Lightning Blade by D.N. Erikson| Review

D.N. Erikson’s urban fantasy novel, Lightning Blade takes place in a dystopian future in Arizona. The veil between the magical world and the human world has been shattered. A police dashcam captured Kalos, a half-demon dispatching a dozen daywalking vampires. Never mind that he saved the cops’ lives, the peace and secrecy between the realms were forever destroyed. From this point on, humans focused on creating weapons that could destroy the magical community and keep the status quo. Enter MagiTekk, a company dedicated to purging magical scum.

Inside a magical internment camp equipped with psychic dampers, courtesy of MagiTekk, Ruby Calloway has sat for 20 years. She works on a list of those who wronged her and stole the only thing she ever loved, Pearl who trained her to be a bounty hunter.

After two decades of living in her prison, Ruby is freed by FBI Special Agent Colton Roark, a la 48 Hours style, to help catch a magical serial killer.

I was captivated from page one. Erikson does an amazing job of fleshing out his characters. Even secondary and minor characters are multidimensional. I especially loved Serenity, an elf, who ran a clinic and aided Roark and Ruby. There was so much history between Serenity and Ruby that I needed to know more, so I downloaded Erikson’s prequel, Bone Realm where we get Ruby’s origin story. I’m hoping the root of Serenity’s animosity will be revealed there. Enquiring minds want to know.

As far as urban fantasy novels go, Lightning Blade is top notch and I will be further investigating the series.