Taken

Taken (Alex Verus 3) by Benedict Jacka

In this book, Alex Verus is tasked by the Light Council to find out why mage apprentices are disappearing. You'd think that crimes like that would be hard to cover up since some mages are “time mages” like Sonders, who can see what has gone on in the past in a certain place and follow it back to its source. However, for every measure, there is a counter-measure, which in this case involves cloaking spells. So, the Council has called in Verus, who is a divining mage, and has the opposite power of Sonders, Alex can see the future, or possible futures.

What I like about the Verus books is that Verus has what seems to be the weakest power among mages. Other mages can project flames or force blades from their hands, some can take over minds, some can teleport, but Alex can know that you might sneeze five minutes from now. By all rights, these mages should be able to crush Alex without a second thought.

Nonetheless, Alex takes his skill and a cunning mind and makes divination work, even in direct conflict with powerful battle mages. He also comes across as a decent and likable person with a core set of values. Of course, the trope for these kinds of books is that the “rogue wizard” is not affiliated with the light or the dark forces, but occupies a kind of shadow area between them. This is true of Alex, but he's more associated with the light than the dark, although the light forces don't trust him because he started out as an apprentice to a dark mage, who disappeared in questionable circumstances.

In this book, we meet Anne, who is a life mage apprentice, and Varium, who is a fire mage apprentice, who have likewise left their dark mage master under questionable circumstances. These two are the wards of Lord Jagadev, a Rakshasha, who is an enemy of all mages.

Could he be the apprentice thief? That seems unlikely since there are forces who want to kill Anne, but are prevented from accomplishing their goal by Alex's desperate efforts.

The action sequences in this book are well-written and exciting. The characters were people we could empathize with, so long as they were aligned with Alex. The villains - Onyx, a dark mages' “Chosen” from a previous book, Crystal, a mind mage, and, of course, the liche, Vitus Aubuchon - are authentic threats.

I read the prior installment in this series several years ago. I like Jacka's series back then, and have no reason for not moving on but other books got in the way. This is really a nice series to read for diversion.