Ink & Sigil: Volume 1

The author can't keep their obnoxious, ignorant, and often hateful Leftism out of their books. Mentioning certain political candidates and calling everyone who voted for them "monsters". That's deplorable behavior. It's a shame because the druid books and the world the author's made are quite fun. Too bad they're spoiling it with their inability to stop themselves from pumping insulting, generalizing and political/woke drivel into their novels.

A refreshing take to urban fantasy and magic genres. We follow Al MacBharrais, a blessed and curse man that can cast spells with magically enchanted ink which he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheon especially the Fae, who teams up with his sidekick—a mischievous hobgoblin (and probably one of my favorite characters in the entire series) to seek the truth as to why all his former apprentices keep dying from peculiar freak accidents, the secret to his curse, and the investigation to his latest apprentice’s death that will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld. This was different but a good kind of different. First of all, the lead character was unlike anyone I have read in a long time. He was older than most, (50-ish) with a curse I'm sure no one would wish for. A curse that would make anyone who hears his voice begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for him so to prevent that, he typically communicates using text or speech applications. Al does break that habit when put in situations where he or someone he knows is put in immense danger and he doesn't quite have the time to sit back and text away. Now with the plot/storyline, it did at times was a bit drawn out which I believe may have just been me attempting to decipher the dialogues here and there with the strong accents that had me saying 'whaaaaaaat?', hence the skimming that was brought upon. But the magical creatures, eccentric characters, action packed scenes, and the magic itself surely made up for it so it's a no-brainer that I'm down to read more of Al and Buck and their next adventure.

As a "gun nut" I approve this book: page 265. Kevin, keep up the excellent work! So glad we have more to read in the Iron Druid Universe.