Review: Iron and Magic

Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Iron and Magic is the first book in a trilogy about Hugh D'Ambray, an important secondary character in Ilona Andrews' bestselling Kate Daniels/Magic series. It introduces us to Elara, the White Warlock, a character briefly mentioned in the epilogue of Magic Binds

Authors Ilona Andrews have devoted a number of Kate Daniels/Magic World books to telling us how awful Roland and his chief lackey Hugh D'Ambray are. Then Roland purged Hugh and we were left wondering what was going to happen with this character and what role he might play in the denouement of the Kate Daniels series. Well, we have our answer and it's an answer that was hard to swallow at first. I loved disliking Hugh. And now /jawdrop/ I am eating humble pie and often smiling at him. I'm mindful of books with long character arcs of people like Severus Snape and Jaime Lannister, in which an author slowly, over years and many books, makes you reconsider a character who has done terrible things. It's a measure of Ilona and Gordon's prowess as writers that they have almost completely rehabilitated Hugh in one book, admittedly devoted to the character, but still. We see things from Hugh's perspective and that of his (truly) shiny new wife, the (truly) rather terrifying Elara. And I say "almost completely rehabilitated" because Hugh is still an asshole but he's the asshole we grow to love in this story. SMH. Honestly, Ilona and Gordon are wielding their own brand of magic. What's next, making me like Roland? I bet you they could do it.

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