Ink & Sigil

I had so much more fun with this than I expected to from an urban fantasy. I've been subtly steering away from that sub-genre for a while now because I've recently read a few duds that didn't work out for me, but Hearne's humour and writing style just made it work.

Al MacBharrais is a Glaswegian sigil agent in his 60s just wanting to train a good apprentice up to mastership level so that he can retire and enjoy his life. His latest apprentice unfortunately dies in yet another freak accident (choking on a raisin scone), making him the latest of seven apprentices to have met premature ends. Add to that the fact that this latest apprentice seems to have been using sigil magic for nefarious purposes, Al knows that he needs to undo this mess threatening the precarious barrier between humanity and the Faeries. He is joined by a smart-talking, Shakespeare-watching, salsa-guzzling hobgoblin and an Indian goth lesbian Battleseer who doubles up as his manager and accountant (to falsify taxes, of course). There is also that inconvenient curse on Al's head that prevents him from speaking directly to people if he doesn't want them to hate his guts immediately.

If all that sounds up your alley, then you'll probably have a fun time with this one. It's got that chaotic energy a la Douglas Adams, and with an extremely healthy dose of modern technology (Al has to use text-to-speech app to communicate with almost everyone in the book just so they don't start hating him for no reason). The plot in itself isn't super convoluted or complex really, this is a book where you need to be in for the ride, the world, and the characters. That's not to say that the plot isn't good - it does leave enough of a hook for me to want to read the next instalment in the series and find out more about what's going on. But in comparison to the crazy world that we're dealing in, the plot does take a bit of a backseat.

There is also something endearing about our hero, Al. It's rare that we get a fantasy hero who is way past his physical prime, and isn't oversexed. There isn't any romance in this book at all, and it doesn't need any, IMO. Al's devotion to his late wife, who passed in an auto accident more than a decade prior, is honestly pretty sweet and a dynamic that I wish we saw more often in mainstream books these days. The hobgoblin that tags along with him, Buck Foi (yeah, make of that what you will), also had me rooting for him by the end by being wicked silly but also not in the least malicious. Rounding out the trio is Nadia, Al's manager, who won me over from the very beginning because, I mean, she's just badass AF.

The magic system in this world isn't all too complex. Sigil agents pass down the knowledge of sigil magic, which is when you draw certain patterns with specific types of ink in order to assert a magical effect. You don't need to be a magical being to perform that kind of magic, you just need to know things. I like that the five sigil agents in the world were spread out across it, with Al taking care of the European continent from Glasgow, and also a Taiwanese lady, Mei-ling, taking care of North Asia, and her erstwhile apprentice, Shu-hua, taking care of Australia. I also really liked that at some point in the book, Al explains that sigils were derived and adapted from Taoist talismans, which are an actual thing and still extremely commonly used in Chinese fantasy and wuxia novels/dramas, while also being used in Taoist rites and temples sometimes. It's a fairly unique system of magic which I enjoyed.

If there might be a flaw that I could find in this book, it might be that readers might find the world and threads of plot and magic system a bit too overwhelming. There always seems to be twenty things happening at one time, and fifty pieces of information that you need to know. I found that it wasn't a huge problem if you just didn't take the whole thing too seriously and just went along for the ride. Hearne does a good job recapping certain pieces of info if it was immediately necessary to understand a plot situation happening at that time.

Overall, a great book that I'd definitely recommend to urban fantasy fans, or those who enjoy Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. I'm certainly looking forward to reading the next instalment in the series, and will also be checking out the author's other established series, the Iron Druid Chronicles, which came first in setting up the world that this one takes place in.