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Chosen (Alex Verus Book 4) by [Benedict Jacka]

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Benedict Jacka

Chosen (Alex Verus Book 4) Kindle Edition

by Benedict Jacka (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

761 ratings

Book 4 of 12: Alex Verus

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THE NEW ALEX VERUS NOVEL

I don’t publicly advertise that I’m a mage, but I don’t exactly hide it either, and one of the odd things I’ve learnt over the years is just how much you can get away with if you’re blatant enough. Hide something behind smoke and mirrors and make people work to find it, and they’ll tear the place down looking for what’s there.

Alex Verus is a diviner who can see probable futures—a talent that’s gotten him out of many a tough scrape. But this time, he may be in over his head. Alex was once apprenticed to a Dark mage, and in his service he did a lot of things he isn’t proud of.

As rumors swirl that his old master is coming back, Alex comes face to face with his misdeeds in the form of a young adept whose only goal is to get revenge. Alex has changed his life for the better, but he’s afraid of what his friends—including his apprentice, Luna—will think of his past. But if they’re going to put themselves at risk, they need to know exactly what kind of man they’re fighting for…

Print length

306 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ace
Publication date

August 27, 2013
Grade level

12 and up
File size

1148 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Jacka puts other urban fantasists to shame with the fourth Alex Verus novel (after Taken), a stellar blend of thoughtful philosophy and explosive action populated by a stereotype-defying diverse cast. Verus, who can see myriad possible futures, has carved out a niche for himself in an alternate London divided between equally self-serving Dark and Light magicians. Having taken in three troubled students—forthright curse-wielder Luna, quiet life mage Anne, and sullen fire mage Variam—he's not quite sure how to help them find their feet. Then Verus is attacked by Will Traviss, whose sister Verus abducted back when he was a naïve Dark apprentice. Besieged by Will's gang of adepts, Verus reluctantly enlists hard-hitting allies, wanting to protect himself and his wards while sympathizing with the vulnerable young idealists who commit violence in the name of righteousness. The protracted final battle is both dramatically destructive and emotionally brutal, with Jacka never letting any character get away with easy answers to the hard questions of life in a perpetual magical war zone. (Sept.) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

"Each book in this engrossing series outshines the one preceding it...Urban fantasy readers who have not yet made Alex's acquaintance are advised to do so immediately."

-- "Bitten by Books"

Jacka puts other urban fantasists to shame with the fourth Alex Verus novel, a stellar blend of thoughtful philosophy and explosive action populated by a stereotype-defying diverse cast.-- "Publishers Weekly Starred Review" --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B7NPSII
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace (August 27, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 27, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1148 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #231,014 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,181 in Humorous Fantasy (Books)
- #1,238 in Superhero Fantasy eBooks
- #1,456 in Superhero Science Fiction

Customer Reviews:
761 ratings

About the author

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Benedict Jacka

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Benedict Jacka became a writer almost by accident, when at nineteen he sat in his school library and started a story in the back of an exercise book. Since then he's studied philosophy at Cambridge, lived in China, and worked as everything from civil servant to bouncer to teacher before returning to London to take up law.

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Top reviews from the United States

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Jason Hornbuckle

Series starting to drag

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2021

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I have enjoyed this series up to this point and there are still elements of it that I like. It's essentially a British Dresden Files and it's got some twists and the hero isn't over powered and the macro view of it from 1000 ft in the air is very positive.

The problem I have with it though is that the small issues that have been present the entire time are starting to overwhelm the plot of the story.

Benedict has been desperate to tell the story of Alex's former master this entire time, and insists on darkly hinting about their lurid history multiple times per book. It's really pretty silly since you don't actually have to know everything about a character to enjoy a book about them but whatever. So finally he spills the story in this installment and it is literally the least offensive "dark origin" possible, where the hero's monstrous past is revealed to be just that he didn't care enough about the bad things other people were doing while he himself did nothing wrong. I'm sorry, but that's terrible. It's just really really cheap and a coward's way out, where the hero can still be a hero but also regret things and no one can really be too hard on him.

