Charming

Charming
by Elliot James
Orbit, 2013. 480 pages. Fantasy.

Book one of the Pax Arcana series (of which book five, In Shining Armor, was released this April), Charming introduces John Charming, ex-knight Templar, occasional monster hunter, and secret half-werewolf. John reluctantly joins a valkyrie, a priest and a psychic as they hunt a vampire with radical new ideas about who should run the world. Within this frame, James expertly establishes his kitchen-sink style mythos and magic of the “Pax Arcana” that keeps it hidden from the rest of the world.

Charming pulls off that elusive unicorn of creative writing; funny dialogue that feels organic. James breathes life and believability into his characters, especially the antagonists. Picking this up for the first time a few nights ago, I was interested initially by the back cover of the newest book in the series, so I started at the beginning. Even knowing there would be further installments, the narrative kept me in suspense. Most of the material keeping the book from being a clean read was superfluous, but neither was it gratuitous or vulgar. I appreciated the candor of discussing mature topics (such as the prospect of a relationship or the best way to incapacitate an immortal snake monster) without it feeling too racy or graphic. I finished Charming excited to see where the next installments take John and his friends.

JMS