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Great world building, good characters and a cool plot in this urban fantasy story

2. Dezember 2018

Format: Kindle AusgabeVerifizierter Kauf

This is the first installment of a new urban fantasy series and I loved every second of it. Opal lives as a Cleaner in DFZ, the city that once was Detroit, before it started to become its own entity, a god that is made of the heart of the city so to speak. DFZ is a city without too many laws, with magic and technology living side by side. People who don’t have magic often enhance their bodies with cyber augments. So I imagined a Blade Runner like city with a mind of her own, and in the middle of it all, Opal. The work as a cleaner means that she bids on apartments that are on auction, has to clean them out for new tenants and is allowed to make money from whatever she salvages.

Right now, she is a bit desperate, because she owns a debt so someone (who is revealed during the story) that is due in a few days and she suffered from a month long streak of bad luck and has no idea how to get the money necessary. It’s made abundantly clear that things will get really bad for Opal, if she won’t be able to pay up. So when the latest apartment she is cleaning turns out to contain not riches, but the work of a obviously crazy magic scientist, she is desperate enough to follow the white rabbit and put her literally last penny on one card. This is when a chase after the riddles solution starts, with mercenaries on her heel, new unexpected allies and bitter betrayals to suffer.

The world is astonishing and something else entirely, and Opal‘s backstory is breathtaking and made me cheer for her, even when she makes dubious decisions. She gains a partner she initially doesn’t want, but the two are good together and although I sense some romance coming in the future, there is nothing like that here. I will totall read the next installment of this urban fantasy/ science fiction series and can’t wait to see what’s going on in Opal‘s life next.

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Regina D

Heartstriker series spin-off with a more cyberpunk-y feel

23. Dezember 2018

Format: Kindle AusgabeVerifizierter Kauf

Solid first-in-series for this Heartstrikers spin-off with more magic and cyberpunk and less dragon drama (at times, the story had a decidedly Shadowrun-y feel).

Opal and Nik make a good team, solving the mystery around a mage's death, while both racing against the clock and on the run from hired thugs. It was especially great to see the Spirit of the Forgotten Dead play a small but important part in this story.

Another bonus point for Nik's old-fashioned sports car (not only completely autopilot-free, but also a stick shift, to boot) and Opal's initial... ahem... skepticism towards it. :)

Like the Heartstriker series before it, this series will be likely be a no-questions-asked-shut-up-and-take-my-money autobuy for me.

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Amazon Customer

One of my favorite damsels.

10. November 2018 - Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com

Format: Kindle AusgabeVerifizierter Kauf

The world building and plot was really well done in my opinion. My biggest gripe is that for a world of magic, we actually learn very little about it. In both this new series and the last the MCs have been horrible at magic. It would be awesome to see if the author has the ability to actually create a unique and interesting magic system instead of just hint that there is one. Also steming from the MCs ineptitude for magic, it's not fun reading about underdogs who realistically wouldn't be able to hold their own. Opal had to constantly be saved by someone else, and she is so unskilled in just about everything that I can't ever see her actually being able to rise to the occasion. Most of her useful input came from her AI and if she didn't luck out in befriending the one person in the city that doesn't have a AI, even that usefulness would have been moot. I genuinely love Opals character I just wish she had something powerful about her wether it be her magic, mind or body. But so far all have proved to be very average. Even with her damsel in distress complex I really enjoyed the book, and I look forward to reading the next one.

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Bookwyrm

Cleaning for hidden treasures just got a whole lot messier

9. November 2018 - Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com

Format: Kindle AusgabeVerifizierter Kauf

Opal is a mage who makes her livelihood as a Cleaner, bidding for the right to empty and clean abandoned apartments. While she gets to keep the contents to sell off, it’s a gamble whether any auction will be worth its price. Bonanza or bust, this time around Opal has emptied the bank to bid on a couple of properties and there’s no margin for error. While she has an advanced degree from the premier magic university, she’s struggling to pay off her massive student debt month by month. This month it’s harder than ever, due to a five-month streak of bad luck and apartments full of worthless junk. If Opal doesn’t make her payment on time, a rather ill-tempered gentleman – her father, is going to foreclose on her freedom for good. Opal has only a few days left to make it or break it.

And Opal just might be the one getting broken. Her latest acquisitions, and the murdered professor who owned them, have drawn the interest of several heavy hitters, including criminals, a competing cleaner, and a couple of rather touchy gods.

Minimum Wage Magic takes place in the world of the Heartstrikers series (Heartstrikers is such an appropriate name for that dragon clan!). If you haven’t read the Heartstrikers series, which starts with Nice Dragons Finish Last, Minimum Wage Magic includes enough background that it can be read on its own. However, you’ll want to grab the Heartstrikers series and read them while you’re waiting for the next DFZ book, because you can never get too much Rachel Aaron, DFZ goodness, or dragons.

Minimum Wage Magic is an enjoyable mix of fantasy and cyberpunk with immersive world-building and believable characters. If you’re familiar with Rachel Aaron, then you know the first books in her series, while chock full of incredibly complex characters and worlds and mesmerizing in their own right, have storylines that only hint at the complexity, character growth, and world-building to come. Minimum Wage Magic is an entre in a whole new feast. Highly recommended for anyone with an appetite for science fiction and fantasy or the joy of great storytelling. Rachel Aaron never disappoints.

I received this book as a digital Advanced Reader Copy (ARC). My opinions are my own.

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Kindle Customer

It could have been a stronger book.

14. November 2018 - Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com

Format: Kindle AusgabeVerifizierter Kauf

This book had some flaws which the rest of the series did not and I think the first issue is that it attempts to shy away from the other series references so no characters related to Julius's world are allowed but the book moves right into the central location of the previous books. It's as if the rich description of the DMZ was reduced to a simple prop in an attempt to not be like the other books. It makes the assumption the Reader knows the DMZ so it feels hollow. I felt as if the plot could have taken place in a different part of this world and been better for it. While I loved the female protagonist and liked her struggle, Opal's supporting cast was as week as Julius's was strong. I don't remember solider boy's name and after awhile I found it very hard to read his dialogues I didn't feel they were worth reading which made it hard to like him. I also found it frustrating that I could immediately tell what the twist was with her dad within the first few pages but in the amount of pages he was in the book a lot of his character is shown with some subtle qualities I d like to see more of but unlike some of the other supporting cast I felt he was a fully rounded individual.

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