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The Warlock's Curse (2012)

by M.K. Hobson(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1938860004 (ISBN13: 9781938860003)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Demimonde

series

Veneficas Americana

review 1: M.K. Hobson did a Kickstarter campaign to finance the writing of this, the third in her alternate American History Magic/Steampunk (heavier on the Magic than the Gadget)series that started with Native Star. It came as no surprise to me at all that her campaign was successful. I fell in immediate, irrevocable love with her characters from the first two books.Will and Jenny, the stars of The Warlock's Curse, were just as personable, but for me, a bit more whiny and naive than Dreadnought Stanton and Emily. Let's just say it took me longer to warm up to them.Anyway, Warlock's Curse is set many years after the second book. Will is a gifted mechanic and youngest son in a family whose Patriarch is arrogant and dictatorial and is keeping Will from a very promising apprenticeship ... morewith Tesla industries for no good reason.So Will decides to run away. Along comes Jenny, childhood friend, who also wishes to get away from her father. The solution? Marriage. As a married couple, Jenny has access to trust fund money and can help Will get to his apprenticeship.Only...Jenny's not entirely truthful about why she wants her trust fund, and Will's family aren't exactly who they say they are, and Will himself is starting to hear a very strange voice...You just can't beat Hobson's Veneficas Americana series for pure idea-driven fun (credomancy as a magical system is just so darn cool) and for creating even minor characters worthy of their own novels (Sanctity Snow the crazy, divine-inspired organist or the romance between the Unionist Briar and the Greek sangrimancer, or the love triangle between two of Will's brothers and his flapper-like sister-in-law). The writing is impeccable, the secrets revealed at just the right pace, and the characters endure real and terrible consequences for their actions.But...and here's where the book lost that last, 5th star for me, there was too big of a gap between the first and second half of the book. The first half with Will finding his way at Tesla industries while trying to find out what Jenny is up to was terrific...and then it all gets left behind on one, fatal night and everything changes. (And sadly I can't discuss any of it because it would be massive spoilerage) The second half, while very cool in its layers of conspiracy and implications, had almost nothing to do with the expectations set up in the first half of what Will might achieve with his Flume and his Tesla work at all. The story careens off into another direction and I felt a little lost between the first half and the second. (and a little shell-shocked, to tell you the truth. The first half is whole-hog YA and the second half I felt made this book probably inappropriate for my 5th grade daughter to read)Not to mention the terribly open ending with many dramatic issues unresolved. (darn you, Hobson!)There's no question I'll have to get the second in this duology as soon as it comes out to find out what happens. And along with her first duology in the series, this second one promises to be a wild ride.This Book's Snack Rating: Like those Trader Joe's dark chocolate-covered potato chips for the hardy crunch of riveting characters and world-building coupled with a startling bitterness of plot direction halfway through
review 2: "The Warlock's Curse" is the third book in a series, but you can easily read it without having read the first two books. It leaves a great deal unresolved, but it looks like a fourth book is planned that will finish the series (or at least this part of the series) off."Warlock's" follows the adventures of William Edwards, 18, and his 17 year old former childhood friend Jenny Stanton, as they bluff their way through a marriage of convenience and an apprenticeship (on his end) at Tesla Industries in Detroit, MI in 1910. As much as she's assisting William, Jenny has plans of her own, involving a large amount of money and her physically infirm sister, Claire. As he's getting established at Tesla Industries, however, the eponymous Curse rears its ugly head and things go from slightly complicated to thoroughly screwed up.Unlike Hobson's previous books, this is told from the point of view of a young man (the youngest son of her former protagonist) and the romance element is greatly reduced.Hobson is a solid writer, and does interesting things with AU (Alternate Universe) history and events, interesting world building. She fleshes out her systems of magic (especially Sangrimancy) as well. There are some elements in this book that are darker than in her previous books, but she manages to avoid "woman in a refrigerator" syndrome.I wish it had been from the POV of a woman, but maybe we'll see that with the fourth book in the series. less

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