Cursed

Cursed (2012) Benedict Jacka

This is the second Alex Verus novel, and finds Alex once again working with members of the council.

The outer wall was topped with ragged coils of razor wire. The wire was rusted and full of holes that hadn’t been repaired in years, as if the owners had decided that they couldn’t keep the burglars out but might at least be able to give them tetanus on the way in.

Alex is rarely invited by the Council to go to nice places. I have to note that I really like that description.

One of the things I like about this book is Alex’s magic: how it works and how he uses it.

Looking through the futures I saw my possible actions, and their consequences. I saw myself stepping on the loose piece of scrap metal in front of me, saw myself tripping and falling, and corrected my movements to avoid it. As I did, the future in which I fell thinned to nothingness, never to exist, and the futures of me stepping around it brightened in its place. By seeing the future, I decided; as I decided, the future changed, and new futures replaced those never to happen.

That is a very good description that clearly explains a very complicated magical power.

I have to admit that both Alex and the author are very obviously city boys–I found this rather amusing:

Deep down, in the corners of their minds, the reason people don’t go into dark forests at night isn’t because they’re afraid there might be people. It’s because they’re afraid there might be things.

I actually find it fascinating to see something I find rather commonplace to be described as disturbing. I’ll take the dark forest over a dark city any time.

Something that may come as a surprise to those who know me is that one of the people I like best in this series is Arachne, the giant, sentient, spider. I think she’s rather marvelous, and hope that she really is the original Arachne.

Odds are you’ve never tried to give a giant spider a medical checkup. In case you’re wondering, it’s really hard. It’s not like you can take their pulse, and dealing with the fact that they have their skeleton on the outside of their bodies is weird enough on its own.

Why does she not bother me? I think it’s because she couldn’t be unknowingly crawling on my body. That’s what really freaks me out about spiders and centipedes–imagining feeling their legs crawling across my skin.

(shudder)

But a giant spider? No big deal.

This is the second book where I’ve come across the name Garrick, the first being Sergei Lukyanenko‘s Night Watch series, so I decided to look up the name: Garrick is an Old English name that means “one who governs with a spear” or “spear king”. The name is a little too spot on for the character in this book, but I didn’t know that when I was reading.

That’s not to say the book was perfect–it wasn’t. But the story moved quickly and kept me engrossed which is, many times, all I really want of a book.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Ace

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