Silver Magic By Dr. Bruce Davis

 Silver Magic

By Dr. Bruce Davis

First, a quick disclaimer. I know Dr. Davis, I've been over to thanksgiving dinners at his house. His eldest son is one of my best friends (He’s the dad I never had.). I've received a lot of consideration and friendship from the entire Davis family. I will always be grateful and very glad to have that friendship (For me, they are family in all but adoption papers, and have been since I was 12.). Now that said, everything in the review below is my honest opinion, I just feel it's best, to be honest, and upfront where there is a prior relationship between the writer of the story and myself. 

Doc Davis has had his medical degree longer than the internet has existed, receiving it from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in the 1970s. He served his surgical residency at Bethesda Naval Hospital and with the Navy as a surgeon for 14 years. During that 14 years, he met his wife, a staggeringly skilled doctor of nursing in her own right, got married, had children, and served in the first Gulf War. They currently live in Arizona enjoying their extended family and dogs. As a writer he has written a great many books, most of them reviewed on this website, whether it be the science fiction Profit Logbook series, the stand-alone book Queen Mab's Courtesy, or the Magic Law series, of which this book is the third one. 

The Magic Law series takes place in another world in a universe where magic is possible, and humans share this world with elves, dwarves, and orcs. All the species seem rather closely related as there are half-elves and half-orcs all over the place. As you can imagine the history of this world is rather complicated. What we know is that once upon a time Mages ruled in something called the Magisterium, which was so traumatizing that everyone agreed that Mages should never be allowed political power again. There was also at least one genocidal war where the Orcs tried to wipe everyone else out and the elves, being immortal, still hold a grudge. Due to humans methodically and systematically studying magic, magic has been brought to the masses via easy-to-use magic items. Everyone has a magic mirror that can be used to communicate instantly with someone else by text or full call. There are weapons that fire needles that can be used to knock people out or kill them. People transport themselves in flying sleds, and so on and so forth. 

The books take place in the nation of the Commonwealth, a multi-racial society ruled by a Constitutional Monarchy (*Whistfully yearns to end that monarchy, in Communist*) and a parliament. Our main character Lt. Simon Buckley is a peacekeeper who is trying to serve justice and push society toward the better while fighting crime. This is harder than it sounds as he is often having to deal with not just the organized gangs and cartels of his city but elements of his own government who don't care for Simon's insistence that even the lowest Orc day laborer has rights protected by the law and even the most connected elf politician is bound by the law (This entirely tracks.  The system itself is designed this way, and a cop trying to make headway against that system is eventually either driven out, or is destroyed.  Funnily enough, Doc Davis and I are very very very different politically.). They also dislike the fact that he's promoted at least two Orcs and is championing still more. It's an interesting position to take given his father was murdered by an orc and he was raised by a Dwarf family. In fact his adopted father Haldron Stonebender is a police sgt and serves with him.

Silver Magic takes place right on the heels of Gold Magic, so if you haven't read that book, you'll find yourself swiftly lost. The city of Cymbeline is burning, as word has gotten out that a number of orc crime bosses were burned to death by an unknown human fire mage and the crime was covered up (You mean a corrupt government will take advantage of a fire to murder it’s enemies?  Nooooo.{The Government actually had nothing to do with it.  Also going to remind you that due to the mages being an oppressive governing class that were overthrown, there are actually laws against mages being rulers.  They can stand for elected offices from what I understand but they can’t be kings, etc} Ooh, plot twist!). Under the cover of the riots, Simon finds three murders, the first being an elf gossip journalist whose blood was blasted out of her body and a pair of orc break-in specialists who were drowned on dry land. At first, most are inclined to shrug off the murders as riot-related violence but Simon isn't convinced and is sure that all three murders are linked. As he and his department dig deeper, the political resistance grows and the stakes climb higher as he gets pressure from his own department's internal affairs team, the Mayor's office, and the hidden orc crime lords of the slums. All of these groups are either interfering or trying to steer this investigation for their own ends. 