On top of that, all of Alex's "friends" are 10 years younger than him, at least. He has no real contemporaries. He has no one he looks up to, except a giant spider. Their relationship is very two dimensional too. So really all the dialogue in the book is Alex talking down to kids who act like kids. There is no real conversation, just him responding to impulsive decisions or to childish outbursts. It's pretty stale. Generally speaking 70% or so of the conversations in all of these books is Alex arguing with a "friend" about something that no one cares about and the argument is not resolved so the they have to continue it later. It's time-wasting and not interesting.

Another issue I've had the whole series, and one which is common to a degree in all British fantasy novels, is that guns are portrayed in a way that's so absurd that it hurts the credibility of the story and of the author too, really. EVERY gun is either a H&K MP5 or a Glock pistol, except Alex has a .45 1911. EVERY other gun in the country is one of those 3 types. The author knows nothing about guns, which becomes clear the more he writes about them. Alex has a gun for "protection" but like all British fantasy protagonists, has to apologize again and again for owning one, to other characters and the reader, and basically has to treat it like it's radioactive. In a fantasy world of death spells and life-draining magic, the item handled with the most superstition and dread by the protagonist is a pistol that hundreds of millions of people own in real life. It's just hard to credit and on top of that he never even uses the thing when his life is on the line. He gets all geared up to fight 200 bad guys and leaves the gun at home but takes a knife with him.

Which reminds me: Benedict's obsession with knives is childish bordering on ridiculous. Alex kills 90% of the people he kills with a knife. He doesn't seem to have any particular training with one either. The idea that a mage would rely on a knife as his go-to weapon to kill other magic users is so completely ridiculous too. I mean it makes no sense, people are firing fireballs or lightning at each other or flying through the air and he's sitting there with the knife like "any second now!" and everyone else respects him for being so amazing with it. It's ludicrous. It's not even a magic knife.

Anyway these issues were all present in books 1 and 2, but the plot overcame them. They started to sort of creep in worse in 3 and now in this one they're kind of annoying. In book 5, they almost totally overwhelm the story, especially the "pointless arguments with pointless people" thing. I haven't read any further than that yet but I hope it gets better if I do.

Other than the above, this series is pretty good. I do appreciate that the hero doesn't have it easy and has to work at things a bit in order to save the day and I do appreciate that he's kind of the guy on the outside looking in at the magical community. But his personal relationships need a total overhaul by the author and the combat aspects of it need a serious look as well.

3 people found this helpful

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Alex's Dark Mage History is Explored

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2019

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This is my favorite book of the series so far. One of the best things about this series is it follows a Mage who did some time on the Dark side and is now neutral. He isn't blame free, guilt free or completely innocent. But he seems real in that he made some bad choices and now most of the time he tries to help people but, when push comes to shove he can and will walk on the other side of the line of Good and Bad (it's all perspective really) and do whatever needs to be done to survive.

There seemed to be a lot going on in this and so the story moved by even faster than normal.

❶ - Alex is working with an entire band of magical misfits now, two of whom are living with him.

❷ - There is a group of Mages and Adepts called the Nightstalkers actively trying to kill Alex.

“Right, you’re a good guy now.” Will’s voice was sarcastic. “You think you get to walk away? You’ve had enough and now everyone should leave you alone?”
“Yes! I walked out of that life! I’m not asking for anything from anyone, I just want to be left alone! It’s been ten years, isn’t that long enough? Isn’t there some point where you stop being the person you used to be and it stops being right to blame them for what they’ve done?”

❸ - There was a ton of movement on the Deleo/Rachel history and what happened to make her who she is today. I really liked how Shireen played into that and what it means for Deleo.

❹ - Alex’s backstory with Richard gets flushed out a lot more and we get to see some of the horrors he survived at Richards hands and how it was a slippery slope of choices that he just barely escaped.

