Three Kinds Of Lucky (The Shadow Age book 1) by Kim Harrison (book review).
Petra Grady is a sweeper, not a mage—a fact that every mage is happy to point out, feeling superior about it. All Petra and her fellow sweepers can do is handle dross, the waste left behind after magic is used, and contain it so it doesn’t cause cascading bad luck for anyone who encounters it. Despite the arrogance of mages, Petra has built a good life for herself at the mages’ university.
Now Benedict, her high school crush, believes he has found a way to make dross harmless. His research is gaining traction among the mages, but Petra and the other sweepers feel they know a bit more about dross than the mages, who often can’t even see it.
When a massive dross explosion rips through campus, Petra isn’t so sure it’s entirely Benedict’s fault. Running from rogue mage factions with dreams of world domination and the mage police force, Petra and Benedict must find a way to make sense of the disaster, even if it means upending the magic community and questioning the very nature of magic itself.
Three Kinds of Lucky belongs to a genre I think of as “somewhat-cozy supernatural urban fantasy.” These series are usually longer than a trilogy, often much longer, and feature a single viewpoint protagonist who investigates threats to their kind (mages, werewolves, etc.). They’re fun, candy-floss reads, despite often having a high gore content. I would place Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series, Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series, Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files into this category.
This isn’t Kim Harrison’s first foray into “somewhat-cozy supernatural urban fantasy.” Her Hollows series takes place in a world where magical and supernatural creatures exist, and the protagonist faces down both mundane and supernatural threats. I haven’t read Harrison’s other work, but it doesn’t seem like she’s strayed far from what has already worked well.
I’m a fan of this sort of book, especially during times of stress or travel when I want to be drawn along with a story without getting too caught up. It offers an easy, comfortable reading experience with characters facing problems that feel similar to those in the “real” world. Set in a version of our world, these stories provide a nice bit of episodic closure in each installment.
The first words that sprang to mind once I finished Three Kinds of Lucky were “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” Petra has three characters she’s somewhat close to, plus a mentor figure. Obviously, the mentor figure must tragically die with a cryptic warning on their lips. It’s the law. The other three characters are Ashley, the roommate; Lev, the neighbor; and Benedict, the professional rival/former (or not-so-former) crush. The number of times Ashley, in particular, did something Petra found somewhat suspicious was extreme. All of a sudden, after months of working together and sharing an apartment, Ashley pretty much dons a black hat and follows all the tropes of a False Friend with Hidden Disdain for Petra as laid out in TV tropes.
Then there’s Lev, the neighbor and secret mage militia member but also a secret “covert” (he isn’t very covert) agent in the separatist movement among the mages who want to rule the world. He annoyed me. He’s so anti-shadow, and then he suddenly changes sides. His conversion is too quick.
Ashley annoyed me, too. She and Petra had years together, and suddenly she’s acting suspicious, outing herself, and Petra is suspicious but not, and it’s just all angst.
I like this world and the ideas, but most characters drop long-held beliefs at the drop of a hat to further the plot, diminishing my faith in any of them and their goals. It’s a fun read but annoying with its trope-heavy characters. I’m curious about the rest of the series, but I’m not chomping at the bit to grab it.
LK Richardson
July 2024
(pub: Ace/Penguin, 2024. 464 page hardback. Price: $28.00 (US). ISBN: 978-0-59343-747-6)
check out website: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688281/three-kinds-of-lucky-by-kim-harrison/