Book Reviews: Ink & Sigil + Paper & Blood by Kevin Hearne

I was granted eARC access to Paper & Blood via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

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About Ink & Sigil

Ink & Sigil
Ink & Sigil Book One
by Kevin Hearne

Published 25 August 2020
Del Rey Books

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Page Count: 336
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Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails – and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.

But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.

But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective – while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.

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My Review

My Rating: 5 Stars
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I’m finally back in Hearne’s world and I’m loving every minute of it! When Iron Druid ended, I wasn’t very interested in reading stories without Atticus in them, so I didn’t read any of his work between that series and this. When I heard that this book was the start of a new series in the same world as Iron Druid, I was immediately very interested. I pre-ordered the hardback, even! Unfortunately for my reading plans, this was published shortly after I had jumped into the book review game and I was quickly swamped with galleys and complimentary ebooks with review deadlines, and this book kept getting pushed further and further down the priority list. Well, I’ve been approved for a galley of book two, so it was time to finally read this one!

I chose to listen to the audiobook through my library rather than read the physical copy I already own, and I was pleased to discover that I’ve been mentally pronouncing all the foreign words Iron Druid and Ink & Sigil correctly. I didn’t listen to the Iron Druid series (but I will for re-reads!) and I’m very happy to find that Luke Daniels is the narrator for both series. That accent! It’s perfect, and I could listen to these books on repeat forever.

Ink & Sigil introduces us to Al, Buck, and Al’s other various allies (pun not intended, but I’ll take it) working to clean up after rogue gods and druids. Yes, in fact, sigil agents exist because of THAT druid! In this book, someone is trafficking fae in the human world and has found a way to make them immune to iron.

Al and Buck are a great pair, and I look forward to seeing what sort of messes they get into as the series goes on. If I can’t have more Atticus and Oberon, I’ll Al and Buck! The lore crafted and explained in this book around special inks and how sigils work is fascinating, and exactly the level of detail combined with humour I expect from the creator of Immortali-tea. It’s also great to see and hear about familiar characters, and I loved the memory Al shared with Buck about the time he happened upon Atticus and shared a meal with him. I’m hoping we’ll get more tidbits here and there of what Atticus and co are up to now, but I’m more than prepare and happy to follow this new team.

About Paper & Blood

Paper & Blood
Ink & Sigil Book Two
by Kevin Hearne

Published 10 August 2021
Del Rey Books

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Page Count: 304
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Kevin Hearne returns to the world of the Iron Druid Chronicles in book two of a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland.

There’s only one Al MacBharrais: Though other Scotsmen may have dramatic mustaches and a taste for fancy cocktails, Al also has a unique talent. He’s a master of ink and sigil magic. In his gifted hands, paper and pen can work wondrous spells.

But Al isn’t quite alone: He is part of a global network of sigil agents who use their powers to protect the world from mischievous gods and strange monsters. So when a fellow agent disappears under sinister circumstances in Australia, Al leaves behind the cozy pubs and cafes of Glasgow and travels to the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria to solve the mystery.

The trail to his colleague begins to pile up with bodies at alarming speed, so Al is grateful his friends have come to help—especially Nadia, his accountant who moonlights as a pit fighter. Together with a whisky-loving hobgoblin known as Buck Foi and the ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan, along with his dogs, Oberon and Starbuck, Al and Nadia will face down the wildest wonders Australia—and the supernatural world—can throw at them, and confront a legendary monster not seen in centuries.

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My Review

My Rating: 3.5 Stars
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I was granted eARC access to Paper & Blood via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

You know the phrase “be careful what you wished for?” I wished for more Atticus and Oberon. Sorry, Connor and Oberon. Unlike the various times Atticus had to take on other monikers in the Iron Druid series we don’t revert to calling him Atticus in familiar company here, and it honestly threw me for a loop at first wondering if Atticus had trained up an apprentice Connor and passed on the “Iron Druid” title. I’m seeing some early reviews coming in from reviewers who admit they didn’t read the Iron Druid series who feel lost, but honestly, I feel lost too and I did read the series. I loved it and wasn’t ready for it to end! These books aren’t supposed to be very far into the future, but Atticus/Connor feels like he has aged significantly. For a man who’s already lived hundreds of decades, a decade or less shouldn’t have that effect. Yeah, Ragnorok didn’t go well, but he’s had some life-altering run-ins with the gods before. He spent most of the last millennium as the only living druid for goodness sake! Connor feels centuries older than the Atticus we parted with at the end of Scourged. Minor spoiler for the Iron Druid series: [And you know what makes me mad? The nearly-immortal magic man who survived being BEHEADED apparently can’t regrow an arm. This is somewhat addressed within Paper & Blood, but not early enough to have quelled my annoyance before it bubbled too much.]

Putting Connar and Oberon aside and treating this book as the second book in a brand new series, pretending we don’t already know Connor and Oberon, this book is okay. It’s not great, it’s not terrible. I’m liking Al more and more, which is impressive considering I already called book one a 5/5 star read and said if I can’t have more Atticus and Oberon then I’ll gladly take Al and Buck. I love how much more we get to know him and his story, and all the answers we’re getting to questions we didn’t know we had about his employees. (Favourite quote: “Do you know what she is?” “She’s Canadian.” …)

The reappearance of The Morrigan and her attempt at living a new life is very entertaining and I can’t wait to follow this storyline more. I love all the ambiguous answers and even more unanswered questions about who/what “Gladys Who Has Seen Some Shite” really is. This book had some very entertaining moments and a whole lot of character and world-building.

In terms of the overarching series plot, this book doesn’t make progress. Iron Druid definitely had that problem too with some books being more tangential than necessary, but not so early on in the series. Al doesn’t really make any progress on the curse conundrum, and Buck definitely fell into Oberon’s shadow and became the annoying sidekick next to a much cuter, more innocent goof.

I’m still very much looking forward to continuing this series and I hope my disappointments with this one are just a sign of the dreaded “middle book syndrome” striking unfortunately early. I’m also optimistic about the future of Connor/Atticus as a character in this series. I can see the potential for a redemption/restoration arch for him, and I really hope that whenever Al and Connor part ways for good that we’ll be parting ways with Atticus, not Connor.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, if you’ve read book one, and I’ll add that you should probably also be familiar with the original series. I wouldn’t say you need to have finished The Iron Druid Chronicles, though this book does contain a spoiler for book nine, but you’d probably be better off knowing more about “Connor” than Al does before starting this one.

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