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The Magic Wakes is a world-builder’s dream set on a planet called Sendek, with two suns, three moons, alien invaders, futuristic science and magic, and did I mention there are dragons? Yes, dragons.
Charity Bradford does a great job of blending all of these elements together to create a page-turning story and unique magic system.
The main characters, Talia and Landry, come from two different backgrounds, but their experiences, personalities and magical abilities complement each other as they work to stop an alien invasion meant to destroy them. Naturally, this collaboration leads to some romance.
The magic system is unique, but what interested me more were the repercussions of magic coming back into a world that had long forgotten it existed, especially one that had progressed scientifically. There’s no order or rules for all of these new mages.
The history of the Sendek world is interesting, and I’m curious to see what comes next in the series. There are so many routes to go, with uncontrolled magic, new baddies, space explorations, dragons disappearing, etc.
The story did seem to have chunks missing in a few places as it jumped from scene and character without fully getting into the characters’ heads and motivations. I did hear that was partially due to the last-minute edits of the publisher, with a number of scenes cut to make the book shorter for print (i.e. almost all of the sections from the Dragon’s point of view). I wish there were deleted scenes available so I could read the author’s full story. Maybe the author will be able to post them on her website, www.charitywrites.com. One can hope.
Rated: Mild. A few mild swears. No drugs or sex. A war takes place, with acts of terrorism and many people dying, some in very painful ways. But the violence is not overly grotesque or descriptive. There is a monster race of invading aliens and suspenseful situations. There’s a lot of magic-meets-tech and a budding romance story that is clean.
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