Minimum Wage Magic

The world building and plot was really well done in my opinion. My biggest gripe is that for a world of magic, we actually learn very little about it. In both this new series and the last the MCs have been horrible at magic. It would be awesome to see if the author has the ability to actually create a unique and interesting magic system instead of just hint that there is one. Also steming from the MCs ineptitude for magic, it's not fun reading about underdogs who realistically wouldn't be able to hold their own. Opal had to constantly be saved by someone else, and she is so unskilled in just about everything that I can't ever see her actually being able to rise to the occasion. Most of her useful input came from her AI and if she didn't luck out in befriending the one person in the city that doesn't have a AI, even that usefulness would have been moot. I genuinely love Opals character I just wish she had something powerful about her wether it be her magic, mind or body. But so far all have proved to be very average. Even with her damsel in distress complex I really enjoyed the book, and I look forward to reading the next one.

This book had some flaws which the rest of the series did not and I think the first issue is that it attempts to shy away from the other series references so no characters related to Julius's world are allowed but the book moves right into the central location of the previous books. It's as if the rich description of the DMZ was reduced to a simple prop in an attempt to not be like the other books. It makes the assumption the Reader knows the DMZ so it feels hollow. I felt as if the plot could have taken place in a different part of this world and been better for it. While I loved the female protagonist and liked her struggle, Opal's supporting cast was as week as Julius's was strong. I don't remember solider boy's name and after awhile I found it very hard to read his dialogues I didn't feel they were worth reading which made it hard to like him. I also found it frustrating that I could immediately tell what the twist was with her dad within the first few pages but in the amount of pages he was in the book a lot of his character is shown with some subtle qualities I d like to see more of but unlike some of the other supporting cast I felt he was a fully rounded individual.

Opal is a mage who makes her livelihood as a Cleaner, bidding for the right to empty and clean abandoned apartments. While she gets to keep the contents to sell off, it’s a gamble whether any auction will be worth its price. Bonanza or bust, this time around Opal has emptied the bank to bid on a couple of properties and there’s no margin for error. While she has an advanced degree from the premier magic university, she’s struggling to pay off her massive student debt month by month. This month it’s harder than ever, due to a five-month streak of bad luck and apartments full of worthless junk. If Opal doesn’t make her payment on time, a rather ill-tempered gentleman – her father – is going to foreclose on her freedom for good. Opal has only a few days left to make it or break it.And Opal just might be the one getting broken. Her latest acquisitions, and the murdered professor who owned them, have drawn the interest of several heavy hitters, including criminals, a competing cleaner, and a couple of rather touchy gods.Minimum Wage Magic takes place in the world of the Heartstrikers series (Heartstrikers is such an appropriate name for that dragon clan!). If you haven’t read the Heartstrikers series, which starts with Nice Dragons Finish Last, Minimum Wage Magic includes enough background that it can be read on its own. However, you’ll want to grab the Heartstrikers series and read them while you’re waiting for the next DFZ book, because you can never get too much Rachel Aaron, DFZ goodness, or dragons.Minimum Wage Magic is an enjoyable mix of fantasy and cyberpunk with immersive world-building and believable characters. If you’re familiar with Rachel Aaron, then you know the first books in her series, while chock full of incredibly complex characters and worlds and mesmerizing in their own right, have storylines that only hint at the complexity, character growth, and world-building to come. Minimum Wage Magic is the first course in a whole new feast. Highly recommended for anyone with an appetite for science fiction and fantasy or the joy of great storytelling. Rachel Aaron never disappoints.I received this book as a digital Advanced Reader Copy (ARC). My opinions are my own.

Rachel Aaron brings us back to the DFZ, the Detroit Free Zone, setting for her hugely popular 'Heartstrikers' series, featuring the Nice Dragon, Julius Heartstriker.This book, however, is set 20 years after the end of 'Last Dragon Standing', and Julius and his family are background characters in this new series. The focus, instead, is on a young woman named Opal Yong-ae who is a Cleaner: a freelance mage with an art history degree who is employed by the DFZ to sort through the mountains of magical junk people leave behind when they leave their apartments for whatever reason (death, fleeing debts, etc).Opal's life gets turned upside when she goes to clean an apartment and finds the tenant still in residence, but not alive. Things get out of hand very quickly after that, and Opal's parents aren't helping, especially as her father is the Sublime Yong, Dragon of Korea, and he considers his daughter his property and wants her back home not running around in the DFZ.This book is a welcome return to the DFZ 'verse. The characters are 3D and enaging, the setting gains new details, and the little background references to the Heartstrikers' series are brilliant Easter eggs for readers of that series, but won't hinder those readers who are new to the DFZ.

This is the first book of Rachel Aaron's that I've read. I had seen her Heartstriker's series but was put off by the title of the first book, Nice Dragons Finish Last. So this was my first introduction to the world of the DFZ.There was no problem with that and I only later found out that the worlds were connected. This is a great series to start with and I found a lot to love in it. The idea of people in magical societies with jobs is one that I love and that I don't think is done enough so it was great to read a book focused on that. The main character Opal works as a Cleaner, someone who goes into abandoned housing units to clear them out. It's a job that has a nice firm foundation and the rest of the story, and trilogy builds upon that.The world itself is facinating, combining advanced technology, magic and capitalism in a way that I've rarely seen. It was great to explore and see what it had to offer.All in all it's a fun romp and I'd heartily recommend it.

I loved reading this book. It holds a unique world with a lot of magic in it.The world building in this new series is excellently done, you just get into DFZ - Detroit Free Zone - and how it functions on the bigger scale and then you dive into the story of Opal who is a cleaner and bids for abandoned rented properties, the goods in it are hers whilst she gets the property ready for a new rental.Lately, she seems to have run out of luck, and by the end of the month, she has a debt to pay. She happens upon this one property where nothing is as it seems and a lot of magic has been used and then things start to happen and the story takes really off.Looking forward to see where the story goes from here in the next book in the series. It might come out soon?

What? You didn't think Dragons needed cleaners? Magic IS more fun but doesn't always pay the bills if everyone can do it. Or if you're cursed! Quite a rollercoaster ride this one. Fine in the n-th degree/ n-th dimension! And you get to meet a Dragon... not quick like earlier series dragons but if you read more form the author you'll have an idea, the world has evolved since then though.Nice writing, good descriptions, mature credible dialogue, sensible (relatively) characters and a well paced engaging ride along with a bit more to the plot than average. Fun, hell yeah. Will I follow up? Dunno, it's a light weight, but not much as good out there.. so probably yes.RECOMMENDED

This popped up as a recommendation, looking for something to read in between Nalini Singh releases, I decided to give it a go. The author creates a wonderfully imaginative new world. The post-apocalyptic feel has echoes of Kate Daniels about it, although a bit more light hearted.I’ve now devoured every book in the DFZ universe and have started on some of Ms Aaron’s earlier books, too!