Rogue Magic

January 2, 2017
This debut urban fantasy might have felt timely, given its depiction of successful resistance against a totalitarian alternate America driven by corporate greed and fear, but it’s undermined by a plodding and entirely predictable plot, shallow and clunky worldbuilding, and stereotyped characterization. After attractive Levi Camden saves bystanders from a subway explosion with a spontaneous use of magic, he’s blamed for the explosion, jailed, and subjected to torture. One of the people he saves is Byron Cole, a hapless PR guy and nephew of the CEO of the evil corporation that produces government-required CALM bands to suppress the magic of registered mages. Naturally, Byron has a change of heart. By using his connections to get Levi transferred to a friend’s magical defense testing facility and connecting with the unregistered magical underground, Byron prepares Levi to destroy his uncle’s new machinery, which is meant to drain mages’ vitality in order to produce clean energy. There’s not enough adrenaline in Brisby’s story to justify the handwaving vagueness of the powerful magic system, and the romantic arc between Byron and Levi is a complete dud that feels awkwardly glued onto the political and fantastical core story.

Starred review from January 15, 2017
In a world where magic exists but has been brutally suppressed, the heir to the company which made the violent system possible begins to question everything when he's saved by, then falls in love with, a mage.Awkward Byron Cole has never questioned the "fact" that people who practice magic are a threat to society, and since his family business, Cole Industries, is instrumental to the draconian subjugation of people who have magic, it's never occurred to him to do so. Everything changes the day his subway train is delayed due to terrorist attacks by mages. When the passengers are routed to the street, an explosion detonates nearby, and an attractive man Byron noticed in his car suddenly produces a magic shield, saving everyone in the vicinity. Since unsanctioned magic is punishable by death, the mage, Levi, is arrested and blamed for the attacks. Yet Byron wonders why he would save them all if he was a terrorist who wanted them dead, Asking the first question leads him down a rabbit hole into a quiet rogue magic world he never knew existed and toward the unthinkable reality as to whom the real public enemy is. Byron is in a unique position to change the world for the better, and when he discovers the horrific plans Cole Industries has for Levi--the sweet, sexy mage who saved his life and to whom he is wildly attracted--as well as the entire magical community, he knows he can't sit by and do nothing. For the first time in his life he finds the courage to stand up to his uncle and fight for something, risking everyone he loves. Debut author Brisby creates a stunning and sophisticated view of an America manipulated by fear into brutally oppressing its magical population, then offers an inspirational and redemptive social revolution leveraged by a few brave friends finally willing to do the right thing and a romance strong enough to motivate them. A powerful, thought-provoking, and spellbinding debut; timely, too.

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