An Inheritance of Magic (Inheritance of Magic, #1)

by Benedict Jacka

The super-rich control everything—including magic—in this thrilling and brilliant, contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.

The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by . . . magic.

Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat. 

But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge. To survive, Stephen will have to take his talent and build it up into something greater—for only then can he beat them at their own game.

• ISBN10: 0593549848
• ISBN13: 9780593549841
• Publish Date: 10 October 2023 (first published 5 October 2023)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Ace Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593549841

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

An Inheritance of Magic is the first book in a new urban fantasy series by Benedict Jacka. Released 10th Oct 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley Ace imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. 

The author is talented and prolific. He knows how to write engagingly, and the world building here is very different from the Iron Druid chronicles. The story reads more YA(ish) than his other work, however, there are definitely non-YA descriptions and themes here, such as horrible straight up animal torture which goes on for -pages-. (This one has its own entry on "does the dog die" but all the trigger questions aren't answered yet). It was difficult to read and it's not surprisingly a deal-breaker for a number of readers. 

That being said, there is also humor here, clever descriptive prose, nods to the sort of bureaucracy urban fantasy that brings Stross, O'Malley, Aaronovitch, Holt and the other boys in the band to mind, and glimmers of a really good magic system being unfolded presumably in future volumes. 

The book ends on a foreshadowing description. There are a zillion overarching unanswered questions/plot developments which are unresolved by the end. 

Three and a half stars. Given the publisher, this will be on most library acquisition lists already. Due to the graphic nature of some of the descriptions, it's not recommended for school libraries, especially in areas where book challenges and bans are common. The animal torture and casual cruelty are -very- hard going. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.