Sunday, December 12, 2010

Right Hand Magic: By Nancy Collins

RIGHT HAND MAGIC

SUMMARY

Like most Manhattanites, aspiring artist Tate can't resist a good rental deal-even if it's in the city's strangest neighborhood, Golgotham, where for centuries werewolves, centaurs, and countless other creatures have roamed the streets.

Her new landlord is a sorcerer name Hexe, who is determined to build his reputation without using dark, left-hand magic. As Tate is drawn into Hexe's fascinating world, they both find that the right hand does not always know what the left hand is doing-and avoiding darkness is no easy trick...

REVIEW

While this book is called Right Hand Magic there certainly wasn’t that much “Right” about it (yes I do know how corny that sounds, I’m ok with it, considering how corny the actual book is).

While the premise of the book sounds like it could have been interesting (creature centered area in Manhattan, landlord who wants to try to only use right “good” hand magic, filled with an abundance of different creatures and magic), it wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of presence in the main characters.

Tate is a flat, poorly written, un-redeeming protagonist who is both boring and painful to read. It feels like there were sentences that could have been easily cut that would have made the character/book much better. Another character that was a disappointment was Hex. While Hex’s lines weren’t as choppy as Tate’s Hex’s story just never really grabbed me like it needed to take the book to a dynamic level.

Of course Collins, the author, does a great job creating a world of interesting and unique magic that if the characters were a little stronger, would mark this book as fun and interesting. There are normal were-animals, and whatnot, but there’s also strange new magics such as Hex’s.

All in all while the premise and magics were interesting they can’t make up for the characters and general plot line/annoyingly predictable nature of the book. Because of this I hope that Collins is able to give it another shot, because she really did create a fun exciting world, just maybe possibly go through a few more rounds of edits to make the dialog and characters better crafted next time.

RATING
4 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Roc

Published: December 7, 2010

Price: $6.99

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