TL;DR Review: An original and fresh entry in the Urban Fantasy genre, with exciting potential to expand into a great big magical world.
Synopsis:
Corbin James has never been so lost. Able to dowse since a kid, he’s adept at finding missing things. But after weeks on the run from the FBI, the teen’s luck has finally run dry.
Enter the enigmatic Mister with a tempting offer: find an enchanter who has disappeared inside the mysterious Harmon House. Recruited into a reluctant crew of motley magicians, Corbin only has days to navigate their shifting loyalties to earn his freedom by entering the Inner Circle.
Lucky for him he’s got his trusty dowsing rod, a defaced 50-cent piece, and enchanted iPod.
Full Review:
Urban Fantasy is always a fun genre to dive into. It blends magical elements into our real world, and in so doing, gives rise to the question of “How would that world look of magic really did exist?”
In the world depicted in the pages of Rites of Passage, the magical community is divided in a truly fascinating way: the big cities (and highways, a neat touch) are run by the Inner Circle, while the smaller towns and rural areas are run by various smaller factions that control their own territory. There is a sort of “accord” between the Inner Circle and smaller factions, but it is fraught, tense, and often hostile.
That is exactly the flavor you can expect from this book. Let me explain…
The main character, Corbin, is on the run from the cult where he was born and raised. All his life, he’s had to keep one huge secret: he has the ability to dowse, to magically trace people using items or objects of great emotional value to them.
While on the run, he is found by the mysterious “Mister”, a high-ranked magician of the Inner Circle, who brings him into a job to find a fellow magician gone missing.
Mister and his compatriots belong to the Inner Circle, but where they have to search is in the territory of the Spiral Chains, so they have to team up with magicians from the Chains in order to keep the peace. Only there will be no peace. There is constant bickering, double-dealing, and manipulating—often below the surface, but sometimes out in the open.
I loved how this was very reflective of Corbin’s upbringing in the cult. The hard lessons he learned dealing with the cult’s psychopathic leader, Gideon, makes him adept at navigating the whims and wills of powerful men and women. Though he’s brand new to the world of magic and the power struggles between the two factions, he finds his own feet quickly and begins to earn their respect—and a place among them—through his cunning, insight, and magical abilities.
There isn’t a great deal of focus on characters in this story. We don’t get to know too much about anyone beyond Corbin. But it makes for a fast-paced story that is always moving forward and hurtling at what feels like breakneck speed toward the ending.
I was intrigued by the cult element and Corbin’s personality from the beginning, and drawn further in by the development and explanation of the magical world. By the time I got to the end, I was immensely curious to know more—and was glad to hear this is going to be a longer series.
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