Annie Bellet is a self-publishing sensation, who has achieved USA Today bestseller status while garnering a strong fanbase. Annie jumps from eBook to print book with her Twenty-Sided Sorceress urban fantasy series. In a smart, proven publishing move, the fine folks at Saga Press (led by the indomitable Joe Monti) have issued the first four novellas in a lovely print omnibus, wrapped in an excellent cover by Chris McGrath.
That’s enough about the external things surrounding Level Grind, here’s the publisher description, followed by my review/thoughts:
An omnibus of the first seven [sic]* books in the USA TODAY bestselling fantasy series—collected together for the first time in one volume. Jade Crow is a sorceress hiding from the most powerful sorcerer in the world: her ex-boyfriend.
Gamer. Nerd. Sorceress.
Jade Crow lives a quiet life running her comic book and game store in Wylde, Idaho, hiding from a powerful sorcerer who wants to eat her heart and take her powers—her ex-boyfriend Samir. Yet when dark powers threaten her friends’ lives, Jade must save them by using magic. But as soon as she does, her nemesis will find her and she won’t be able to stand up against him when he comes.
This is the collection of the first four volumes of the Hugo Award nominated series: Justice Calling; Murder of Crows; Pack of Lies; and Hunting Season.
The first short novel, Justice Calling, introduces Jade and her world, which is thrown asunder when Alek, a Justice [basically, a supernatural cop] comes into Jade’s comic and gaming shop in Idaho. In the second installment, Murder of Crows, another visitor throws Jade’s life into chaos, just as she was settling down a little from the events of the first volume. In this case; however, the visitor is her estranged father, who invites Jade back to the ranch (some would say cult) where she spent much of her youth until her tribe banished her. In Pack of Lies, as the title implies, werewolves are the focus because it appears wolves are killing each other. When another Justice, a colleague of Alek’s comes through Wylde investigating, Jade immediately distrusts the new woman. The last full story in the omnibus is book four, Hunting Season, which does a nice job of building on Jade’s character arc through the first three stories/novellas.
Through these four novellas, Bellet weaves a fun story and applies a relatively logical take on magic. Her protagonist Jade uses a Dungeons and Dragons Players’ Handbook to better focus her magic. The Handbook essentially describes the spells and what is needed to cast them which makes an almost elegant sort of sense. I’m not overly well read in Urban Fantasy (though I’ve read some) and I don’t recall seeing an author use this approach. I also think the shorter length of each story provides for nice consumable chunks that build well together.
As much of Urban Fantasy is told in first person narrative, through the protagonist’s voice, the success or a reader’s enjoyment will rely heavily on that voice. Here, in my opinion, Bellett succeeds quite well, Jade is a fun, empathetic, and engaging character. I found myself rooting for her and wanting to hang out with her at her game shop. The only real drawback for me was the continual geeky references. Whilst I appreciated most of them, their rapid fire appearances started to wear a bit thin for me. The only other issue I had with the four books was that Jade’s ex-boyfriend Samir, who is being carved out as ‘the Big Bad,’ pulling the strings against Jade in the series, is not really seen in the narrative. He’s referred to enough as a threat, the bad things he’s done to Jade are brought up often enough, but having him make at least a minor appearance would have made the threat he posed feel more immediate and dire.
Annie Bellet clearly has a plan for this series and through four books, it seems the ingredients are coming together very nicely. As these books have already sold very well in their short eBook form, there’s clearly a large readership for the books. Fans of Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files among many other urban fantasy series will find much to enjoy in Level Grind.
© 2016 Rob H. Bedfordo
*The book contains the first 4, not 7, novellas
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Saga Press
Trade Paperback | 480 Pages
Published by Saga Press | October 2016
http://anniebellet.com/
Excerpt: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/announcing-the-twenty-sided-sorceress-series-by-annie-bellet-cover-reveal-excerpt/
So…does it contain four books or seven? I’ve read the first one and liked it, looking to get more as and when the fancy takes me!