❺ - Luna is FANTASTIC!!! I love how well she is learning to control her curse and how she always stands up for Alex.

Alex, is Alex and no matter what it is pretty simple for the most part. If it is a choice between him and the people trying to kill him…well he is going to choose him. The way his powers work though make it even more evident that while he might not pull the trigger against someone, when he decides they are better dead he has a thousand tricks up his sleeve.

There are some very dark undertones to this series at times, the Dark Mages and Light Mage to for that matter do terrible things. A lot of it is off page though or hinted at but never really shown. I like and hate that all at the same time. I don’t want to see someone sacrificed or tortured and most of the stuff like that is left to my imagination. I think for this story it works decently but I sometimes wonder why the author doesn’t ‘show’ more of these scenes in the writing. At the same time, I’m grateful that while I know someone was raped and brutalized, I also didn’t have to see it. *shrugs* I hope you understand what I mean, there is a fine line between showing enough and being too graphic and I’d like to see just a smidge more in some regards, but not too much more.

There is some big fallout in this and I’m very curious about Anne’s reactions. I like her character for the most part but there is something in her past that is coloring how she reacts in this book and I’m very curious to see what that is.

Arachne as always is fantastic and I love the new suit she made for Alex. I totally wish I had a giant spider seamstress of my own, she makes the best things. I’m a little sad we haven’t seen Starbreeze for a while, I hope she remembers to come visit Alex eventually.

Another book in the series complete and after that end chapter I think the poop is really going to hit the fan in the next installment, so it is time to get my popcorn ready.

5 people found this helpful

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Jason C

We get some answers in this book

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2021

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This is a slightly different book from the previous three, in that we finally learn the background of Alex, the full story of his apprenticeship, and how it relates to a team that is hunting him. This is a turning point for Alex's relationship with his friends, and it will be referenced multiple times coming up. I enjoyed finally understanding what happened, and we learn that sometimes the choices Alex has aren't black and white, they are kill or be killed.

Also, you remember the first Avengers movie, where the mastermind behind everything doesn't show up until after the credits roll? Bear that in mind. This is a good book, and sets the stage for increased complexity to come.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Aimee Leigh Dean

You can’t hide from your past forever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2021

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Okay, okay so I am now significantly invested in this series now. That said, in Taken I did have a few gripes with the characterisation of both Anne and Vari. I guess this was an editorial decision to maintain pacing but it did mean I wasn’t entirely invested in either character because there wasn’t quite enough for me to feel empathy for them. It might also be because Alex does not share his thoughts about them either.

Alex Verus used to have a peaceful, quiet life. Working alone in his shop, staying under the radar and generally not drawing attention to himself. Everything has now changed now. He has friends and he’s discovering he enjoys being around other people. Not that they know much about his past and so far Alex wants to keep it that way. The less people know about his time as a Dark Apprentice, the better.

Unfortunately for Alex, his past is about to catch up with him in a spectacular fashion. The target of a group of vigilante adepts, Alex realises too late the reason behind an attack that nearly kills him. Reluctantly he shares one of the darkest moments of his apprenticeship and now he knows that none of his friends will be able to look at him the way they used to. For ten years he’s tried to escape that life and pretend that he is a very different person than he was back then. Unfortunately, he also knows that his hunters will not stop until they kill him or he takes them out first.

I did really enjoy this book more than I did the last one. Getting to know Alex better and the guilt he carries and why he has spent the last ten years trying to atone for the reason he broke with Richard Drakh. Now his friends know some of his past there is a rift that is slowly pulling apart each of his relationships as he always feared they might. The fall out of his choices is a sad reminder to Alex about the dangers of letting anyone get too close to him.

