ONE UNLUCKY THIEF. ONE UNLIKELY GENIE. ONE VERY ODD COUPLE.Gavyn Donatti is the world’s unluckiest thief. Just ask all the partners he’s lost over the years. And when he misplaces an irreplaceable item he was hired to steal for his ruthless employer, Trevor—well, his latest bungle just might be his last. But then his luck finally turns: right when Trevor’s thugs have him cornered, a djinn, otherwise known as a genie, appears to save him.Unfortunately, this genie—who goes by the very non-magical name of “Ian”—is more Hellboy than dream girl. An overgrown and extremely surly man who seems to hate Donatti on the spot, he may call Donatti master, but he isn’t interested in granting three wishes. He informs Donatti that he is bound to help the thief fulfill his life’s purpose, and then he will be free. The problem is that neither Donatti nor Ian has any idea what exactly that purpose is.At first Donatti’s too concerned with his own survival to look a gift genie in the mouth, but when his ex-girlfriend Jazz and her young son get drawn into the crossfire, the stakes skyrocket. And when Ian reveals that he has an agenda of his own—with both Donatti and the murderous Trevor at the center of it—Donatti will have to become the man he never knew he could be, or the entire world could pay the price. . . .
Master of None
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Sonya Bateman’s gutsy debut is a hell of a lot of fun. I can’t wait to read more from this exciting new voice in the genre.”
—Jaye Wells, author of Red-Headed Stepchild
“Biting wit, blazing-hot action, and a take on the djinn that is excitingly original.”
—Mark Henry, author of Battle of the Network Zombies
“A fun read. One part car chase, one part irascible thief, and one part djinn magic. Shaken, not stirred.”
—J. F. Lewis, author of Revamped
About the Author
Sonya Bateman lives in upstate New York with her husband, son, four cats, and a gerbil with half a tail. She enjoys reading and swimming, and wishes there were some feasible way to combine the two.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
So-So Debut,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Master of None (Mass Market Paperback)
While this book wasn't great, it's good enough I'd recommend it. I wont go into the plot b/c other reviewers have.
The Good: Donatti is a likable lead and it's refreshing to see a male main character in this genre, and I liked that he wasn't portrayed as the stereotypical super-human alpha male dripping sex appeal. Ian is also a well-written character whose development from the mysterious nasty genie to the gruff but willing mentor felt natural. There's real humor in this story, in particular from Donatti and Tory. The story is original, and though at times uneven, was engaging enough to keep my interest. The Bad: Most of the secondary characters were one-dimensional, including the villians, and there aren't so many characters in this book that they couldn't have been rounded out. There were several "are you kidding me?" moments in this book; i.e. Jazz just found the remains of her charred sister & Donatti is hitting on her (artificially placed sexual tension); Ian let a misunderstanding cloud an ally's opinion of him for centuries for no reason that makes sense (artificially placed dramatic tension). Some the dialogue was too cheesy and there was more than one occassion where characters did inexplicably stupid things. Overall, I liked this book. It was a quick read and definitely has the potential to be an interesting new series.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit awkward, but has potential,
This review is from: Master of None (Mass Market Paperback)
If you took parts of the Arabian Nights and remade them in an urban fantasy mold, one of the stories would come out something very similar to Sonya Bateman's Master of None. Gavyn Donatti, a professional thief, is hired to steal a small item for a local crime boss, but somehow Gavyn manages to lose the item before handing it over to his employer, and this bit of bad luck ends up sending Gavyn on the run. He is saved along the way by a Djinn named "Ian." When circumstances outside of their control lead them into a contentious partnership, they must learn to work together in order to save their loved ones and maybe the world.
