Fated

An urban fantasy about wizards hiding from mundane society, and set in London, it's perhaps hard, in this day, for Fated to avoid comparisons with Harry Potter. This is, however, not a Young Adult book, although to be fair, given that the last few HP books were quite dark themselves, it's more the age of the protagonist that sets it apart than the themes. (There's no sex in this, for instance, and the scenes of torture take place off-screen).

Harry Dresden is probably a much better analogy, incidentally, but, as it happens, I've never read any of those books, so I can't comment.

The world that's portrayed here is a very dark; most of the wizards seem to be really unpleasant, with not a lot separating the dark ones from those supposedly on the other side. But there are some exceptions, and there's some nice ideas - the tailor, for example, works well.

One of the things that stood out for me, though, was the fact that the hero is a diviner, with (unlike almost everybody else) no combat magic. The way his magic is described, its limitations and advantages, are all interesting and effective, with some nice touches. And brain-over-brawn, of course, which is always fun. The hero's not-really-an-apprentice also has unusual magic that provides more of an obstacle than anything else, at least for most of the book.

Being set in London is a bonus for me, because it helps to ground the book, but that obviously won't apply to everyone.

On the whole, I'm interested to see where the series goes next, and will be buying more.