My regular readers will recognise the name of Alan Baxter as I have reviewed his books several times and never found any of them wanting yet.
This is one of his earlier works and part one of a trilogy.
Alex Caine is a prize fighter in the underground fight circuit in Australia. He wins most of his fights due to an ability to see his opponent’s actions before they do it. That, combined with an almost supernatural speed, ensures he’s almost unbeatable. This lands him in trouble when a local crime lord orders him to throw a fight and he refuses.
At the same time, a mysterious Englishman tracks him down and claims to know his secret abilities. Eager to escape the guns of the crime lord, Alex flies with him to London to learn more. With his special vision, he’s asked if he can read a particularly ancient magical grimoire. The book binds itself to him and slowly but steadily tries to change him. Control of his life is important to Alex. Can he break the artifact’s hold on him before he loses himself to it forever?
“Fast-paced” barely begins to describe this book. A globe hopping adventure with magic, violence, and sex, often all at the same time, with wizards, world-wide conspiracies, ancient evils rising again, a glimpse at the supernatural creatures that live among us and give rise to many of the more enduring monster myths, and a pair of very human villains for Alex to deal with, this book gives us everything we could want in a fantasy adventure.
The quote on the front cover says it’s “Jack Reacher with a spell book” and that’s as good a description as any. It’s action-packed high stakes magical adventure, spanning continents in an attempt to save the world from an ancient evil.
If I hadn’t already known that Alan Baxter is a real-life black belt martial artist, I would have guessed from this book. He really knows how to write a good fight sequence. This book has some of the best fights I’ve read in decades.
It’s not a flawless book. The frenetic pace does mean that it falls prey to the narrative trap that he suddenly knows how to do everything far too quickly. Maybe it needed the literary equivalent of a training montage in the opening chapters rather than just reading a few books and knowing how to do it… but that’s just a minor quibble that didn’t impact my enjoyment.
The only thing that pulled me properly out of the story was when he paid for two double whiskies in a London pub and got change from a twenty-pound note… I’m fine with wizards and ancient gods and the rest of it, but that truly stretched the incredulity a touch too far. Even if it is set in 2014 when it was written, the barman should have been asking for the rest of the money
The characters are entertaining, the writing is never dull. There are even a couple of good horror moments thrown in there for good measure.
Alan Baxter seems to be a hugely versatile writer. With the exception og the Gulp and the Fall (which are similar for very obvious reasons) all his books have felt very different to each other. And all equally good.
This is crying out to be filmed. It would make such a great new franchise. Exotic locations and exciting action that feels original. In the meantime, it’s a great book and I can’t wait to read the sequel.
I bought the full trilogy signed direct from Alan himself through his website
Please do the same, let's not give Mr Bezos any more than we have to.
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