Fated

Since his name kept turning up every time I reviewed an urban fantasy title, I've been meaning to give Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series a shot for a long time now. As lots of fans pointed out, comparisons with Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are inevitable. Indeed, though both main protagonists couldn't be more different, the premise of the two series nonetheless bears many similarities. Too many? Up to you to decide if that's the case or not.

With seventeen installments already published and another one coming out in 2026, Butcher's saga has grown in the telling and has become one of my favorite SFF series of all time. As such, it's impossible to say how well Jacka's own series will eventually measure up. In the end, Fated shares many of the qualities and basically the same shortcomings as Storm Front.

Here's the blurb:

Enter a “gorgeously realized world” and meet a mage destined for greatness in the first novel in the national bestselling Alex Verus series.

Alex is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London that caters to clientele who can do much more than pull rabbits out of hats. And while Alex’s own powers aren’t as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future—allowing him to pull off operations that have a million to one chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions seeking his skills to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever’s inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none....

Although Alex Verus is quite different than Harry Dresden in terms of personality, they share the same type of predicament to begin with. Both ran away from their past and are down-on-their-luck with crappy jobs. Needless to say, both will also be drawn into bigger things that will test them in ways they never envisioned. What the Dresden Files do for Chicago, it appears that the Alex Verus books will do for London, England. And when all the known diviners go to ground so as to not get involved in something that divides the Council and could have grave repercussions for anyone involved, Alex gets press-ganged by competing factions to help them recover an ancient artifact, all the while knowing that he likely won't be allowed to survive its retrieval.

Compared to Harry Dresden, Alex Verus is a more low-key character. As such, you would think that he'd be easier to relate to. And yet, at least in this first volume, I didn't find myself rooting for him like I did for the only wizard in Chicago's phonebook in Storm Front. Being virtually powerless in terms of brute strength against other mages, Alex must rely on his wits to come out on top. He's an interesting protagonist to follow, but his first-person narrative isn't as witty and entertaining as that of his counterpart from the Dresden Files. Alex doesn't have the charisma and the repartee that made Harry such a likeable character. He's a more thoughtful and humane person, mind you, yet I'm not sure he has the superstar potential that Harry Dresden had even at the very beginning. It will be interesting to see how Alex grows as a protagonist as the series progresses. The supporting cast isn't all that memorable, with the exception of Luna and her curse. I'm hoping we see more of her in subsequent installment and that Jacka will explore her relationship with Alex in more details.

One thing that's obvious from the get-go is that Benedict Jacka isn't as talented a writer as Jim Butcher was at the same stage in their careers. Jacka relies on info-dumps way too often in such a short book. He also has a tendency to use deus ex machina solutions to get Alex out of trouble, which becomes tiresome. I understand that this is the author's debut, so hopefully he will grow as a writer with each new volume. Fated offers lots of glimpses regarding lots of aspects of Jacka's universe, but nothing concrete about most of them. The magic system, in particular, could have been more fleshed out. There seems to be a lot more than meets the eye about Alex, his powers, and everything else. But until the author provides more substance, it's hard to say how much potential this series truly has.

Weighing in at barely 218 pages, Fated is a very short work. Kind of par for the course for urban fantasy, I know, and a debut at that, yet it does preclude a lot of exposition and the depth that comes with that. Still, it's a nice introduction, one that you'll go through in no time and, more importantly, one that makes you want to discover what happens next. Here's to hoping that, like Jim Butcher, Benedict Jacka will up his game with each new title and that each new addition will allow this series to reach new heights.

The final verdict: 7.5/10

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