I loved the concept of the book. I've not yet come across an urban fantasy that involves genies. There are plenty of things to like in Master of None: unique concept, humor, and interesting characters. Sonya Bateman does a nice job of making her characters believable with their own personalities. The genies themselves are very cool characters -- not like any genie you'd expect. Their powers are limited and are not at all "wish" based. I would have liked to explore more of the Djinn world (we only get a small taste of it), but I'm guessing this will be explored in later books. Sonya Bateman is also quite capable of writing intense action. The action scenes were probably the second most endearing thing to me besides the story concept itself. The action was realistic, intense, and almost never resolved in a way I expected. Complex and daring plans tended to end with mixed results, much like they would in the real world. There were plenty of moments in Master of None that had me anxious to turn the page. "Wow sounds great Justin!, but why only 2.5 stars?" Funny you should ask, because I'm about to tell you. There were many moments in the story that felt awkward. First, the opening was very hard to swallow. I know one of the toughest things to do in urban fantasy is to make your magical world fit into reality, but since that's what pretty much defines the genre, it's important to pull it off smoothly -- and Sonya Bateman doesn't. Gavyn buys being tossed into a world that has genies just a little too quickly. I had to mentally set that aside in order to make the story work. There were also moments in the dialog that were out of place. Here's an example in the form of a multiple choice question: Q: The love of your life has just been witness to the aftermath of a loved one having been skinned alive. You're in the car heading away from the scene. What do you do? A. Offer consoling words of love and support B. Vow revenge on the perpetrator C. Get all hot with passion at the site of your lover's resolve D. All the above Well, if you're the main character in Master of None, you choose option D. Talk about awkward. "Hey babe, sorry about Jenny being skinned alive, I'll kill the bastard who did this. My god, that perfume you're wearing... it's so hot!" Okay, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was still a moment that stuck with me throughout the whole story. Secondly, the magic system was annoyingly inconsistent. At the beginning of the story, Ian is capable of making Gavyn's needs appear. He gets thirsty, he somehow ends up with beer. He needs a smoke, all he has to do is check his pocket. Then you get towards the end and everybody is dying of thirst... suddenly genies are no longer able to generate anything useful. Beer and smokes are fine, but water is out of the question? That's just poor planning on the author's part. There were many of these little inconsistencies throughout the book. Taken individually they seem small, but added together I couldn't overlook them. Over all, I still recommend giving Master of None a try, especially if you're getting tired of the monster hunter stories that currently saturate the urban fantasy market. Sonya Bateman's story has a lot of potential, and there's a good chance she'll hit it out of the park with the sequel because everything she needs for an amazing series is there. I'm anxious to see if she pulls it off in a second book. Justin from FantasyLiterature
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
All over the place,
By hwm (A-Hartberg) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Master of None (Mass Market Paperback)
Gavyn Donatti's talent for getting into and out of hairy situations is unparalleled. Bad luck follows him around, but it's his partners who suffer the consequences.
That's why he's attempting his next coup without any backup and of course, everything that can go wrong, does. Have you ever heard of a thief loosing his loot? No? Gavyn is sure his client hasn't either and crime boss Trevor isn't one to mess around with. Then a trenchcoated, bare-chested grumpy man appears and saves Gavyn's unlucky behind from execution. Apparently even modern day genies draw the line at shirts and this one has attached himself to Gavyn. Ian has to help the thief to fulfill his life's purpose and staying alive is only the first step. Where to start? MASTER OF NONE is the start to a new urban fantasy series, featuring an unlucky thief and genies. Sonya Bateman tells a lively, fast paced story that mixes humor with suspense. Donatti has a fresh voice (1. person POV) and his occupation and bad luck get him into interesting situations. Genies aren't all over Urban Fantasy like vampires and werewolves, so that's interesting as well. However. Emotion heavy writing is fine - as long as the emotion befits the situation. In MASTER OF NONE it often does not. In order to get out of his mess, Gavyn needs to work with an old flame. Most of the time their relationship is portrayed well, but there are several scenes where they get hot and heavy and really shouldn't. In one his (ex)girlfriend learns that her sister got burned alive by their enemies and shortly thereafter they are kissing and panting in their car. Gavyn gets tortured for hours and when he sees her the first thing that comes to his mind is how hot she is. Then there is the humor. I happen to love humor and Gavyn is a funny smartass, which I enjoyed in the beginning. But there are scenes, when it gets too much, like in the torture scene I mentioned earlier. Gavyn has to witness the torture of his friend Ian and gets tortured himself (several broken bones, six or seven torn out fingernails, flesh wounds,...). The situation seems hopeless, but every time he opens his mouth he cracks a joke. I know a thing or two about pain and you can joke about it in self defense, but there's a line where all wisecracks are left behind. And yes, sooner or later everyone cracks under pain. Gavyn saying and believing that he won't, annoyed me and the story stopped being believable to me. The inconsistent magic system adds to the lack of believability. In Bateman's world genies are very powerful and can pretty much do whatever they want as long as they have the required energy (fly, change shapes, create portals, affect the minds of humans ...). They can store the energy and (should) husband it carefully. However what is said to be wasteful, is non issue in another situation, what is requires enormous amounts of energy can be performed by a depleted genie and the regeneration periods vary a lot. Also, they don't use their powers wisely and seem to prefer an intricate route to a direct one. Despite some dark undertones MASTER OF NONE is a light and fast read and I'm sure that it will find its audience. I'm not going to pick up the next in the series tough.
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