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Witches Incorporated (2008)

by K.E. Mills(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0316035440 (ISBN13: 9780316035446)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Orbit

series

Rogue Agent

review 1: Not as funny as the first one. The leads in the first book were Gerald, a down on his luck third grade wizard who had trouble holding down a job, Melissande, a princess turned bureaucrat who hid her beauty to keep from being used for political gain. The first book had some issues, but the characters both ultimately came into their own in situations that were genuinely gripping. These two return as our main protagonists. This time Gerald is a super powered secret agent determined to prevent loss of life and Melissande is Private Eye third grade wizard. Playing a bigger role are two Wizarding siblings, Bibbie and Monk Markham, who are Old Money in Ottsland, beautiful, talented, and just impish enough to be leads. However, this book starts off dreary, recapping the last boo... morek for several chapters. Melissande's hipster plight, being a working class joe by choice, is pretty unsympathetic compared to her problems in the last book. ( Nobody likes Hipsters, Meli. ) Gerald is all right, but he's just not FUN to be around anymore. Reg is less annoying, but only because her nagging and judgmental nature has now been spread to every other character in even swipes, making her tolerable but everyone else more annoying. Also, the despicable but intriguing foe of King Lional has been replaced by a team of minor baddies, all who enter and exit much too quickly for us to get a grip on their motivations. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice book, but it suffers from sequel syndrome, where the direction these characters go in the aftermath of their last adventure just doesn't live up.Also, the author isn't writing everyone with perfect love. Errol Haywaithe was fun to make fun of in the first book because he was more powerful than Gerald, but now that Gerald can out-hex him the glee has fled. The character that seems to get the most snide commentary from both Melissande's and Gerald's POV is Eudora Telford, and often it seems utterly undeserved and mean spirited. They spend a lot of this book punching down, which just isn't funny, when they even remember to tell jokes. It would be like if Harry, Ron, and Hermione in Harry Potter made snide remarks about Neville every single time he walked out of a scene. ( That's DRACO'S job, you know, the bad guy? ) You can have your losers, but you have to write them with love and realize that even the clumsiest nitwit has intrinsic value. And at least one of leads needs to see it/sympathize early on. If Gerald was disparaging but Melissande supportive or vice versa, their constant cutting down of the rest of the cast might work, but as it.... actually, that's another huge hurdle. Although their voices are distinct early on in the book, once they start being in the same place, their view points on almost all issues are identical. Which is messed up, because one is a tailor's son raised in modern Ottsland and the other is a frumpy princess raised in a modern day medieval monarchy colony. They should have so little in common, yet they both constantly fawn over Monk, they both snap at Reg identically, they both find Eudora wet, and Bibbie beautiful, and Sir Alec cold, and Errol a handsome brilliant plonker. It's ridiculous. I've been with my husband for -six years- and our reads of people are still not as in sync as Melissande and Gerald's who have spent much less time together and have much less similar backgrounds. Is this Gerald's opinion, or the authors? Without jokes, the plots not compelling enough to carry the novel, and I've spent a few hundred pages wonder when something was going to happen. It's not a terrible book, but I had really high hopes after the last one...
review 2: While I liked the debut book of this series more, I still enjoyed this book. The previous entry into the series was much more epic, and I tended to like the characters more. This book focused on a character I didn't enjoy from the first novel, and there was really no big villain. It played out more like a mystery novel where the characters have magical powers. The characters were still really strong, and the goofy nature played out well, though the tone had some problems when switching between the Witches Inc investigation and the Rogue Wizard point of view. Nonetheless, I was thoroughly entertained while reading Witches Incorporated and will be sure to pick up the next installment. less

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