Street Magic

I was already aware of Caitlin Kittredge via her excellent Night Life, and so when I got the chance to check out an ARC of Street Magic, I leapt on it with enthusiasm. And I was not disappointed in the slightest.

Street Magic is set in a London that's every bit as dark and gritty as Night Life's Nocturne City, with the advantage of a certain lyricism of style that wasn't present for me in the other book. A great deal of this comes out of Kittredge getting back to the basics of what makes fantasy fantastic--giving us sorcerers and mages, ghosts and fae, and ancient gods that all reveal themselves to the reader in bursts of shadow and vision and music. In this setting we have DI Pete Caldecott discovering to her shock that Jack Winter, the man she'd thought dead for twelve years is not only alive, but keeping himself deliberately drugged out of his mind on heroine to block the visions dealt him by his own power. She can't let him remain in his drugged haze, either. He's the only source she has for finding out what's attacking children in the city, and leaving them blind and broken.

Jack for me was by far the most delightful part of the book, in no small part because I kept envisioning him over and over as played by James Marsters. Especially when I got to the part where he's compared to Billy Idol. ;) He's got the exact attitude that any longstanding fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will recognize, and which when played with suitable deftness is absolutely entertaining. Kittredge plays it with that deftness here. Pete is very much the straight foil to his wildness, almost bland at times by comparison, and yet with a resolve that makes her the rock-solid center of the story. She has her world reset around her, and she doesn't shirk or flinch from what must be done. It's beautiful all around.

I'll very much look forward to buying a formal copy of this when it comes out, and on June 2nd I highly recommend you all do the same. Five stars.