Book list
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In Harrison’s (Demons of Good and Evil, 2023) new urban-fantasy series, Petra Grady is just a sweeper, specializing in collecting the magical waste, or dross, left behind when mages cast light spells. Like many sweepers, she has no talent for magic and is looked down upon by most of the mages as a result. As one of the best sweepers on the mages’ university campus, she’s assigned to help former classmate Benedict Strom’s research project. When the research goes terribly wrong, Benedict and Petra have to find Herm Ivaros, an exile accused of using dross to cast spells during a campus incident that resulted in the death of Petra’s father. Herm reveals that the mages’ legends are filled with lies, deliberately crafted to discourage sweepers from becoming weavers and casting spells with shadows, and that Petra, like her father, is a weaver, and a group of magical-conspiracy theorists intends to stop her. Like Harrison’s Hollows series, this first book in the Shadow Age series is action packed and will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next.

Library Journal
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Magic users may be able to manipulate light energy, but dross—the waste left behind—is something few consider or deal with. This is where sweepers, people who can handle dross without its bad luck effects or development into the more dangerous shadow, come in, and Petra Grady is one of the best sweepers in St. Unoc. Working at the university has its perks, but when Doctor Benedict Sexy—er, Strom—wants Petra to help with a research project to render dross harmless, she knows it is the wrong decision. A horrible accident forces Petra and Benedict to go on the run, and Petra may find that her talent goes much farther than as a cleaner. Plus everything she knows about dross and shadow may be wrong. The story pace speeds along, and the twists of discovering who are friends or foes will keep readers guessing. Note that the novel includes the death of a pet. VERDICT Harrison's (Demons of Good and Evil) new series has the same delightfully wry heroine her fans expect to see, along with an intriguing new magic system.—Kristi Chadwick

Publishers Weekly
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With this ambitious if unwieldy urban fantasy, bestseller Harrison (Demons of Good and Evil) launches a new series in which magic and luck are inextricably linked. Petra Grady is incapable of working magic, but able to see and manipulate dross, the misfortune-causing waste produced by magical workings. She finds work as a sweeper, cleaning up after careless mages and keeping the magical world secret from mundane society. Despite the necessity of her job, she’s looked down upon in the hierarchy of magic users in St. Unoc, Ariz. That changes when her long-estranged best friend, Dr. Benedict Strom, requests her assistance on a project that could alter the balance between magic, dross, and shadow—dangerous energy attracted to dross. When catastrophe strikes, Petra discovers she may be the only person capable of saving the city from further disaster. While the premise and characters have promise, this opener expends a lot of ink setting up the series at the expense of the story at hand. Between establishing the world, exploring the complex magic system, and radically upending Petra’s status quo, the results feel overstuffed. Hopefully future installments will take more time to breathe. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary. (Mar.)