Book Review: An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka

Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Series: Book 1 of Stephen Oakwood

Publisher: Ace (October 10, 2023)

Length: 384 pages

Author Information: Website

As a fan of urban fantasy, I’ve been curious about Benedict Jacka’s hugely popular Alex Verus books, but as it is currently sitting at about a dozen installments, I’ve always felt a bit intimidated about getting into such a well-established series. However, when I learned that the author was kicking off a new project featuring a new world and characters, I seized upon the opportunity to jump on board.

An Inheritance of Magic introduces Stephen Oakwood, a young man at a crossroads and unsure about what to do with his future. All his friends are building careers, settling down, and making something of themselves while he is still hammering away at a temporary job and living in a rented room in London with his cat named Hobbes. No one understands that all that really matters to him is drucraft—or magic. Two years ago, an eighteen-year-old Stephen made a promise to his father, just before he disappeared, that he was going to do everything he could to keep practicing and improving his skills. Unfortunately, with no one to turn to, he’s had to figure out most of it for himself, and there is still a lot he does not know.

One day after work, Stephen returns home to find a mysterious young woman waiting at his door with a message. That night, he learns that he is a member of the powerful House Ashford and also makes some dangerous enemies. Things take a grave turn when he is attacked by a couple of goons jacked up on drucraft, and Hobbes is beaten badly and put in the hospital. Desperate to save his cat, Stephen has no choice but to seek outside help and unlock his magical potential. As excited as he is to finally learn more about the world of drucraft, he never asked to be a pawn in the Ashfords’ game, and if he is to survive being the target of his insanely rich and psychotic cousins, he’ll need to get stronger—and fast.

It’s been a while since I picked up an urban fantasy, and I was delighted that some of the themes from An Inheritance of Magic reminded me of the Rivers of London series. You begin with a protagonist who is considered an outsider to magic, watching him gradually hone his amateur skills to become more capable and powerful. The magic system is dynamic but also limited by rules—rules that may seem arbitrarily established at first but reveal an intricate design as the story unfolds. Built around the concept of magical items called Sigls, the effects of drucraft are determined by the properties of these extraordinary artifacts and the way they are created. But there is another layer of complexity to this system, one that involves social class and wealth.

For you see, drucraft has become a big money maker for individuals and corporations who control its products and resources, like the essentia wells that provide the fuel to power drucraft and create Sigls. Someone like Stephen who practically lives hand to mouth has almost no chance of breaking into the world of drucraft dominated by super-rich families like House Ashford, with our protagonist receiving a rude awakening when he realizes that even getting his foot in the door will require going further into debt.

Despite the intricacies of the magic system, I liked how I was eased into the world of drucraft alongside Stephen, who is also just now picking up on ins-and-outs as he learns on the fly. This does mean that huge chunks of the book are dedicated to simply throwing explanations at you, though to its credit, the narrative never blatantly resorts to info dumping, nor does the pacing ever truly suffer despite having to take care of some “housekeeping duties” that don’t pertain directly to the plot.

Like most urban fantasy series, I do expect we’ll have to go through a book or two before things really pick up, but I believe An Inheritance of Magic is a fantastic start that has a lot of potential. It’s also an entertaining but comfortable read if you’re a fan of the genre, meaning it won’t break too much new ground but at least you’ll have a lot of fun reading it. Stephen Oakwood is your everyman character—sympathetic and relatable in these harsh economic times—and I’m interested in finding out more about his life and his journey. Especially in light of the huge surprise the final page leaves us with, you can definitely count me in for the next book.