ImPerfect Magic [ImPerfect Cathar #1], by C.N. Rowan {Indie Ink Awards 2023 Finalist}

Another Finalist for the Indie Ink Awards 2023, this Urban Fantasy novel is very British – and very funny! (But it likes to complain about the bad weather. Oh, well …)

Indie Ink Awards (categories)

Let me introduce to you the rather impressive list of categories this book is a Finalist for:

• Best friendship
• Best light read
• Best mentor character
• Best morally gray character
• Best setting
• Best use of tropes
• Side Character MVP
• Wittiest character
• Writing the Future We Need: Mental Health Representation

Just – wow! I’m seriously considering not talking about every category in detail, but let’s see how we can slice this up.

Best morally gray character, wittiest character, Best Mentor character, Side Character MVP, Best Friendship

Those go hand in hand, because both can be applied to the protagonist, who is also the first person narrator of the story – and a certified badass. (I’m pretty sure he’s got a certificate, somewhere, at least.) And he makes jokes even with his certain death before his eyes. (Then again, he’s got a pretty, eh, special relationship with dying.)

Paul Bonhomme – that’s his name – is certainly likeable, but not really a “bon homme”, or a good human (excuse my French). Not entirely, but he is cool. Maybe a little too cool – he has so many gadgets available that the story sometimes feels like an old episode of that Batman series starring Adam West.

Robin, hand down the shark repellant bat spray!

Morally grey, on the other hand – well, I had the feeling Paul was more good than grey. But that’s just me.

His mentor is a really great character, and concerning the MVP side character, I can only conclude that, yes, Aicha is the most badass in the whole book. And the friendships shared by those three is great, and especially the banter between Aicha and Paul feels very life-like. That’s the kind of friendship one can only hope for.

I would say all the character categories are a check! ✅

Best setting and use of tropes

There’s a lot to say about the use of typical tropes for the genre. Magic is real, Kabala is real, some kind of mythologies are real (especially Christian/Jewish mythology, like Isaac and Jakob), the magical world is hidden behind a masquerade. That is all pretty standard stuff.

I do like the fact that the Kabala and Enoch sigils (Angel language, so to say) are real, because those aren’t that common in UF literature. But I found some hints to the TV series Supernatural, which I enjoyed. Also, there’s some Arab flavors, as well.

The location is quite interesting, somewhere in the Languedoc region of France. That’s a rather uncommon ground, and the background story of our protagonist (and his Moroccan princess friend) brings some new ideas and a much needed boost of freshness to a story that does trod down some often walked paths. But it’s the execution of those tropes that count.

And in the moments when we switch to another timeline and learn more about the origins of our hero, the story shines. I loved those intermezzos, fleshing out the world. And after you have overcome the initial “standard” tropes, the story picks up speed and gets more and more creative. (Then again, by reaching the halfway mark of the book, I had a pretty good idea of the Big Bad Evil Guy’s true identity. At three quarter in, I was proven right.)

Also, kudos to C.N. Rowan for the setting. He did his best to root his setting in a real environment, even the historical facts. Well done, all that work has paid off – a really great setting. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Mental health representation

That’s the one thing I have to criticize here – for me, the story fell flat in this category.

Best light read

This one is a mixed bag for me, but let me tell you my thoughts to see why I arrived at this conclusion:

On the one hand, this is a quick read, so if you equal light read to “can be read quite quickly”, then yes. And it’s a page turner, so double yes!

On the other hand, there are some rather serious themes here. Paul is constantly dying (don’t worry, that’s kind of his spiel), sometimes in cruel ways. Lots of people are burned alive, and there are some dark stories of betrayal and torture. So if you equal light read to a light tone, then no – that’s not this story.