ARC Review: Stephen Oakwood #1

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka

Publication Date: October 10, 2023

Summary from NetGalley:

The super-rich control everything—including magic—in this thrilling and brilliant, contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.

The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by . . . magic.

Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat.

But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge. To survive, Stephen will have to take his talent and build it up into something greater—for only then can he beat them at their own game.

ARC provided by Berkley Publishing via Netgalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I really enjoyed this book, which was surprising as there wasn’t a whole lot of action, but a lot of character development which usually bores me. But I so enjoyed this main character and his personal journey of self discovery, that the lack of action really didn’t bother me.

I really, really liked spending time in Stephen’s head. He is a young man who is really struggling with all of life’s challenges, and really he just wants to belong. He was very relatable and such a decent guy, but he is also a bit naive. He is also the definite underdog in this fight, and struggling to figure out all of the puzzle pieces. When we first meet at the start of the book, Stephen is just getting by, and really has no time for working on his Drucraft, aka magic. He spends the majority of the book learning more about his magic, and in this way, we learn all about it too. All of this self discovery makes him a well fleshed out character that you end up loving and rooting for.

Stephen does have a pretty good support system with his friends who come to his aid when he needs it, especially Collin. I really liked Collin, who didn’t believe in Drucraft, but was willing to go along with and support Stephen. There are some other characters who also help him along the way, that were fun to see him interact with. I especially liked Father Hawke who made him read up on theology, before answering some of his questions. The best character though who supported Stephen no matter what was his cat, Hobbes, who just kept his spirits up when they were low and defended him when needed.

The story ends up to be quite a simple one, but the magical system is complex which bogged down the story a bit. Stephen spends the majority of his time learning how to use his magic better, basically with little guidance, and avoiding being killed. The author also covers lots of societal issues like class, worker exploitation, the working poor and how the uber rich have all of the power. All of this is done smoothly and works into the story quite well. The pacing is pretty steady, but does at times get bogged down in the details of Drucraft. Even with all of the descriptions and details given about Drucraft, I still came away from the story without a full understanding on how it works. It is one of the most complex systems I have come across, but really fascinating too.

This is one of the more enjoyable urban fantasy that I have read in awhile. It is a solid start to what I hope will be long series. I really enjoyed reading about Stephen and his journey into Drucraft and self discovery, and look forward to seeing how it continues in the next book.