In spite of their crazy busy schedules, working on not one, but two, loooong books in their new Maggie the Undying series, the author duo who make up Ilona Andrews have concurrently been treating their fans – of which I am one – to a web-serial, The Inheritance. Installments have been coming out on both Mondays and Fridays, so the last several weeks have been unusual for me, in that I’ve actually been looking forward to Mondays 😂.
I’m terrible with subgenres, whether they are in the mystery arena or the fantasy/sci-fi realm. But I have been told by an authority that The Inheritance is “LitRPG” (although without super-explicit levels and roles), and is a mode that is new to IA, so they are getting to stretch their authors’ muscles. Regardless of what it’s officially called, though, I call it a wonderful action-adventure, keep-you-on-the-seat-of-your-pants, sci-fi story. And there’s a bonus – a totally relatable mid-life heroine, Ada, who has already survived some tough crises; isn’t quite as fast at the 100-m dash as she used to be; feels some aches and pains, mostly after practicing those 100-m dashes; and worries about her kids.
At this point, per the authors, something more than two-thirds of The Inheritance has been put up on their blog, and the rest is already written. Traditionally IA will finish one of their web serials, leave the whole story up VERY briefly, and then take it down. Then they’ll add a “final final” chapter, or an epilogue, or both; polish everything into a coherent whole; and, of course, publish it. So, if you want a chance to read (almost all of) The Inheritance before it departs from the blog, you should start now! Otherwise you’ll be waiting, probably not very patiently, for the promised summer 2025 release.
And finally, I’d like to give thanks to the authors, and to the artist, Candice Slater, who gave their respective permissions for me to use the gorgeous image of Ada and her dog, Bear, from Chapter 7 online. Candice is also the artist for the cover, and the art that accompanies the chapters online will be in the final e-book as well. Woo-hoo!
You can find The Inheritance web-serial here, on the Ilona Andrews blog.
And, just for kicks, here also are links for the first Maggie book, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, which I’m told by the same authority is “isekai”, or other-world epic fantasy romance, and another new subgenre for the authors. Even if March 31, 2026 is still a long ways away. Pre-order at Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Kobo US | Kobo UK | Kobo Canada