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in: Weres and Shifters as Main Supe, Necromancers as Main Supe, Paranormal Military, Cops, Spies,
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Edge Series

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On the Edge

The Edge Series by Ilona Andrews, husband and wife writing team. 

Genre and Sub-Genres[]

Romantic Urban Fantasy, 

Note: this series is hard to classify—it's so unlike anything else. Some parts fit one genre while other parts fit another genre. Here's what it's been called:

  • Rustic Fantasy (Andrew Gordon, co-author)
  • "Urban Fantasy with an HEA" (Happily-Ever-After) ~ reader
  • PNR with solid plotting, strong story

Series Description or Overview[]

✥ The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…

✥ It’s a very odd story of a very odd place. The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Walmart and magic is a fairytale–and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny. It’s a place where poverty is real, life is hard, and fairy tales sometimes do come true. ~ from: The Edge

✥ Edge combines fantasy, adventure, romance, action, and a touch of mystery with strong characters and Andrews’ trademark humor to create an absorbing, satisfying read. ~Nancy Holzner, author

Lead's Species[]

  • Edgers

Primary Supe[]

  • Magic Users

What Sets it Apart[]

  • The Edge—is a world that is entirely unique existing between the Mortal world and the Weird—something like a faerie land but unique.

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

  • Third person narrative from multiple perspectives.

Books in Series[]

The Edge series:

  1. On the Edge (2009)
  2. Bayou Moon (2010)
  3. Fate's Edge (2011)
  4. Steel's Edge (2012) ~ Final

— Note: the series is complete at 4 books.

Other Series by Author onsite[]

World Building[]

Fang-tastic Fiction: Ilona Andrews: THE EDGE SERIES

Settings[]

  • The Broken: the mortal realm
  • The Weird: magical realm
  • The Edge: narrow strip of land extending from coast of coast where the Broken and the Weird overlap
  • The Wood: land that exists in the Edge, full of animals.
  • Wood House: a safe haven in the Wood.
  • The Mire: swampy section of the Edge that lies between the Broken's Louisiana and the Weird's Dukedom of Louisiana; the dukedom exiles criminals there; the Mire population is largely the exiles' descendants.
  • Adrianglia: A part of the Weird where changelings are separated at birth into "schools" where they are trained to be warriors.
  • Dukedom of Louisana: a part of the Weird in which changelings are killed.
  • Sicktree: back-swamp trading center (kind of wild a micro-town) in the Mire

~ Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisana are bitter enemies and engage in an espionage war.

Supernatural Elements[]

Steampunk Brass Spider

Clockwork spider-spy

Wyvern

Wyvern

Wyvern Dragon by Niahawk

Wyvern Dragon. by Niahawk

Magic users, necromancers, changelings (shape-shifters), Monsters, magical box, wyverns, Thoas (an old race that may have once been human, have clawed hands, grey skin), steampunk-like mechanical oddities used as spy gadgets by the Mirror;

Glossary:[]

  • Wyvern: a kind of small flying dragon, used for transport by the elite and military in the Wierd

Groups and Organizations:[]

  • The Mirror: Adrianglia's covert special ops, intelligence and espionage agency, the realm's main weapon in its cold war with the neighboring Dukedom of Louisiana. Their operatives carry and employ magically enhanced mechanical gadgets and weapons.
  • The Hand: Louisiana Dukedom's special ops group intelligence and espionage agency—lead by Spider. Their operatives are magically enhanced into human monsters with supernatural abilities.
  • The Claws of Bast: The secret agency for Egypt in the Weird
  • Hound of the Golden Throne: The secret agency for the Greater Empire of Gaul
  • Eagle Eye: A group of mercenaries from the Republic of Texas

In the Weird, each sovereign nation treats magic differently. In Adrianglia, home of Declan and William, people use magic, but in the Louisiana Dukedom, people become magic. Spider's henchmen (and women) have been magically altered (e.g., with gills, poisonous tentacles, armor-like skin, hands that shoot out poison) so that their bodies are actually weapons in and of themselves. ~Fang-tastic Fiction

WORLD[]

✥ On the Edge takes this temporal distribution of magic and technology and makes it spatial: the Weird is a magical realm that could be the setting for an epic fantasy, and the Broken is an everyday place devoid of magic. ~ On the Edge | Nancy Holzner, author

✥ The series is set in a world with three dimensions:

