Kori Ember, the heroine of Shari Marshall’s fantasy series The Ember Files, has the magical ability to sense other living beings. As the second Ember volume begins, Kori and Finley Salinger (her best friend and roommate, and Belamey Adelgrief (her former antagonist turned developing love interest) are in the thick of renovations for their café, Just Flavours. Kori has recently accepted a job as a Spellbinder, working magical odd jobs for the haughty, mischievous Lord Bradig, who sends her on a mission to retrieve a mysterious object before the clever and dangerous Adria Blaze—with whom Kori has clashed before—gets their hands on it. Kori, meanwhile, is trying to sort out her conflicted feelings for Belamey, while playing referee to the constant bickering between Belamey and Fin.
Like most fantasy adventures, CHIMERA AND CURSES involves high-stakes action set against a backdrop of epic scope. And the basic premise of Kori’s magical abilities is familiar stuff—Spellbinders and non-magical “normies” live side-by-side, but normies are unable to perceive the world of magic that surrounds them—as is Kori’s romantic entanglement with Belamey. However, the book takes a breezy, broadly comedic approach to the material, with a steady stream of ribald, often raunchy humor—including more fart jokes than any other fantasy series readers are likely to encounter this year—that breathes life and an undeniably fun energy to what might otherwise be a fairly standard “magic user saves the world” tale.
The novel is certainly in no rush to get on with the (ostensible) central plot, which involves the gang being pursued by the ominously-named Society of the Blood Wind. But that’s okay, because much of its appeal is simply hanging out with Kori and her magical pals as they muddle through relatively minor challenges, like working out the decor and menu of their restaurant—should it be called “Just Flavours” or “Just Flavour”?—and deciding what to wear and eat. (The descriptions of food in the story are absolutely delicious.) The fun of CHIMERA AND CURSES lies in the details of its characters’ lives, and Marshall renders those details with a deft, polished eye for colorful, vivid imagery, especially when it’s to get a laugh (as with the “miasma of acrid mouldy hay” that follows one of the book’s fart jokes).
Readers in search of a witty, laid-back fantasy diversion will find much to love in Shari Marshall’s CHIMERA AND CURSES, a charming comic adventure full of rollicking hijinks.
~Edward Sung for IndieReader