City of Broken Magic
Mirah Bolender
Tor
November 20th, 2018
Laura has been apprenticed to Head Sweeper Clae for a few months now, and work hasn’t stopped being dangerous and weird. Sweepers come to the rescue when citizens forget to check that their magical amulets are still full of magic and operating without damage. When amulets are empty or damaged, that’s when magical monsters they call Infestations can take hold–and infestations like eating living things. Their city’s Sweeper team is smaller than most, as the city of Amicae lies to it’s citizens–it tells them they’re free of naturally occurring monsters, and that any occurrence of Infestations are purposefully put there by vengeful members of the mob.
When Laura and Clae kick out an Infestation in the house of a rich man, they take one of his servants as payment–one with a natural aversion to Infestations, and was suffering from severe and repeated abuse from his ‘master’. His name is Okane. Clae frees Okane and takes him as a second apprentice.
Okane senses something big is coming.
Bolender has created what I hope is the start of a series. The setting is rich and new–populated with some pretty great characters I’d love to see more of. I quite enjoyed the book–it’s entertaining and action packed.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.