The Broken: The Broken is the mortal realm. Although its people once held magic, they lost it long ago. When people with magical powers travel into the Broken, all of their magic disappears as soon as they cross the border. Here is one character's description: "Every time [she] crossed into their world, the boundary stripped her magic from her in a rush of pain. That's why people like her called that place the Broken—when you passed into it, you gave up a part of yourself, and it left you feeling incomplete. Broken like a clock with a missing gear." (Fate's Edge, p. 5)
The Weird: Geographically, the Weird is a mirror image of the Broken. It is a magical realm, where everyone practices his or her special talents. The bluebloods who rule the Weird have their own defense systems, which include an air force (dragons instead of airplanes) and special forces with license to kill. The Weird is made up of sovereign nations, and each one approaches magic in a slightly different manner.
The Edge: The Edge is the narrow strip of land extending from coast of coast where the Broken and the Weird overlap. People here are mostly hybrids, with both Broken and Weird ancestors. Their magic is too weak for them to survive in the Weird, but strong enough that they don't want to give it up to live in the Broken. Some Edgers earn their living in the Broken, traveling back and forth every day to their jobs. They also purchase all of their manufactured goods in the Broken. Here is one character's description: "It was on the edge of both worlds, a place without countries or cops, where the castoffs like her washed ashore....The Edge took everyone. Swindlers, thieves, crazed separatists, clannish families, all were welcome, all were dirt-poor, and all kept to themselves. The Edgers gave no quarter and expected no sympathy." (Fate's Edge, p. 6)

A character describes the relationship between the Edge and the Weird: "...on one side lay the Weird and the other the Broken. Two dimensions, existing side by side, like mirror images of each other. In the place where the dimensions 'touched,' they intersected slightly, forming a narrow ribbon of land that belonged to both of them—the Edge. In the Weird, magic pooled deeply; in the Edge it was a shallow trickle. But in the Broken, no magic shielded them at all." (The Edge, p. 4) The authors seamlessly weave the mythology of this world into the story, with no bulky chunks of awkward exposition.

In both the Edge and the Weird, one of the most coveted magical talents is the ability to flash, that is, to be able to pull together your power and throw it out as a brilliant, fiery weapon. The lighter the flash, the greater the power, so a brilliant white flash is the most desired of all. Supposedly, only the bluebloods—the nobility of the Weird—can produce the white flash. The white flash is so important that marriages are frequently arranged so that a person with white-flashing ability can add their genes to a lesser-powered family's line. Here is one character's description: "In the Weird, the power of your magic and the color of your flash determined the course of your life. The brighter you flashed, the better. If you flashed white, you could rub elbows with bluebloods, the Weird's aristocratic families." (Fate's Edge, p. 6) ~ Fang-tastic Fiction

PROTAGONISTS[]

✥ On the Edge:

  • ✥ Rose takes care of her two, much younger brothers and works for a cleaning company in the Broken, struggling to make ends meet. She also has a talent for magic, her “flash” — the magic that all Edgers can draw from themselves — is unusually pure and strong, and she can wield it with skill. Rose worked hard to develop her skill, hoping it would impress her peers. Instead, she frightened them and made herself more of a commodity than a person. When the book opens, Rose isn’t exactly a pariah, but she keeps to herself and her family.
  • ✥ Declan, a blueblood nobleman from the Weird. Rose assumes that Declan wants her for the power of her flash; many nobles from the Weird have already tried to buy or steal her for use as a sort of magical brood mare. Now, Rose and Declan agree to a series of tests: If Declan can complete three Herculean tasks devised by Rose, she’ll go with him into the Weird, essentially becoming his property. If he fails, he’ll go away and leave Rose and her family alone. (Excerpt) ~ On the Edge | Nancy Holzner, author

✥ Bayou Moon:

  • ✥ William Wolf, the changeling ex-soldier who had a crush on Rose. William has had a hard life: abandoned at birth, raised in a state institution for changelings, court-martialed for saving lives rather than property, and unlucky at love. William is approached by the head of the Mirror to locate a mysterious object that is the focus of a search by Spider, the murderous head of the Louisiana Dukedom's special ops group, called the Hand. William and Spider are old enemies.
  • ✥ Cerise Mar, the temporary head of her clan, whose territory is located deep in the marshy Mire. Cerise's talent is to be able to force her white-flash magic into her sword, with lethal results. Cerise and William team up. (Excerpt)

