Swain's other two series are excellent, but his first foray into urban fantasy is not. Peter Warlock is a magician, who psychic friends are under attack from an assasin hired by a secret society. Peter finds out that hsi parents belonged to the same society before escaping to NY and then being tracked down and killed. While there was plenty of action, I thought it fell a little flat. ( )

A professional magician stops the release of biochemicals using his talents. ( )

So bad. I couldn't even finish it. Maybe it was the time the lead character said that he "would of" done something. Really? Would of he? What does that even mean? And also, the lead character knew just by looking who had kidnaped someone. Good grief, even my 4th grader would catch that, to say nothing of a proofreader or editor, and this is a hard cover actual book, not an ebook. So those are nit-picky editing errors (who needs an editor anyway?), but the writing and the conversations were awful. I've probably already spent more time on this review than reading the book. Terrible. ( )

http://www.literaryfeline.com/2012/05/bookish-thoughts-dark-magic-by-james.html ( )

I'm actually giving it 3.3 stars. I think this urban fantasy direction that James Swain has taken is a successful one. Using his vast knowledge of magic and psychics works well in this world he has created. I enjoyed the pacing of the story. It made it easy and enjoyable to read. The struggle the main character experiences is a classic one and I think his frustrations come through well. The main reason I did not go to 4 stars is because of the way good and evil are handled. It was a little too "christian" for my liking. I think going that route is too easy to do and seemed a bit lazy.
I'm looking forward to a continuation of this series and I hope a little more thought goes into "the other world" and "evil" besides the standard demons we all know and love. ( )