Part-Time Gods by Rachel Aaron science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsPart-Time Gods by Rachel Aaron

Part-Time Gods by Rachel Aaron science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsPart-Time Gods (2019) is the second book in Rachel Aaron’s DFZ (DETROIT FREE ZONE) series which is a spin-off of her HEARTSTRIKERS saga. You don’t need to read HEARTSTRIKERS first, but you’ll want to read the first book in the DFZ series, Minimum Wage Magic, before picking up Part-Time Gods.

After successfully solving a mystery and surviving the danger in Minimum Wage Magic, Opal and Nik have decided they work well together, so they’ve teamed up on their cleaning efforts. Each of them is so skillful that, under normal circumstances, they’d be raking it in.

Unfortunately, however, they are currently laboring under a curse set by Opal’s powerful dragon father. He wants Opal to fail so she’ll have to move back to North Korea. His curse ensures that she never succeeds. Thus, as hard as Opal and Nik work, something always goes wrong and they keep earning only about half of what they should be making.

Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel AaronAs they try to figure out how to work around the curse, Opal and Nik end up in some pretty shady places in the DFZ and Opal learns that Nik has a mysterious, and apparently violent, history. This is worrisome.

By consulting some experts, including the avatar of the DFZ (who we met in the previous series), Opal is also learning about her own magical abilities, why she’s always been a terrible mage, and what the future of her mage craft might look like.

Part-Time God is another well-paced and entertaining adventure in the DFZ. Fans of the HEARTSTRIKERS series will be glad to meet up with some old friends in this installment. Tali (my daughter) and I still don’t love Opal and Nik like we loved the Heartstrikers, and Opal really annoyed us toward the end of this novel, but we’re still along for the ride. It was fun to watch Opal and Nik try to get around her father’s curse and we really love the audio versions narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. The cover art’s adorable, too.

Published in 2019. Life in the magical mess of the Detroit Free Zone is never easy. When you’re laboring under the curse of a certain prideful, overbearing dragon, it can be down right impossible. My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I’m a Cleaner. At least, I used to be. Thanks to the supernatural bad luck that turns everything I do against me, these days I’m more of a walking disaster. Getting rid of this curse is the only way to get my life back. Unfortunately, dragon magic is every bit as sneaky and deadly the monsters behind it, and just as hard to beat. But I’ve never been one to take her doom at face value. Cornered doesn’t mean defeated, and in an awakened city that rules herself, dragons are no longer the biggest powers around.

 

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  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.

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