✥ Fate's Edge:

  • ✥ Audrey Callahan agrees to help her con-man father on one last job. When the object that they steal turns out to be a powerful and dangerous secret weapon, the covert ops teams from several Weird nations try to get it back. The first to track Audrey down is
  • ✥  Kaldar Mar, cousin of Cerise Mar. Kaldar is now an agent for the Mirror, the lethal undercover group from Adrianglia. Both Audrey and Kaldar have been grifters since childhood, and they soon begin to work together to get the secret weapon back. In the meantime, agents for the Hand are on their trail. Complicating things, Jack and George, Rose's young teen brothers (book 1) stow-away on Kaldar's wyvern. (Excerpt)

✥ Steel's Edge:

  • ✥ Richard Mar (aka The Hunter) lost two nieces to the slavers—one murdered and one emotionally damaged. The second niece—Sophia, aka Lark—in book 2, and she plays critical role in this book. Richard has dedicated his life to eliminating the slavers. His marriage is long since over, and he believes that he is destined to live and die alone. He is tasked by Declan (Adrianglian Duke, book 1) to stopping the slave trade in a covert mission.
  • ✥ Charlotte de Ney, a powerful Healer, was taken from her family early in her childhood and raised among the bluebloods of the Weird, where she was adopted by a powerful female healer soon developing into the most powerful healer in the Weird. After Charlotte's ten years of service as a healer ended, she married a blueblood and lived a relatively happy life, right up until she was diagnosed as being barren. At that point, her husband had the marriage annulled, and Charlotte turned her back on the Weird and made a life for herself in the Edge with the help of Éléonore, grandmother of Rose (heroine of book 1, married to Declan). Slavers kill those she's come to care for like family and joins Richard on the mission to stop the slavers. (Excerpt) ~ Character source: Fang-tastic

Sidekick[]

  • Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen:

Characters Chart[]

Links to help fill out table:

Characters What About
Rose Drayton-Camarine Edger can flash white: rare;
Declan Camarine Blueblood noble Earl of Camarine, from the Weird
William Wolf / Sandine Changeling; Declan's friend; ex-soldier Mission: stop Spider; raised in a institution for changelings; recruited by The Mirror as a spy to find out what the Hand plans
"Ceri", Cerise Mar Edger from the Mire; Trained warrior. Spider targets her family; Head of her family since her parents have been abducted
Kaldar Mar Cerise's cousin; Richard's brother; secret agent lovable thief and con; Clever, ruthless, and lethal, the ultimate spy who uses his wits, his magic and his looks; thief, jack of all trades; can make things happen if he bets on it.
Audrey Callahan Her magic opens locks from a grifter edge family
Richard Mar Works for Declan mission: stop slavers
Charlotte de Ney Powerful healer from the Wierd mission: stop slavers; adoptive blueblood noble from the Weird; partners with Richard mar to stop the slavers;
George Drayton Rose's brother; Necromancer; helps Kadar & Richard fight the Hand 
Jack Drayton-Camarine Rose's brother; Changeling Lynx; helps Kadar & Richard fight the Hand; born as a cat; 
Elenore Grandma: Rose, George, Jack has old magic; raised the three grandkids herself; befriended Charlotte de Ney;
"Lark" Sophie Mar Cerise's cousin traumatized when slavers abducted her
Petunia Mar "Aunt Pete" hunter, pie-baker, autopsy-provider. Mother of Ignata and Mikita.
Urow Cerise Mar's cousin. Half-human, Half-thoas. The Thoas are an old race that may have once been human. Urow is five feet tall and nearly as wide (all muscle), grey skin, and his left arm is extra long with black claws.
Grandmother Az powerful swamp witch One of the Mars, real name Azan; blade flasher: trained Cerise.
Spider Spy and assassin of The Hand major villain; Magically enhanced powers; serves the Dukedom of Louisiana in the Weird.
Karmash Spider's second in command more brawn than brain. Keeps losing his temper and making irrational decisions.
Gustavus Mar Cerise's father missing; wife: Genevieve Dubois
Genevieve Dubois Mar Cerise's mom; kidnapped by the Hand, experimented on by John, Spider's scientist
Nancy Virai head of The Mirror Adrianglian Secret Service;
Casshorn Sandine Adrianglian Lord He wants to destroy Declan
Erwin Mirror operative A flash sniper
Gnome Edger fence An Edger living on a mountain; fences goods in the Edge; Audrey's associate & neighbor
Gaston quarter thoas; Urow's son Second cousin to Cerise; mostly human but his father is half thoas
Helena d'Amry Hound agent Secret agent: Greater Empire of Gaul
Clara Mar Urow's wife children: Gaston, Ry, Mart, baby-girl Sydney
Veisan Spider's best slayer Compulsively weaves baskets and rugs as an alternative to killing the rest of the crew
Vur Spider's crew A bird-form with poison claws
John Spider's scientist "fuses" humans with magical beings and plants. He fuses Genevieve with a tree to make her more compliant in order to help Spider
Ruh Spider's tracker skeletally thin, brick-red skin; bird-like talons on feet, grows a tentacle
Lavern Spider's dumbest hunter turned cannibal
Pooj'ela Dambury The Hairdresser Hunter
Ilona Andrews

