Pax Arcana is an gritty and humorous Urban Fantasy series written by author Elliott James. The series follows John Charming, the last of a long line of renowned monster hunters and witchfinders, who was born with a psychic compulsion to protect the normal mortal world from the denizens of the supernatural. But when the legacy of the werewolves who killed his parents turns him into one of the monsters he was raised to kill, John flees from the reach of his former brothers-in-arms.
Decades later, and John is living under an assumed name and tending bar in small town Virginia to keep a low profile. His peaceful life shouldn't change just because a vampire and a blonde walk into his bar, right?
The series currently consists of:
- Charming (2013)
- Daring (2014)
- Fearless (2015)
- In Shining Armor (2016)
- Legend Has It (TBR 2017)
The series also features a number of short stories which detail John's adventures prior to the first book.
- Charmed I'm Sure
- Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls
- Pushing Luck
- Surreal Estate
- Dog-Gone
- Talking Dirty
Tropes found in the series include:
- Action Girl: Sig Norresdottir is a battle goddess, after all. Most other female supernatural beings also count, as well as the unnamed female Knight John meets in Daring (the Knights Templar is conservative and almost universally male.)
- Combat Pragmatist: John has a near encyclopedic knowledge of supernatural beings and their weak spots and uses it to great effect.
- Deadpan Snarker: John to a tee.
- Death by Childbirth: Valkyries who have a child lose their immortality.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Don't call Choo "Chauncey". Also, Sig is not a fan of her full name, Sigourney.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Was it a mythological being? Then it probably exists and might be hiding out around the corner. Everything from vampires to werewolves (and other were-beings) to valkyries exist in the world, and appearances have been made by aswang, Yuki-onna, Kitsune, and more.
- First-Person Smartass: Again, John.
- Friend on the Force: Detective Ted Cahill. The Knights Templar have an entire network of these, in the form of lay servants (humans who found out about the supernatural despite the Pax) and Knights who have infiltrated various police departments.
- Knight Templar: Appropriately enough, many factions under the Knights Templar. The Geas controlling the Knights only requires that they protect the Pax Arcana, and says nothing about protecting (or not killing) normal humans.
- Male Might, Female Finesse: Completely inverted. As a valkyrie, Sig is insanely strong but only significantly faster than a human instead of blindingly fast. John on the other hand as a werewolf is relatively physically weak but also incredibly fast, and fights with control and precision instead of brute force. To underscore the point, John uses a blessed katana in battle while Sig uses a weighted European longsword.
- Masquerade: The titular Pax Arcana. Set up by the Fae around the 1300s before they left for Faerie, Pax is a globe encompassing spell that, when active, actively misdirects normal humans from learning of the supernatural.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are desiccated corpses who use their powerful psychic abilities to project an image of themselves as sexy Eurotrash. Being naturally completely immune to psychic attacks, John can only see them for what they are.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolves are incredibly fast and agile but relatively weak on an individual basis, and their Healing Factor is stopped by contact with silver and wolfsbane. Many of them also join clans organized like militia in order to maintain their self control.
- Take That!: John notes that, "Popular young adult novels notwithstanding, vampires only sparkle when they burn."
- Valkyries: Sig is one, which manifests in greatly increased strength, speed, and resistance to damage, a wide array of abilities to help ghosts move on (or force them to), and (possibly) an unconscious compulsion to assemble bands of warriors.
