{"id":4289,"date":"2014-01-05T17:45:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T22:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4289"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:10:16","slug":"taken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4289","title":{"rendered":"Taken"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008EXNV8S\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=B008EXNV8S&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=randomreading-20\">Taken<\/a><\/em> (2012) <a href=\"http:\/\/klishis.com\/Books\/authors\/Jacka_Benedict.php\">Benedict Jacka<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008EXNV8S\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B008EXNV8S&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=randomreading-20\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/taken.jpg?resize=186%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"taken\" width=\"186\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-4290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/taken.jpg?resize=186%2C300&amp;ssl=1 186w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/taken.jpg?w=310&amp;ssl=1 310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 186px) 100vw, 186px\" \/><\/a>After a terrible apprenticeship, Alex Verus hasn&#8217;t wanted much to do with other mages, and the Light Council in particular. But he&#8217;s starting to get a reputation, and it&#8217;s a reputation of someone whose enemies tend to end up missing or dead. None of this is <em>really<\/em> Alex&#8217;s fault, but it means that more and more mages are coming to him for assistance or projects that no one else seems to want. You know, the dangerous ones. <\/p>\n<p>Currently, he&#8217;s been asked to look into the problem of disappearing apprentices, and considering his past, it&#8217;s something he&#8217;d probably do without being asked.<\/p>\n<p>In this story we get a glance at how light apprentices are trained, but not really enough to really understand it. Which, I suppose makes sense, since we primarily spend our time with Alex and not Luna (the apprentice).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really coming to like Talisid, and I really hope that he&#8217;s truly one of the good guys (as opposed to the typical member of the Light Council).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Talisid sighed. &#8220;Please try not to do anything stupid.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When have I ever done that?&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll let you fill in the response to that yourself.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One of the things I like is how Light and Dark really aren&#8217;t that different, but even more how Alex, in attempting to do go, frequently has to come to terms with actions that aren&#8217;t particularly good or nice. But more importantly, Alex doesn&#8217;t take these actions without consideration&#8211;both before and after.<\/p>\n<p>I will say that I was CERTAIN something was going to happen by the end of the book, and was irritated when it didn&#8217;t. But there <em>were<\/em> good reasons given for things going they way they did, and it did make sense the way it was explained.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a bit at the beginning you&#8217;ll want to look out for: the explanation as to why vampires don&#8217;t exist. I thought it was well considered and a very good answer as to how some magical creatures exist and others don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really enjoying this series, and can definitely recommend it.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, one thing I hadn&#8217;t mentioned before is how much I <em>really<\/em> like these covers. They&#8217;re minimalist, but they&#8217;re also atmospheric, and&#8211;to me&#8211;gorgeous.<\/p>\n<p>Kudos to Ace for a fabulous series of covers.<br \/>\n<strong>Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Published by Ace<br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/avg_rating_widget\/15857444\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taken (2012) Benedict Jacka After a terrible apprenticeship, Alex Verus hasn&#8217;t wanted much to do with other mages, and the Light Council in particular. But he&#8217;s starting to get a reputation, and it&#8217;s a reputation of someone whose enemies tend to end up missing or dead. None of this is really Alex&#8217;s fault, but it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,2,8,16],"tags":[313],"class_list":["post-4289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-supernatural","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/siQkW-taken","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/171","url_meta":{"origin":4289,"position":0},"title":"The Thief&#8217;s Gamble","author":"Michelle","date":"December 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Thief's Gamble (1999) Juliet E. McKenna In the past, I have refused to pick up a series unless I can get all the books in that series. Because there's little worse than starting a series and then not being about to find the rest of it. However, because I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Thief's Gamble","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/thiefsgamble.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21849,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21849","url_meta":{"origin":4289,"position":1},"title":"Fated, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"April 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Fated, Audio Edition (2012\/2013) Benedict Jacka narrated by Gildart Jackson (Alex Verus) Alex Verus runs a magic shop in London--however he doesn't sell tricks, but ingredients and tools for mages. Although he is a mage, he doesn't have the powers one initially thinks of, because Alex is a diviner. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;7.5\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fated","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/fated.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5322,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5322","url_meta":{"origin":4289,"position":2},"title":"The Girl of Hrusch Avenue","author":"Michelle","date":"July 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Girl of Hrusch Avenue (2013) Brian McClellan This is a Powder Mage Short Story, and I'm not quite sure where I picked it up. Vlora is an orphan, fascinated by the muskets and rifles and pistols of the gunsmiths, and is enthralled by the smell and smoke of black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Girl-of-Hrusch-Avenue","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/The-Girl-of-Hrusch-Avenue.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4677,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4677","url_meta":{"origin":4289,"position":3},"title":"Disenchanted &#038; Co., Part 2: His Lordship Possessed","author":"Michelle","date":"June 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Disenchanted & Co., Part 2: His Lordship Possessed (2013) Lynn Viehl Again, gorgeous cover, and I love the world building, but the story? Bletch. She now moons over Lord Dredmore, who has, at least according to Kit, zero redeeming qualities. Kit also seems to get dumber as the book goes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dislike\/Abandon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dislike\/Abandon","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/disliked-or-abandoned"},"img":{"alt_text":"His-Lordship-Possessed","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/His-Lordship-Possessed.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4173,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4173","url_meta":{"origin":4289,"position":4},"title":"Fated","author":"Michelle","date":"November 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Fated (2012) Benedict Jacka Alex Verus is a diviner--a mage who can see the future possibilities. He runs a magic shop to pay the bills, and does everything he can to stay under the Council's radar. Unfortunately for him, a discovery of a Precursor relic--and the fact that every other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"fated","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/fated-186x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3971,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3971","url_meta":{"origin":4289,"position":5},"title":"Fade to Black","author":"Michelle","date":"August 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Fade to Black (A Rojan Dizon Novel) (2013) Francis Knight This is a really dark and twisted book. I tore through it, but I think I shouldn't read two of these in a row, because, well, the main character is a pain mage, which means he has to hurt himself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fade_to_Black","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Fade_to_Black-195x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}