Ilona Andrews — Ilona & Gordon Andrews, husband and wife writing team

Author[]

Ilona Andrews

Bio: Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Texas with their two children, and many dogs and cats. They have co-authored two series, the bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and romantic urban fantasy of The Edge. ~ Ilona Andrews - FF and Goodreads

Cover Artist[]

Artist: Victoria Vebell — Sources: ISFdb Bibliography and Shelfari Page

Awards[]

  • Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (RT Award) for Contemporary Paranormal Romance (2009—On the Edge)
  • DABWAHA Romance Tournament Nominee for Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/Science Fiction (2011)
  • Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (RT Award) for Paranormal Worldbuilding (2012)

Publishing Information[]

Book Cover Blurb[]

✥ BOOK ONE—On the Edge: Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, between the world of the Broken (where people drive cars, shop at Wal-Mart, and magic is a fairy tale) and the Weird (where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny). Only Edgers like Rose can easily travel from one world to the next, but they never truly belong in either.

Rose thought if she practiced her magic, she could build a better life for herself. But things didn’t turn out how she planned, and now she works a minimum wage, off the books job in the Broken just to survive. Then Declan Camarine, a blueblood noble straight out of the deepest part of the Weird, comes into her life, determined to have her (and her power). But when a terrible danger invades the Edge from the Weird, a flood of creatures hungry for magic, Declan and Rose must work together to destroy them—or they’ll devour the Edge and everyone in it. ~ Goodreads | On the Edge

✥ BOOK TWO—Bayou Moon: The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Walmart and magic is a fairytale–and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…

Cerise Mar and her unruly clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands between the state of Louisiana and the Weird. When her parents vanish, her clan’s long-time rivals are suspect number one.

But all is not as it seems. Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge—and Cerise’s life. William, a changeling soldier who left behind the politics of the Weird, has been forced back into service to track down a rival nation’s spymaster. 

When William’s and Cerise’s missions lead them to cross paths, sparks fly—but they’ll have to work together if they want to succeed…and survive. ~ Bayou Moon

✤ BOOK THREE—Fate's Edge: Born to a family of conmen, Audrey Callahan left behind her life in the Edge for an unmagical existence in the Broken. Audrey is determined to stay on the straight and narrow, but when her brother gets into hot water, the former thief takes on one last heist and finds herself matching wits with a jack of all trades.

Kaldar Mar is a gambler, a lawyer, a thief, and a spy with some unusual talents that guarantee him lucrative work. When his latest assignment has him tracking down a stolen item, Kaldar doesn’t expect much of a challenge—until Audrey turns up to give him a run for his money.

But when the missing item falls into the hands of a lethal criminal, Kaldar realizes that in order to finish the job and survive, he’s going to need Audrey’s help… ~ Fate’s Edge

✤ BOOK FOUR—Steel's Edge: Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird. But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain. After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself. Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte’s life is turned upside down once again.

Richard is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan—and he’s on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird. So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them. The slavers’ operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive… ~ Steel’s Edge

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

~ #23 — Best Urban Fantasy SERIES (359 books) ~ gR

Awards[]

Read Alikes (simaliar elements)[]

Notes[]

NOTE: though this series has a bit of a PNR formula, this series will be considered UF because that is where a reader will find it in the bookstore—in the Fantasy section, not the Romance section. And I don't believe the Romance storie-lines overshadow the plot of the books, either. 

External References[]

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See Also[]

See Category links at bottom of page

Gallery of Book Covers[]

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