Everson Croft here, professor of mythology and behind-the-scenes wizard.
Show me an amateur conjurer, and I’ll stop him before he gets himself killed.
That’s the idea, anyway. But New York City isn’t what it used to be, and I don’t mean the recent crash.
Amateur casters are calling up creatures they shouldn’t be able to. And there’s been a murder at the city’s most hallowed cathedral, a … at the city’s most hallowed cathedral, a message in blood on the victim’s back the NYPD wants me to interpret, like yesterday.
Something tells me I’m in over my head. And that’s not just Chinatown’s newest mob boss, a scary-powerful vampire, or my possessed cat talking.
No matter how much magic I hurl, worse keeps chasing bad, and I’m amassing enemies like they’re aluminum cans.
Did I mention the end of the world might be nigh?
Damn. Maybe I’m the amateur here.
Suggested reading order:
Demon Moon (Book 1)
Book of Souls (Prequel)
Blood Deal (Book 2)
more
Okay, I already said that I liked Jim Butcher of the infamous Dresden Files, but here’s another that is quite similar. Magnarella writes a good story and does not get bogged down in the details but moves it along quickly. With a cat (that used to be a succubus) and a job teaching at a local college, Professor Croft keeps his wizarding work hidden. While this has similarities to Dresden, it is just enough different to keep you interested.
Great read, love this author, the characters are great and love the sarcastic talking cat…also the wizard professor that is hunting evil is a wonderful character…I really enjoyed reading these books in this series…
for the audio –
Demon Moon is the first in the Prof Croft series by Brad Magnarella. This was a new to me author and narrator. I was immensely pleased that they both landed on the top of my TBL stack as I will be looking to add to my listening collection from both of them. I’m in luck that it appears this author has selected the same great narrator, James Patrick Cronin for the other books currently available in the series.
The story caught me right away and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. I wanted to see at what point the Professor would just say “Bag it, I’m going to the bar to drink instead of face the world.” Yet, he kept going, kept digging for information, sticking his nose and well-being in deeper. James Patrick Cronin did an excellent job at bringing forth the wit and sarcasm of Professor Croft with his narration. The tone and delivery of the words on the pages only enhanced the story. I will be diving in to see how Professor Croft fairs in the rest of his series.
Professor Croft comes across more like a drunk off the streets than a professor with magical abilities. Great to read how he overcomes the obstacles placed on him to save the world.
I’ve seen this book compared to the Dresden files. I haven’t read that series, so I don’t know about that. I liked the main character, Everson Croft, the story was well-written (no typos or other errors that I could find), and very fast-paced. No dull spots! It got a little gruesome in places, but I admit to being a wuss, so it’s probably fairly tame for most people. My only downgrade is that, even though he was a wizard with fast healing powers, Croft was beat up or hurt so much and so often that it detracted from the story. It seemed like nothing went right for him until the end.
This story was a copy of most of Jim Butcher’s “Dresden” books. Even the title “Demon Moon” is derivative–Butcher wrote a Dresden book “Fool Moon”. The cover recreates the opening credits of the Dresden t.v. show, showing the main character gesturing ‘magically’ a la Dresden! I put it down after five pages because of this. No originality at all.