Bitten by Books
The third book in the Twenty Palaces series delivers a gritty knockout of a novel to the reader. Ray Lilly, Wooden Man for the Twenty Palaces Society, does not get much of a respite after the soul-destroying work he had to perform to contain a deadly Predator from the Empty Spaces, (featured in book two, Game of Cages) a few weeks before this book begins.
A woman from Ray’s checkered past as a member of a car theft ring in Los Angeles suddenly appears in his apartment, telling him that he has killed her and his friends from his old life, before disappearing. Ray knows something is stinky about that, since they were alive and well when he left L.A. for his stint in prison.
Ray drives to Los Angeles to investigate this strange appearance, looking up his old friends and former flame, Violet. He realizes that Wally King, an enemy of the Society and a sorcerer who is using dark powers to open doorways into the Empty Spaces, has involved his friends in his deadly magical business. Ray needs to find out if he can save his friend, and prevent more Predators from being called into this world, because one Predator is enough to destroy the whole world.
Circle of Enemies is very dark urban fantasy. The violence is often brutal and the motivations of many of the characters are distinctly gray, morally speaking. Even Ray is far from a golden boy, but he is definitely the hero of this piece. Ray shows that being a hero often involves making tough decisions on the fly and diving in far above your head. At times, Ray is not sure if the Society is any better than those unwise persons who try to use the magic available to them that comes with a hefty price. All he knows is that his job is to protect the world from the Predators, and he cannot do anything less.
Even though I found myself wincing at the gruesome elements, I could not put this book down. The storyline is very inventive with a distinctive twist on magic. In this series, magic comes with the cost of opening a doorway to a world full of inhuman monsters who just want to feed and devour everything. Closing those doors and stopping the monsters requires a level of ruthlessness that can lead to some cringe-worthy moments, The consequences of taking power and opening oneself up to the magic from the Predators means the magic users become less human and more nightmarish with each spell and use of their borrowed abilities.
The tone is very much crime-noirish, which adds to the already dark tenor of a storyline about voracious magical monsters and unscrupulous magic users. Circle of Enemies is an excellent follow-up entry in the Twenty Palaces series-definitely worth checking out for readers who enjoy dark urban fantasy novels where magic and the otherworldly meets the everyday.
Book Stats:
- Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Del Rey; Original edition (August 30, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345508912
- ISBN-13: 978-0345508911
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Books in the Twenty Palaces series in the order they should be read:
Child of Fire
Game of Cages
Circle of Enemies
Review Overview
Overall Rating
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Summary : The tone is very much crime-noirish, which adds to the already dark tenor of a storyline about voracious magical monsters and unscrupulous magic users. Circle of Enemies is an excellent follow-up entry in the Twenty Palaces series--definitely worth checking out for readers who enjoy dark urban fantasy novels where magic and the otherworldly meets the everyday.
