Prospero's War - The Irresponsible Reader

Cursed Moon

by Jaye Wells
Series: Prospero’s War, #2

Trade Paperback, 370 pg.

Orbit, 2014

Read: February 6, 2015

I…just don’t know. In theory, this series is right in my sweet spot — Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural (ish) — but it’s just not working for me. It feels like Wells is trying to get gritty and dark, but the results aren’t there. The same goes with the addiction storyline. It didn’t ring true for me, she seemed to be trying, her characters seem more like characters from a bad made-for-TV movie, not actual addicts.

While I’m complaining, I should mention that the Rape magic in the beginning — and the resulting bacchanal — was far too graphic, went on far too long. Then to follow it up with the trip to the sex coven with all the details given there? Overkill — especially because almost none of these details are important to the story. Take out those scenes, or tone them down, and you lose nothing.

The whole Pen story just annoyed me — Pen’s character seemed inconsistent throughout — her mood/actions/attitude fluctuating to serve the needs of the moment, but not arising organically from the situation or character.

And Danny? I don’t know where to start.

So what did work? The MEA stuff, the investigation, the world. Basically the major story, the core of the book was good enough to keep me going — it’s all the surrounding material that drove me nuts.

This has been brief and vague because it’s been so long since I read it, and because I just didn’t care one way or the other. Vaguely dissatisfied with a few significant beefs, would be a good way to summarize my take on this book. I might give this series one more shot, but I doubt I’ll go out of my way for it.

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2 1/2 Stars

Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells
Series: Prospero’s War, #2

Paperback, 381 pg.
Orbit, 2014
Read: February 15-17, 2014

Kate Prospero is a tough cop, scraping by, raising her kid brother with the help of her best bud and a kindly senior citizen neighbor. Her troubled past has so far blocked her from progressing out of uniform and the detective ranks — but she’s got grit, determination, and hope — not to mention an unreliable automobile and a healthy tuition bill for her brother’s private high school.

I know I’ve read and/or seen this a couple dozen times. So does Jaye Wells do something to freshen this up? And does her take on this work? Yes, and pretty much.

Wells’ twist on this is introducing magic into the mix. It’s our world, but instead of Big Tobacco and the Pharmaceutical Industry exploding in the last few decades, while their less than legal counterparts were finding similar success — “clean” (read: legal) and “dirty” (read: illegal) magic came into economic ascendancy. There’s a Magic Enforcement Agency running the war on dirty drugs on the federal level, while Prospero and her brethren in blue take the battle to the streets.

That pretty much tells you all you need to know. The book plays out pretty much how you’d imagine it would. Well-told and decently-paced, there’s nothing to object to here (well, some of Prospero’s emotional reactions seem a bit over-wrought, though your results may vary) — but there’s nothing to get terribly excited about either.

It’s an entertaining enough read, and I’m curious about where Wells will take things. But I don’t know that I’ll run for the bookstore come August when the sequel, Cursed Moon comes out.

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3 Stars

Tag: Prospero’s War

Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells

Cursed Moon

Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells