chance encounter sparks an international race to find Anja and steal the Iron Codex. The Vatican, Russians, Jewish Kabbalists, and shadowy players working all angles covet the Codex for the power it promises whoever wields it.
As the dominoes start to fall, and one betrayal follows another, Anja goes on the run, hunted by friend and foe alike. The showdown brings our heroes to Bikini Atoll in March 1954: the Castle Bravo nuclear test.
But unknown to all of them, a secret magick cabal schemes to turn America and its western allies toward fascism—even if it takes decades…
Cade Martin is again a main character in the story, but he takes a slight back seat to Anja, who bursts onto the first page of the novel. Dragan is introduced as the primary antagonist, and given the time in which the novel is set, and fittingly, a Russian/Communist. A wrinkle from the first novel is the character of Briet Segfrunsdóttir, a magick wielder who (sort of) flipped to the American side of the conflict in this novel. Understandably, she isn’t trusted, but the more Mack reveals about the character, the more empathetic she becomes.
Like The Midnight Front, Mack’s skills at action and magnetic narrative are as potent as the spells wielded by his sorcerous characters. From the bombastic opening through to the end, The Iron Codex keeps you reading through the prose/storytelling that has a very addictive aura. The novel is constructed very, very smartly: you get invested in one specific character and you want to keep reading about that character, Cade, for example. But no, Mack pauses to focus on another character, say Anja, to the point where you’re fully glued to what’s going on with her only for Mack to pause and give some page time to the villain, Dragan. It can be a tricky stunt to pull and can potentially wear at a reader’s patience. Quite the opposite here with Mack’s storytelling – it kept me fully invested in each character and turning the pages quite rapidly. To be fair, I was stuck on a plane for a few hours, but the flight went very swiftly because Mack was able to sweep me fully into the story.
I also liked that Cade was kept much more mysterious in this installment, at least compared to being center stage in The Midnight Front. He is referred to by the other characters like Anja and Briet in a way that lends a larger than life status to him. I also appreciated the greater focus on Briet and Anja. Mack built up appreciable sympathy for both characters’ plights while also keeping the action flowing at a very powerful rate. Both of these characters might have enough depth to fly solo (and Anja does in fact in a novelette Mack published on Tor.com), but I’m very glad they are featured in this novel.
There was enough depth to this world hinted in the first novel, The Midnight Front, but applying the adage bigger and better the second time around, Mack makes clear there is a real depth to this world. There’s a fantastic hint at the end of what might be coming next and details throughout really show that this is just a specific time in a world of magical history.
Mack did a nice job in building the relationships between his characters, too. It is fine and dandy to have characters who stand out, but another proof of concept to have these characters interact smartly, believable, and in an entertaining fashion. In other words, characters you want to follow over the course of multiple novels. On that count, Mack is doing some really nice work.
I’ll restate what I said with The Midnight Front: I enjoyed the hell out of this novel. Having set up a foundation for his world in characters, Mack is able to focus more of his energy on the breakneck plotting. Not to say the characters and world-building are forgotten at all. Bottom line, The Dark Arts is turning out to be a blast of a series and I can’t wait to read the next installment, The Shadow Commission.
Recommended
© 2019 Rob H. Bedford
Book Two of The Dark Arts
Excerpt: https://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9780765383211
Published by Tor Books | January 2019
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
