New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland.“A terrific kick-off of a new, action-packed, enchantingly fun series.”—Booklist Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation … extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails—and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.
But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.
But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective—while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.
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It’s a magical, witty satire that will have you chuckling to yourself one minute and enthralled by the action in the next.
I’ll be honest with you, I have not read the Iron Druid series but after reading this book I feel like I’m missing out. These are my book- people; this is my world. They are funny and sarcastic, droll and full of surprises (being magical and kick-@ss is pretty awesome too!) The world-building (I’m sure) goes along with the Iron Druid series. I haven’t read that series so to me I enjoyed the wonder of special inks having the power to create wards and magic. So cool. Not major magic, but learned magic. It was very appealing to me.
This story was such a shock to me because, though Al was an older character, he had a very dry-wit and his desire to set right the wrong that his apprentice had done makes him very noble. Even though the real-world message of human trafficking (or in this case Fae-trafficking) was just lightly touched, the fact that it was broached is commendable.
There were so many times that I found myself laughing while reading this book, I had to stop reading while in public. The whole cast of characters just worked so well together. If this spin-off is any indication of what the author’s others books are like then I’m sold. I can’t wait to read what happens next door for Al and the Glasgow crew.
** I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. **
Ink & Sigil is the first in an amazing new series by Kevin Hearne. This story reads like a hardboiled detective novel with an older guy with life under his belt just trying to do his job despite lifes ups and downs. This fantasy is filled with magic, mayhem, humor and heartache. The cast of quirky characters brings humor to a heavy subject. This book is filled with magic from the gorgeous cover to the very last page. Fall into this story and you won’t want to leave.
The cover for this book is so amazing!!! I’ve caught myself drooling over it multiple times. It’s 100% the reason I picked this book up to read. Didn’t read the blurb or who the author was, just had to read whatever was behind that cover.
Thank goodness what was there was awesome! Loved this book so much! From the sigil magic to the lizard wizard van to all the hierarchy. ugh. I’m ready to reread it.
I’m a sucker for inks & pens, and the research the author put into the main characters craft is high five worthy. The book is life like and mystical. You can feel the time put into to making sure the setting is culturally accurate, and all lore lines up. Some books fail at sinking in real world dialect into a fiction novel but this book works so freaking well. I feared i was going to be referencing the authors notes and half confused at the crazy spellings, but it never happened. The flow of the sentences supported the dialect perfectly.
All of the characters are well crafted, and the personalities of each are distinct and compliment the story perfectly. The grey of the ‘villains’, to the grey of the ‘good guys’ so much yes for this one. I’m also here for the commentary on ‘human’ trafficking, and how the magical world is dealing with the same problems we are dealing with in humanity.
Book one hasn’t even released yet, but I’m ready for book two. Also a poster for my wall of this cover *drooling*
I received this book via NetGalley.