"Human reason can excuse any evil"

This is the second book in the Planetfall series. I've now read all three, and with the way I disliked (extremely) the ending of the first, Planetfall, I'm happy to say this and the third book in the sequence, Before Mars, don't have much to do with the first other than existing in the same timeline. (Although if the series keeps going the disparate plots will inevitably mesh. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.) This book is more of a straightfoward mystery and police procedural (at least for the first three-quarters of the narrative) with a pointed commentary on a horrifying dystopian future where democratic governments have fallen, swallowed up by corporations whose only motivation is profit.

Our protagonist this time around is Carlos Moreno, an investigator for the former UK's Ministry of Justice. He is pulled into a suspected murder investigation, after the death of one Alejandro Casales, the leader of an American religious cult called the Circle. Carlos and Casales have considerable history, as Carlos spent eight years of his life in the Circle and his father is still a member. But he has no choice about taking the case, as he is in indentured servitude (read: contracted slavery) to the MoJ. His investigation pulls him deep into his own past, both of his relationship with Casales and the Circle, as well as the history of the Atlas expedition, the ship that left Earth forty years before. All this comes together in a smart, well-executed thriller with a shocking ending.

Each of the Planetfall books have been mysteries to one degree or another. This is more on the police procedural side, and Newman excels at it. She lays out her clues fairly and doesn't cheat the audience, and the procedural itself, in this cyberpunk future with (almost) everyone sporting implanted digital assistants and ubiquitous cameras recording the entire human population's every move, is fascinating. But there are also other ominous themes at work: the loss of privacy, the death of democracy, and the self-destructive bent of a society that would allow both to happen.

Carlos Moreno is a well-written character with depth, a dogged investigator who overcomes his personal demons in the end. Emma Newman has done a very good job of resurrecting my interest in the series, after the disastrous (in my opinion) ending of the first novel. Now I'm invested, and am looking forward to further books in the series.

"The World is Full of Magic Things"

Kate Daniels is one of the longest running urban fantasy series around, and Magic Triumphs is the final book in Kate Daniels' and Curran Lennart's story. Needless to say, the authors throw in everything but the kitchen sink in this book, and then turn around and add that too in the explosive climax. This book is not especially fat, but feels overstuffed because so much is going on. Not only is Kate dealing with being a mother and having a child who is a shapeshifter and also a magic wielder (her son Conlan is adorable, but he is way too powerful; I hope the temptation is not succumbed to to give him a book of his own, because said story would have no suspense), but she is heading towards the final showdown with her father Roland, also known as Nimrod of Babylonian myth. On top of all this, a new monster--a god--is thrown into the mix, who wants to exterminate most of humanity and enslave the rest. To counter this new threat, Kate will have to ally with her hated and loved father, with the expectation that Roland will betray her in the end, and she will likely have to kill herself to stop him.

None of this will make any sense if you haven't read the previous books. I've read six of the previous nine, enough to kinda-sorta follow what's going on, but just be aware that the author provides no backstory or explanations, and precious little even in the way of descriptions--too much is happening, and the breakneck pace hardly allows the reader to take a deep breath. I wish this book had been longer, to allow for a few pauses and introspective moments. As it is, most of the characterizations feel rushed, as there are too many characters for much individual development. I'm sure since this is the final book, the authors didn't think this was necessary, and after all Kate has changed a great deal from the first book to this. Still, a little breathing room could have given some focus on the secondary characters, in particular Julie and Erra (although those two do get this book's epilogue, which is a simultaneous closure and springboard to other possible stories).

Nevertheless, this is a fine ending to the series. Kate and Curran get their happily-ever-after, and nearly all of the myriad other characters are accounted for. Since urban fantasy has bottomed out from what it once was, we probably won't get a series like this again. Whatever my minor reservations, this is a very good way to go out.