Hidden: By Benedict Jacka

HIDDEN

SUMMARY

With his talent for divining the future, Alex Verus should have foreseen his friends’ reactions to the revelations about his previous life. Anne Walker no longer trusts him—and has also cut all ties with the mage community after getting kicked out of the apprentice program. As a favor to Luna, Alex’s own apprentice and Anne’s best friend, he checks in on her only to be told to leave her alone.

Then Anne gets kidnapped. The Council Keepers of the Order of the Star believe Dark mages from her past may be involved. Working with the Keepers, Alex and Luna discover that Anne has been taken into the shadow realm of Sagash, her former Dark mage mentor, and they must find a way to rescue her.

But another shadow from the past has resurfaced—Alex’s former master may be back in London, and Alex has no idea what his agenda is…

REVIEW

When I read Benedict Jacka’s first book in his Alex Verus series I said that Jacka was an author to keep an eye on.

In Hidden he no longer is someone on the road to writing fantastic books, he’s there.

Hidden focuses on the effects of the events in Chosen, particularly Anne and Sonder’s mistrust in Alex and the dissolution of this group of friends who seemingly could take on anything. It is through this mistrust that readers get an insight into the inner working of Alex’s mind, and the beginning transformation from survivor to hero as Alex looks for a kidnapped Anne even though he will gain nothing from doing this (as she still hates him).

Readers will also get a chance to see Anne’s inner workings. Transforming her from a more two dimensional side character to a strong 3D lead character. Anne is a complicated character and seeing her dark side and what happened while she was kidnapped is fascinating.

Of course the biggest change in Hidden is the introduction of a huge new plot point that I’m assuming will drive the series forward in future books. I will not say what it is for fear of spoilers, but let me just say I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the next in the series.

All in all, Hidden was awesome. Like the other books in the series Hidden is filled with tons of action, (in my opinion fight scenes with a diviner are pretty awesome), great characters, and a well paced plot. I fully recommend it, and it is perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, and Kevin Hearne.

INFO

Publisher: Ace

Published: September 2, 2014

Price: $7.99

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Alex-Verus-Book-5-ebook/dp/B00IOE4LCM/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1409711599&sr=1-7&keywords=hidden