JULY FEATURE #1: Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane

[paulgoatallen]

• 

[paulgoatallen]

The fifth installment of Stacia Kane's Downside saga (after Unholy Ghosts, Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts, and Sacrificial Magic), this is arguably my all-time favorite paranormal fantasy series. 

Here is my latest review of this highly entertaining and ground-breaking series:

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Explorations-The-BN-SciFi-and/Love-Hate-Love-Why-Stacia-Kane-...

[Fangbanger]

Paul, you got me hooked on this series, when you featured Sacrificial Magic.  I can't wait  to read this one. I am finishing up Cursed, the newest Alex Verrus novel, and then I will be devouring Chess' newest adventure.  So excited.

[SciFiCanuck]

Still have to read Sacrificial Magic yet...but I'm getting there!!  LOL

[paulgoatallen]

This series is AWESOME. My review is below, in which I call the Downside saga as "socially significant urban fantasy." Agree or disagree? I'd love to talk about these novels! 

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Explorations-The-BN-SciFi-and/Facts-are-Truth-Kane-s-Downside...

[Fangbanger]

Wow, Paul.  What a fantastic review.  I hope people read it and are encouraged to pick up this wonderful, challenging, and thought provoking series.  I was very excited when you picked this book for July and was bummed that I am just now getting around to read it.  I was afraid I was going to miss out on the conversation, and here I see there is no conversation.  This is shocking to me.  The Downside saga is  just as good as the Hollows, Mercy Thompson, Anita Black, Southern Vampires etc.  I think it is just too much for some people.  There are no easy answers.  Chess just doesn't decide to stop being an addict, because that is not how it works.  I don't see there being a happily ever after for Chess and Terrible and that may keep people from the series.  I completely agree with everything you said and hope that Stacia Kane continues on with this saga.  Chess is a fascinating and three dimensional urban fantasy heroine.  She doesn't traffic in black and white.  Everything about her is shades of gray.  She is intriguing and you feel for her.  You just want to shake her.  You see what people like Elder Griffin see in her and you just wish that she would see it for herself.  Man, I could go on.  Seriously, anyone who reads this, please read this series.  

[paulgoatallen]

---

Fangbanger wrote:

Wow, Paul.  What a fantastic review.  I hope people read it and are encouraged to pick up this wonderful, challenging, and thought provoking series.  I was very excited when you picked this book for July and was bummed that I am just now getting around to read it.  I was afraid I was going to miss out on the conversation, and here I see there is no conversation.  This is shocking to me.  The Downside saga is  just as good as the Hollows, Mercy Thompson, Anita Black, Southern Vampires etc.  I think it is just too much for some people.  There are no easy answers.  Chess just doesn't decide to stop being an addict, because that is not how it works.  I don't see there being a happily ever after for Chess and Terrible and that may keep people from the series.  I completely agree with everything you said and hope that Stacia Kane continues on with this saga.  Chess is a fascinating and three dimensional urban fantasy heroine.  She doesn't traffic in black and white.  Everything about her is shades of gray.  She is intriguing and you feel for her.  You just want to shake her.  You see what people like Elder Griffin see in her and you just wish that she would see it for herself.  Man, I could go on.  Seriously, anyone who reads this, please read this series.  

---

Fangbanger:

At the risk of overstating this, Stacia Kane's Downside saga is the most underappreciated series in the history of genre fiction!!!! This is a landscape changing sequence; it's evolutionary – no, revolutionary! – and this series SHOULD be one of the most popular series on the shelves. Chess and Terrible SHOULD be pop culture icons, these novels SHOULD be released in hardcover, and Stacia Kane SHOULD be raking in the $$$ like Charlaine Harris and GRRM because there SHOULD be a television show or movie being made based on this storyline!!!!!!

Getting off of soapbox now...

[MADIS]

I just got this book back.  I was in the middle of several other things when I got it so I gave it to a friend to read first.  I cannot wait to read it.  I am really surprised there has been no discussion about the book.  Paul says that it is under-rated, and this could not highlight his point better.  I am just so surprised that, on this board, there are not more avid fans.  I realize, and believe I have stated on the board before, that some of the subject matter could make some apprehensive.  BUT, it is by no means offensive.  Tackling difficult subject matter in a way that can make you understand a different perspective is, to me, the most important theme in this genre.  I must be missing something.

[BrandieC]

@MADIS:

I don't think you're necessarily missing something.  I think this series is fantastic, but I haven't had a chance to get to this book yet, so I can't talk about it on this thread.  Even after I've read a book, sometimes I don't have anything I particularly want to say other than "I loved it," which doesn't really lead to a lot of discussion.

[paulgoatallen]

As a reviewer – and as a guy whose job it is to make readers aware of "the good stuff" – this series will go down as my biggest disappointment. It is beyong great – it's thematically powerful, genre-transcendent, and so brilliantly original... this should be up there with the elite urban fantasy series. It's just sad to see these novels not getting any traction...