Wednesday, March 17, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

 



Ink & Sigil is the first in a new urban fantasy series by author Kevin Hearne, set in the same world as his Iron Druid Chronicles (which I have not read).  I'm not too familiar with Hearne's work, having not even realized I had DNFed a comedy book he co-wrote until after I finished this novel, but this book was recommended highly by one of the authors/editors I follow on twitter, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  So that, plus my love of Urban Fantasy, made me decide to give this one a shot with an open library borrow.  

And I enjoyed Ink & Sigil a bunch - it's a short first novel, featuring a cranky "sigil agent" (basically a wizard whose magic is based entirely on drawing sigils with special ink) dealing with being cursed, interactions with the fae, and humans who get too ambitious for their own good and get involved with the supernatural.  The Scottish setting works really well, as does the voice of the protagonist and the side characters, keeping things generally pretty light and humorous even in some dark situations, and the whole thing works without any foreknowledge of this universe.  I can't say yet whether I will add this to my list of favorite urban fantasy series that I consume at the moment, but I'm definitely interested in seeing where things go from here.  

---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Al MacBharrais is a Sigil Agent, one of just six in the world.  His job, as tasked by Brighid, First among the Fae, is to use magic sigils - specially designed and written in special ink - to enforce the boundaries of our world against the underlings of extraplanar gods, fae, monsters, and everything else who might want to enter our world.  It's a shite job, made even worse by a curse placed upon him by some enemy unknown that makes anyone who hears his voice for too long start to hate him, necessitating him "talking" via text to anyone he actually likes.  Well, that and the odd habit of his apprentices seeming to all die in random accidents.  

The seventh of those apprentices, Gordie, choked to death on a scone with raisins.  Which would be stupid enough on its own, except that when investigating the scene, Al discovers that Gordie was doing work on the side for someone dark, with magical connections, and was involved in some illicit trade of fae trafficking.  Gordie was Al's responsibility, and so Al along with the hobgoblin found at Gordie's death scene and his employee Nadia, (a battle seer) is forced to investigate what exactly is going on.  And what Al finds will require all his magical skill, his allies, and a whole lot of luck to survive..... 
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Ink & Sigil is told from the first person perspective of Al, in his very Scottish accent and dialect (as explained helpfully in a preface that begins the book).  It's a voice that generally works very well, as Al is a really enjoyable character who doesn't quite fit the usual urban fantasy mold: he's far from young, with a deceased wife and kid old enough to have grandkids and he's absolutely from the start used to and utterly involved with the magical world out of his own voluntary choice - unlike a lot of first book urban fantasy heroes.  Being a sigil agent is Al's job, and he's more than willing to cross some ethical lines to get that job done, and will swear an awful lot along the way, but he's a good guy at heart trying to do good even when it's not quite his responsibility and probably will draw him unwanted attention, which makes him easy to root for, even if he kind of is an ass at times.

The world here - which to me is brand new since I've not read the Iron Druid books - is drawn out very well so as to fit both this story and any continuations.  This is an urban fantasy where all myths are seemingly true, and all mythological creatures and gods and whatnot exist on other planes....and want very often to mess with and come to the Earth. Al mainly deals with the Fae, but his job is to use those magical sigils to kick out ANY outsider underlings who try to mess with the human plane, regardless of their nature - and so when he gets evidence there's human fae cooperation going on for some reason to subvert that, he's dead on the task.  This setup allows for the book to have a bunch of fun side characters, from a hobgoblin named Buck who loves playing pranks to Al's assistant Nadia, who may look like a harmless Indian girl but as a battle seer can see attacks before they happen and dodge them without fail. Both swear and have attitudes (the swearing is notable) just like Al in their own ways, and really make the story fun for as long as it lasts.

Nothing about this story is stand-out really, but it's a lot of fun and it's not particularly long either so it never outstays its welcome.  As the first in a new urban fantasy series, the book also sets up some clear plot threads for future books to explore - for example, the question of who cursed Al and why.  And with the quick introductions of the other Sigil Agents around the world, the series promises to leave Scotland - and indeed it does here for a brief moment - to cover most of the rest of the world when appropriate.  And so we have a fun not too long urban fantasy series with a good amount of wit and amusing moments that has a lot of potential to explore lots of different situations in the future.  Which is basically what I'm hoping for when I start a new such series.

So yeah, if you like urban fantasy, Ink & Sigil will presumably be a decent choice for you, as a book that checks all the marks of what this fan of the genre is looking for in these books.  The sequel comes out in a few months, so we'll see then if the series can truly take off into something I'd recommend to those who aren't big urban fantasy fans.  Too early to tell.  

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