A Judgement of Powers by Benedict Jacka

I would like to thank Orbit for an advance copy this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Orbit

Published - Out Now

Price - £22 hardback £12.99 ebook

Stephen Oakwood's ambitions used to be simple. Pay his bills, track down his father, and take care of his cat. Maybe study a little magic after work, if he had time.

Now it's a year later and he's got everything he wanted. But it's come with a price.

The Winged, a mysterious group involved with his father, have noticed Stephen, and they want him to join them or else. His career as a corporate locator has hit a dead end. And his new job as bodyguard to Calhoun Ashford is proving a lot more lethal than expected due to assassination attempts from outside the House, and possibly also from within.

To survive, Stephen's going to need allies of his own. And along the way, he's going to have to figure out the secret of his own gift, and what it means. The cults, Houses, and corporations of the magical world are locked in an endless battle for dominance, and Stephen is beginning to realize that he's going to have to pick a side . . . before someone else picks it for him.

Warning this book follows on from An Inheritance of Magic and An Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka there will be some spoilers

Now this is an interesting book to review. The third in an ongoing series. It’s not a book a new reader can safely enter into. It’s not a massive game changing instalment of the series but Benedict Jacka’s A Judgement of Powers is the latest instalment in the Inheritance of Magic series and this fantasy novel tackles really well one of my pet peeves in writing - infodumps, and uses these scenes so well to resolve storylines, set up future books and yet build around a plot is worth a discussion. I really liked how this books quietly like its main character had a plan and gets on with making things happen.

Stephen Oakwood is a working class twenty year old man in London who can see magic. He can now also use those essentia to form and harness magical devices this skill is known as drucraft and is part of a secret global magical economy run by many great houses one of which House Ashford Stephen is related to via his mother who abandoned him many years ago. Stephen is now known to the family and does the odd job, he is also able to seek well of essential and has become aware there is an underground criminal world trading in this too. He’s also become aware of a dangerous group known as the Winged who nearly cost him his life. After many years his father has got back in touch and and Stephen needs answers to work out his next steps.

If you enjoyed the previous two books then I think you’ll have a lot of fun here. A lot of long running series can eke out a mystery for many books and I really liked how Jacka uses this third outing to bring some long simmering storylines to the sudden boil. We get to meet Stephen’s father at last, we get an explanation for Stephen’s abilities and Stephen finally gets more involved in House Ashford. He also develops his ow plans. By the end we sense more books will delve deeper into these developments.

I already like this series for doing with strangest of things making me enjoy a book with an in depth magic system so Jacka wins me over with another thing I hate infodumps. A bad infodump for me is where character a tells character b important plot points that the reader needs to know to follow a plot and the scene is so clunky when you realise both character should understand their world anyway, also the explanation goes on….and on….and on and the listener did nothing. Jacka avoids this and has lots of scenes where things are shared but actually used some emotions stakes.

We know Stephen finally meeting his father after years is important and the emotional beats that are played here work just as much as the explanation of his past. Jacka puts tension before and after the scene as we realise both are in danger and that the Winged are somehow involved in all of this family drama.

Stephen and the mysterious Father Hawke chat about Stephen’s growing powers and the explanation here is an infodump you do not expect. It’s a big revelation and changes the wider world we have known. For a series that has so far tried to make magic almost a mix of business and science this makes the story branch into different directions and we feel Stephen’s own confusion throughout the scenes afterwards as he decided whether or not to accept it.

Finally there is a fascinating battle of wills between Stephen and Charles Ashford the essential CEO mogul of the Ashfords who has shown little love for Stephen and uses him more a blunt tool. Their scenes here are really good as Stephen tried new ways to get Charles to share confidences. Here the intrigue side of the storylines are getting shared. We see Stephen growing in a different set is skills - managing intrigue but he is not yet in Charles’ league. There is a lot of cat mouse in these scenes as well as revelations about what the Winged are up to. This leads to a pretty remarkable revelation ending the book and making you very keen to read the next book to discover what happens next.

For me the key is the series has invested time in the characters and worlds so you want to know more. It’s a lot harder where infodumps are used purely to explain the plot very early on and I neither care about the world or characters yet to find out more. At a technical level this really worked for me and got my attention yet again.

It also helps that while relatively speaking this story feels plot light it has two excellent set pieces connecting the story. One a heist by Stephen and his friends is done with tension, action and starts to show Stephen is no longer on his own and I suspect we shall see more of this cast in future now they are showing what they bring to the table.

Finally there is a devastating final action sequence where Stephen gets into immense danger and comes up against a very powerful adversary. Again Jacka knows how to write these scenes so they speed along and you feel every blow and tactic as well as crucially emotional stakes. It adds to the wider storyline and starts to hint at new directions for various characters.

On its own it’s good read but as a fan of the series I really appreciate how nimbly a series here changes direction like an oil tanker and ye delivers emotional payoffs so skilfully I didn’t mind even when I can see the technical joins as to why these things are happening (reviewer brain is a wonderful l thing) I had immense fun reading this and definitely recommend it to fans of the series!