The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman (or six degrees of separation from awesome writers!)

They say everyone in the world is connected to everyone else by six degrees of separation. I discovered how true this was when my mum casually mentioned she'd gone to primary school with a writer, Stephen Dedman.

So I got curious and went hunting on the internet, where I found he'd written quite a bit. I only bought one, The Art of Arrow Cutting, but it was a good read. Well done, mum's school friend. Well done.

The premise is that the main character 'Mage' (yeah, not joking) screws himself over by performing a good deed. He buys a bus ticket for a girl in need and she, in true fairy tale fashion, returns the favor with the gift of a magic key. Not that she tells him it's magic, but he figures it out once people start trying to kill him for it. (Thus the screwing over part.  You'd think a gift card would probably have sufficed.) He sets out to find her and hopefully figure out what the hell is going on.

I was puzzled a bit by it being set in America, as it was the kind of story that could really be set anywhere. Probably trying to expand the target audience. But the contrived coincidence of fantasy that usually annoys me - the right people showing up at the right moment with the right abilities - doesn't apply here. Yes, Mage conveniently gets exactly what he needs at any given time, but it's justified in a way that ties it into the larger plot.

Mage himself is a chivalrous pervert with an extremely slashy vibe with his stuntman friend Takumo, who is the most competent, badass sidekick anyone could ever ask for. Batman would kick Robin to the curb if he saw this guy's moves. Their ally, the down-to-earth lawyer Kelly, is a perfect example of how to include female characters in a male-dominated narrative. She didn't get involved because she couldn't resist Mage's magic dick (although technically, I suppose his dick could be magic) but because of spoilery reasons I won't get into. Basically she had a motivation and a useful role that wasn't love interest. Other writers take note.

The narrative is fast-paced, the action clear and to the point. Lets say I never got bored with this story. Occasionally the characters would blurt out a lot of exposition about mythology that even I couldn't spit out at a moment's notice (and I spent a lot of my childhood in libraries memorising mythology books) but it was always relevant to the plot, with later pay-off. I particularly liked that Mage thought outside the box to come up with surprising but logical ways to utilise his new powers.

I'd recommend this to urban-fantasy readers who want a supernatural mystery. If you like Harry Dresden, you'll enjoy this as well. There is violence and sex, but nothing too gory, so I think it would be appropriate for older teenagers and above. It can be found on Amazon in paperback and the Australian Amazon in electronic form.

And just to be different this week, I'll finish with a great and wise quote from the book:

"Most of us aren't equipped to handle miracles, man. I'm not sure that I am, not without being seriously stoned." - Takumo