SydC

Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2020

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I quite enjoy this series. While the magiacal urban fantasy genre isn't for eveyone I do like the masculine spin on a usually female heavy genre, each book in the series is well written and paced, with zero typos or grammatical stumples as you'd expect from a publishing house book unlike self publish works. The setting of London in the here and now gives it a familiar and tangible edge that you don't get from similar books set in the States or even Europe making it a more enjoyable read, while the character growth throughout is steady and belivable for the story arch and in the series in general. The main protagonist can be a little irksome early on in the series at times with his self flagilation quickly followed by self aggrandizing boasting but stick with it, the characters arch does change as stated previously and the author seems to grow out of this imprinting on his character as the series goes on. Overall it is a easy an enjoyable read.

Susan Stepney

a graphic demonstration of why a justice system is needed for a civilised society

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2017

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Alex’s life seems to be coming together, but then a whole deadly team of mages start trying to kill him, and he doesn’t know why. Then he discovers it concerns something terrible from his old life, when he was one of dark mage Richard’s apprentices. Defeating the team could cost him his principles, his home, his friends, his life.

Alex has an impressive mage power, but it is not perfect: I like the way it has its limitations, and how Alex has to use it intelligently, and differently in each book. I also like the way the various characters develop throughout the series, even if I’m not always pleased at the directions in which they develop. And the dismissive attitude of the mage council to some of the events is a graphic demonstration of why a justice system is needed for a civilised society.

The revelation at the end of this book should make Alex’s life a lot more interesting (in the Chinese curse sense) for him.

Crinkly

steadily brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2014

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One of the things that makes this series stand head and shoulders above most books in this genre is the characters. Verus has great strength of character, a conscience and a fair dose of kindness. He doesn't stride around bolstered by convictions or self-righteousness. Instead he acts with restraint, exhausting every possible avenue before resorting to violence. He is brave, but the self-questioning almost hides that. In fact, superficially he spends a great deal of the book running around hiding, not knowing what to do, dodging fights and letting other people lead the charge. But what is usually happening is that he's leading the danger away from his friends, playing for time, setting up very subtle variants and coming out of the situation still alive. By the skin of his teeth.

I love the way Jacka has created a very squishy character, in a world of heavyweights, but balances everything perfectly.

The secondary characters are also interestingly complex, and for the first time, women are positive, helpful 3D characters interacting in layered ways. Verus' friends don't stand by him unquestioningly. Each person reacts according to their character, life history and motivations.

I think it is a complement (to both authors) to compare this series with Butcher's Dresden Files. However, there is a huge difference between the two - Butcher has been steadily, systematically, upping the ante. Every novel sees Dresden gaining power in some way., becoming bigger, badder, stronger. Jacka takes a very different route. Verus' powers have not appreciably grown (so far). Instead, his tactics, support network and friends have broadened (although he still feels isolated, mainly because of how he feels about himself). He has a few gadgets, and more may follow, but it is never a matter of firepower, even when surrounded by mages far above his fighting weight.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should read this series again, from the beginning, just to savour its development.

4 people found this helpful

Anne

This book moves the series up a level

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2015

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The author moves this character and his series of books on to a whole new level with this instalment. Where the previous books were entertaining they were also quite light in tone despite dealing with some quite difficult issues to do with power and its use/abuse. This novel is much darker in tone and richer in texture. I strongly advise anyone new to the series to read the previous volumes before tackling this one as you will then get the full benefit of what the author has done here.

Alex has filled his flat with the apprentices he rescued in the previous story and is occupied with them and Luna. He comes under attack and has to work out how to deal with those who want to hurt him and also how to handle people from the past who wish to avenge themselves on him for the activities of his first master and his apprentices.

There are no easy answers here. Alex doesn't have particularly strong magic and although his ability to see alternative futures is useful it can't save him in a battle of magic. He has changed since his youth and deeply regrets what happened but he was never made to pay for what he was involved in. This is a book about the boundary of black and white, light and dark, good and evil. Can people change ? Should people pay for the actions of their youth ? Where do you draw the line when defending yourself ? You may be surprised at the choices that Alex makes and what that reveals about him as a man.

Some excellent writing here which makes clear the difficulty of moral choices and the limitations of individual power. A great read - I look forward to seeing how the author develops Alex's character further.

One person found this helpful

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