Fated

Author Essay

Fated is the first in Benedict Jacka’s terrific new urban fantasy series set in an alternate London. We love this book over here at Ace! It has action, a touch of humor, and its own fresh spin on the premise of a wizard in modern times—perfect for readers who thrilled to Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series and are looking for more authors to read. In Fated, Alex Verus is an ordinary man who lives in central London and runs a shop. Or at least that’s what most people think. In reality, Alex is a diviner, and he’s part of a hidden world of mages, adepts, apprentices, magical creatures, and mythical beings, a world that has its own secret history down through the ages. Alex may not be able to sling fireballs or lightning like the elemental mages, but what he does have is knowledge: knowledge of the most likely outcomes, knowledge that a friend is about to be attacked, knowledge that if he stops HERE and ducks THERE he’ll be able to pull off an operation that has a million to one chance of succeeding. When Alex is approached by not one but multiple factions seeking his skills to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows whatever’s inside must be beyond powerful…and it might just get him killed. We invite you to read the excerpt of Fated for yourself, and see why Patricia Briggs called it a “stay-up-all-night read,” and Jim Butcher said “books this good remind me why I got into the storytelling business in the first place.”