Complications increase as a former Peacekeeper who was outed as dirty also appears to be involved and at least one member of the internal affairs team wants to nail Simon or his police captain as revenge for outing him. On top of that, Sylvie, an Elvish Ranger of the Elvish state, an openly progressive and disowned member of a noble Elvish house and Simon's girlfriend, is in danger. As the traditionalists in her homeland have gained power and rumors swirl of them getting ready to attempt a coup and launch a purge of progressives in the government (Aaaah, homegrown elf-fascism.). This is somehow related to a plot against the Commonwealth's own royal family using non-magic weapons modeled on something that Simon encountered back in the first book Platinum Magic.

Simon finds himself racing against time and a vast web of corruption and underhanded dealings to pursue not just simple justice for people who were murdered for knowing too much; but to keep his homeland from exploding into civil war or falling to invasion. Simon is also fighting his own self-doubt and frustration as he realizes that he's been battling the same forces since book 1 and feels he's made marginal progress against them at best. This is on top of feeling the pressure of being a Lt and needing to mentor and lead basically a platoon of investigators all pursuing their own cases. The plot is tense but moves at a good pace so you never feel bogged down. This made the book a page-turner for me that I really enjoyed as I followed Simon parsing through the murder investigation and various plots and schemes swirling around it. 

Dr. Davis continues with his world-building through slow revelation, avoiding long info-dump conversations instead preferring to reveal the history and facts of the world through events and causal dialogue in the story. This means the reader does need to pay attention to put various pieces together and get a coherent picture of the world but also means you don't get jared out of the story by a 10-page history lesson in the middle of your criminal investigation. I enjoy this style of world-building and consider piecing things together and theorizing as part of the fun, that said if he ever releases an appendix of history and background information for this world I would jump on it. That said the world feels real. He reinforces this through subtle but what I find to be truly effective means. 

For example, the characters in this story don't talk like modern Americans or historical characters but instead have their own phrases and word choices. You don't call people on your magic mirror for example, you summon them. It's small things like having your characters not say “Ok” or “All Right” that really cement the feeling that you're dealing with a different culture and people. Simon being raised by dwarves doesn't talk about being at a dead end but in a blind tunnel, he doesn't worry about being thrown under a bus but under a rock pile. 

I also like that we got to see more of Simon's adopted family and Dr. Davis manages to make them feel like family. Simon's adopted brother is happy to see him and teases him about his girlfriend. Molly his mother worries about his health and happiness. Hal, his father supports him in his career choices and is openly proud of him. I also have to admit that I'm really glad to see a functional caring family that works and plays well together. There's nothing wrong about writing dysfunctional family dynamics mind you but there are days that it seems like everyone and their mother is writing either that or outright abusive families. So this does make for a pleasant change of pace (I think it helps that Doc Davis actually knows that a healthy family dynamic looks like.). Plus it's good to see an adoptive family that isn't just brushed aside for the dead “real” family or shown as terrible people (Well he does have two adopted kids, one legal, one not, so…). 

That said there are some small issues to be aware of here. First of all, you will be utterly and completely lost if you haven't read the last two books. Because this book is full of payoffs from the prior two books, relationships that were defined earlier, and references to events covered in those books. As a reader, I don't regard that as a burden as they were great books in their own right but if you're coming in cold, you're in for a bad time. As a reviewer, I do feel I have to consider that when giving a grade. On top of that is that the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger. While the case is solved the bigger implications and the various political plots aren't entirely done and Simon finds himself having to take care of some business and maybe go on a road trip. Possibly a road trip with the entire family, which I'm gonna be honest I'm excited about this and can't wait to read the next book. 

So I'm going to be rating Silver Magic by Dr. Bruce Davis an A-. That said, I think this is the best-written book in the series so far. There's action, personal moments, and well-written relationships, intrigue, and everyone is acting in a fairly believable way. Honestly, if you're looking to start a new series, I would tell you to go ahead and get Platinum Magic and just work your way through. I'm dead certain you won't regret it. If you are feeling like that why not head over to the publisher of this work and other fine works Brick Cave Media, at https://brickcave.media/ You'll be supporting an independent publisher and the authors that way and getting a good book so everyone wins. 

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Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders