Sly Magic: Nogitsune

by Clovia Shaw

Lincoln Black is nogitsune--a “field fox” cast aside by his family, an outsider among the hidden community of American kitsune descended from the shapeshifting fox-wives of Japanese folklore. When a curse pushes his harmless taste for his lovers' vital energy toward monstrous, uncontrollable hunger, Linc is forced back to the one place he’d—almost—rather die than go for help: home.

The first night back in town, a cousin he doesn't know defies clan politics to enter his dreams. Wouldn't you know, he wants to strike a bargain: Find a stolen piece of a stranger’s soul, and he’ll help Linc break the curse.

That help comes in the form of Delia, a geomancer who knows every inch of the city, and whose energy Linc finds dangerously tempting. It would be too easy to lose his head, and drain her life away with no more than a kiss. Armed with a key to the magical pathways hidden behind the mundane world, Linc's own sly magic, and a will o' wisp with an attitude problem, they search for the broken piece of soul.

Too bad they're not the only ones looking for it.

With his self-control slipping, Linc finds himself indebted to a cousin he can't trust, running afoul of more than one god, and putting Delia in danger just by wanting her. He's looking at a jacked-up choice: Die to keep the only person who cares for him safe, or risk becoming a monster straight out of Japanese fairytales.

Genres: Fantasy

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 2013

About the author

Clovia Shaw is a big fan of Kissing Books in which things blow up. She lives in Annapolis, with her very patient husband and the ghost of a very good dog.

Reviews

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cast aside by his powerful kitsune family as a child, field fox (the nogitsune of the title) Lincoln Black is forced to return home to search for a solution to a curse threatening his body and spirit. But it's not that easy. Answers come in the form of riddles, and he's engaged to search for a lost object of the new resident water god, Rand Magnussen. With his animalistic hungers threatening to take him over, Linc's forced into questionable alliances with his cunning cousin Jin, Magnussen, the smart and lovely Delia, and a host of other fabulous characters.

This isn't your usual urban fantasy. It's layered, with plots and betrayals, glorious and diverse magics. The characters' various quests overlap so that you sometimes feel like you're reading a series of circles that change and twist with each chapter. The characters all have their own motivations, sometimes white but sometimes darker, and with foxes there's often someone else lurking behind the false face made to look like a friend.

I adored the interplay with Linc and Jin, the teasing and competition and very real affection that develops between them - strangers becoming as close as brothers. Delia is a marvelous creation unto herself, from her powerful magic to her hilarious personality, to the lengths that she will go to protects the people she cares about. And Linc's despair as he feels himself succumbing to the curse even as his love grows for his friends and Delia, is heart wrenching.

This is a special book, but not a perfect one. At times, the back to back descriptions of magic took me out of the story, or lasted so long that I forgot what we were looking for. And the cast, while not massive, was large and spaced out so that I frequently had to go back to double-check who was who (not to mention cross-referencing their last known allegiances). But I loved the wonderful writing and the central cast, and didn't want to leave them at the end.

A mesh of urban fantasy and magical realism, with some moments that feel like they're pulled directly from the most fun parts of anime, Nogitsune is full of vivid characters and unique magic.

[Rebecca Burrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when the guy who can't go home realizes he has to? Lincoln Black is the perfect outcast, a "field fox" forced by his own gnawing hunger to re-enter the world that cast him out. With a wicked sense of humor and an easy sensuality, Linc saunters through the defenses meant to keep the undesirables out, confronting the few individuals remaining who can keep him from turning into a monster. From his cousin Jin's questionable loyalties to the tempting Delia, Linc's only hope of satisfying the bargain he's made (if he doesn't drain her first), the characters are well-drawn and engaging. There's a delicious snark in the dialogue which hits just the right notes, not overdone as it so often is. As good fantasy often does, the novel also explores the Japanese culture which inspired it, though this too, is done with a subtle hand and it doesn't hit the reader over the head.

Nogitsune is the kind of visually lush book that has the ability to open up a whole world in the reader's mind. The dialogue is crisp, the sex scenes are hot (and don't feel either extraneous or forced as they so often do). The prose in the novel is somewhat dense, but rewarding, especially for a visual reader. Highly recommended for urban fantasy readers.

[k · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely prose: elegant in places with a strong (but not too strong) sense of humor and snark. Engaging world-building that taught me something about a culture that isn't my own. Interesting, dynamic characters. Well worth it!