I picked up the first Alex Verus book in 2017 and loved the fast paced story, the unique characters and magic. After binge reading what was available of the series I eagerly awaited each release. For some reason I thought that book 11 Forged was the final book and so when I got to the end and realised that no, there was another book to come I was thrilled!
The Alex Verus series is a sequence of urban fantasy novels now complete. It follows the story of Alex Verus, a mage with a dark past who runs a magic shop in the Camden Town district of north-west London.
Alex Verus is a diviner: a mage whose magical talent gives him the ability to perceive the short-term consequences of any action he takes. By searching through possible futures and selecting the actions that will lead to them, he can do things such as dodge attacks, throw objects with perfect accuracy, and guess someone’s password on the first try. This is impressive to normal people but less so to other mages, whose magic types let them do things such as teleport, disintegrate things, throw fireballs, or fly.
I love the play on dark and light mages and that you continually question what makes a mage ‘good’ or ‘bad’. While there are some amazing relationships and characters, this is not what I’d call a fantasy romance. It was never trying to be but I like to make a point of saying that given that my writing does have that focus on romance and I wouldn’t want someone to go into these expecting that to be a main part of the story. I’m working on a rating system that should help with this and make sure everyone knows what they’re getting into with what they read.
Alex Verus Series Order
- Fated (2012)
- Cursed (2012)
- Taken (2012)
- Chosen (2013)
- Hidden (2014)
- Veiled (2015)
- Burned (2016)
- Bound (2017)
- Marked (2018)
- Fallen (2019)
- Forged (2020)
- Risen (2021)
Catherine Croft 