Risen by Benedict Jacka: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Risen by Benedict Jacka

Risen ends the twelve-book-long Alex Verus series. Verus has come a long way from a minor mage keeping a magic shop in London to one of the most powerful mages in the country, thanks to some special items, like fateweaver, which allows him to choose the paths the future takes. Unfortunately it comes with a price of slowly killing him by turning him into stone.

Alex doesn’t have a lot of time left, but he still needs to handle the two major issues in his life before he dies: save his ex-girlfriend Anne from being possessed by an evil jinn, and end his megalomaniac former teacher Richard.

I’ve never entirely understood Alex’s relationship with Anne. If I recall correctly, she was an ex-girlfriend already when the series started, and all his dealings with her have made him seem like a dumped guy obsessing with his ex. For most of the series, she’s seemed happy with the choices she’s made, but Alex has to know better. That the jinn does become the master of her in the end is exactly the ‘I told you so’ moment she calls it—and she still hopes he leaves her alone. He doesn’t.

His dealing with Richard is more satisfying and it’s left to the very end. Alex is at his last breath—literally, as his lungs have stopped working—and he has to pull off the impossible before dying. A death scene in first person narrative is never easy, but the author does a passable job with it.

And then he immediately ruins the poignant moment by jumping to his author voice to mock the reader. I’ve seldom encountered a stupider move in a book, and I can’t believe his editor allowed it to go through. What did he think? That we wouldn’t read the epilogue otherwise? Not that I really cared for what happened to Alex’s apprentice Luna, but she did give us the closure with Alex and Anne. [spoiler] That she’s turned from evil to someone who bakes and happily keeps a home is something else again. Are there no other roles for women than a mother and a bitch? [end spoiler]

But most of the book is taken by an endless battle. It starts around 8% mark and continues to the very end. I don’t generally care for battles, and this was mind-numbingly long and pointless. It really didn’t add anything to the story and was merely something the reader had to suffer through to get to the main part, Anne and Richard.

Now that the series is over, I have mixed feelings about it. It had its good moments, but the best books were in the beginning. We have a closure of sorts for Alex, and that’s good enough for me.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.