Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex’s own powers aren’t as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future-allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success. 
But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever’s inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none…

Thanks to Halloween Bingo, I finally got around to listening to the audiobook of ‘Fated‘, the first book in the Alex Verus series, which has been buried in my TBR pile for almost nine years. I read it because it was a perfect fit for the DARKEST LONDON square. I’ll be reading ‘Cursed‘, the next book in this fourteen-book series, because I’m interested in seeing what Alex Verus does next,

While it’s true that Alex Verus is a sort of English version of Harry Dresden, what makes him interesting is that he’s not just Dresden with a posh English accent. His attitudes and behaviours reminded me of people I’ve known who survived being sent to a Public School that was more a test of endurance than an education. He doesn’t have Dresden’s need to be a hero, quite the opposite. His upbringing as an apprentice to a Dark Mage has conditioned him to keep his head down, avoid confrontation with powerful magic wielders, eschew close personal attachments and distrust the motives of everyone he meets. He copes with his undying rage at the system he was raised in by keeping his emotions locked down and his humour dry. His self-imposed isolation has become so much of a habit that he no longer considers it a choice. Unlike Dresden, Verus isn’t a heavy-hitter battle mage. Verus is a Diviner. His one talent is to see possible futures in enough detail to allow him to avoid the (many) futures in which he meets a violent end. That he has survived is a sign of how well he thinks things through and how devious he can be.

The magic system in ‘Fated’ is complicated and well thought through. Although Verus explains clearly and succinctly how his magic works, I did sometime feel as if I was sitting in on a series of ‘A Novice’s Guide To Magic Fundamentals’ lectures. What stopped that from spoiling the book was that the content was interesting and each new ‘lecture’ helped me slide around a new twist in the plot.

The plot itself is pleasingly complicated. It’s filled with threats, violence, betrayals and a driving need to solve a puzzle. It introduces all the main characters, sets up the central conflict (which turns out to be more complicated than it at first appears) and demonstrates how appalling their cultural norms are. I particularly enjoyed the heist-movie-with-magic feel of the last third of the book..

I recommend the audiobook version of ‘Fated’. Gildart Jackson’s narration fits the story perfectly: emotion held in check, steel in the voice whenever needed, a Modified Received Pronunciation accent that says powerful witout quite pushing over into arrogant and suggests sarcasm as its mother tongue. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.