Magic To The Bone
Book 1 of the Allison Beckstrom Series
by Devon Monk
Penguin Putnam (ROC)
ISBN-10: 0451462408
ISBN-13: 9780451462404
In this first installment of the Allison Beckstrom series, Devon Monk paints a vivid picture of a world much like our own with one major exception: magic. In this world, magic is a natural resource brought to the public through a patented pipeline distribution system by Beckstrom Industries; a corporate giant with a near monopoly on magic technology. Anyone and everyone can use magic, and pretty much everyone does. In the 30 years since it was discovered it has become part of the everyday fabric of society, like cell phones and the Internet. Like those things it has had a drastic impact on society for better or for worse in a very short time. It’s used to do everything bigger, better, and faster – from food production to sex. School children are taught how to use it. College degree programs revolve around it.
Like every innovation magic comes with a price but one more immediate and personal than most: pain. It takes a direct toll on its user, normally commensurate with the magnitude of the spell that was cast. A minor spell might be paid for with a particularly nasty headache or a few days of insomnia. High powered spells- especially the darker variety- can inflict insanity or death on the caster. Naturally, it wasn’t long at all before someone discovered a way to “offload” the cost to a proxy. The practice itself is not illegal, if conducted through the proper channels entailing licenses, record keeping, and oversight. Legitimate offloading is directed to authorized proxies, such as prison inmates. The problem is that going through proper channels is never standard practice for bad people who do bad things. The criminal use of magic generally involves an illegal offload on some poor unsuspecting bastard.
Fortunately for the greater population illegal offloading is not a perfect crime. Every user leaves his own distinctive mark on the magic, and certain people have a knack for back tracking an offload. Called “Hounds”, they make their living doing just that.
In a crappy apartment in a run-down neighborhood in Portland Oregon lives our protagonist Allison- the estranged only child of cut-throat corporate magnate Daniel Beckstrom (as in Beckstrom Enterprises). Compelled all her life down a path of her fathers’ choosing Allison found his magical influence fading while she was away attending classes at the Harvard school of business magic. Free of his compulsion and operating completely under her own will perhaps for the first time in her life, she’d dropped out of school and struck out determined to make her own way.
Another entry into the ever burdening urban fantasy genre, Magic to the Bone has what it takes to stand out. Not only does it present a familiar yet unique world and a fresh take on magic, the author shows great skill in both the technical aspects of writing and the art of storytelling.
The characters are believable, and the author does an excellent job of making them likable, especially the heroine. Allison Beckstrom is a 25 year old with the cynicism of someone twice her age, out to make it on her own without any help from anybody but an almost compulsive tendency to help others. Through her eyes we become acquainted with a few friends, several acquaintances with dubious agendas and questionable loyalties, and a whole lot of enemies who spend most of their time lurking just out of sight. Many of these characters, good and bad, have a depth and complexity that hint of future appearances in subsequent books but no writer can escape the obligatory stock characters who are necessary but just don’t have a lot of talking to do. I mean really, does anyone expect depth in henchmen who buy the farm two paragraphs after their first appearance, or sinister figures lurking in dark alleys?
A good part of these characters’ believability is derived from the dialogue, which is well paced and natural; what the characters say sounds like something a real person would say and how they would actually say it. This is a welcome change from the annoying tendency of some authors towards unrealistically witty staccato conversations that remind me, unpleasantly, of watching an episode of The Gilmore Girls. The ubiquitous internal monologue of the 1st person narrative comes off just as well, as do the odd chapters in third person relating events of which the protagonist is unaware. The descriptions of people and places alike are detailed but not overbearing, which is something I value greatly in a writer. Nothing ruins the movie in your head like narrative lingering over inconsequential details best left to the readers’ imagination. When more detail is warranted it is there, but it will never bog you down.
Allison Beckstrom’s world is very different from Jim Butchers’ Dresden Files setting but Allison herself, from her sarcasm to her big heart and empty bank account, bears many traits in common with the wisecracking Wizard from the Windy City. Fans of The Dresden Files will not regret picking up a copy of Magic To The Bone
Matt Walker
Staff Writer – Buzzy Multimedia
